[] Training Plan (Noburi): Maintaining Optimal Combat Viability Before Investing in Research Side Hustles
Hoz. Mantle 29 -> 30 (-15xp)
Water Dragon Bullet 30 -> 40 (-177xp)
7 XP Remaining
No, it's not - remember, you don't just have to have at least as many skills on the tier below as the tier above, you have to have {1} {2} {3} ... down from the top. So you need at least 5 skills at level 20 if you have any skills at 60.
You mean before WDB 40? Noburi needs a decent ranged option for his combat-level, since WW only hits in the same Zone as him, and WDB 40 lets him hit at eff. WDB 50.
No, it's not - remember, you don't just have to have at least as many skills on the tier below as the tier above, you have to have {1} {2} {3} ... down from the top. So you need at least 5 skills at level 20 if you have any skills at 60.
You mean before WDB 40? Noburi needs a decent ranged option for his combat-level, since WW only hits in the same Zone as him, and WDB 40 lets him hit at eff. WDB 50.
In order for a skill list to be valid, the number of your skills with Aspect bonus N must be >= the number of skills with bonus N+1. Additionally, if your highest level skill has Aspect Bonus N, you must have at least 2 stats at AB N-1, 3 stats at AB N-2, and so on. Your skill list must be valid in-between times you are actively spending XP, but you can spend large amounts of XP to jump between valid states. You are assumed to have an arbitrarily large number of skills at level 0-9 (that is, AB 1).
That's right, Nobs would need another 20 in that situation.
But IMO we should just raise his base stats now that HM no longer penalizes Ath. After we get Ath49/Alt49/WW59 we can raise WDB to 47(?) to softcap it under WW
The QMs made a ruling, back when Kei's character sheet got borked, that you just couldn't have overhangs, and that you weren't able to raise a new capstone until your character sheet fell within the N+1 guideline. I'm fairly confident that it wasn't a one-time ruling, too.
That said, Noburi's only ~70xp away from being able to fold SS 20 into my proposed training plan, and, depending on how long today's chapter is, he should be able to earn that in a single chapter (he's earned over 70 XP for two of the last three chapters, if you don't include the Interlude).
That's right, Nobs would need another 20 in that situation.
But IMO we should just raise his base stats now that HM is no longer doing damage. After we get Ath49/Alt49/WW59 we can raise WDB to 47(?) to softcap it under WW
I have to disagree with this take. Ath + Alt to 49 and WW to 59 is a huge amount of XP - 1090 in all, from where Noburi currently is - whereas WDB -> 40 costs a sixth of that, 177.5 XP, and would give Noburi a multitarget ranged attack at 50. Plus, it's a step towards Water Element Journeyman.
I could agree with pushing Ath to 49 first, given that it's already at 45. But Alertness will be fine sitting at 40, and the cost to level WDB to 40 would only give us three levels of Water Whip - I think it makes sense to push up WDB first.
The QMs made a ruling, back when Kei's character sheet got borked, that you just couldn't have overhangs, and that you weren't able to raise a new capstone until your character sheet fell within the N+1 guideline. I'm fairly confident that it wasn't a one-time ruling, too.
That said, Noburi's only ~70xp away from being able to fold SS 20 into my proposed training plan, and, depending on how long today's chapter is, he should be able to earn that in a single chapter (he's earned over 70 XP for two of the last three chapters, if you don't include the Interlude).
My impression was that that Kei's character sheet was a special case, and we're supposed to unbork it within a reasonable time frame (which we'll do as soon as we get CotWG to 40)? But it was before I joined the quest and I think even before I started following in detail; I could be wrong. Still, in the absence of an actual citation, I'd assume that the rules doc is correct.
I don't think we have the time to raise Ath/Alt to 49, and WW to 59, before Noburi finishes his bloodline research. At that point, he's going to want to mainline SC30 hard, and he's not above invoking his NPC Agency to raise stats of his own accord (see: the chunnin exams, Tsunade's apprenticeship, and how we were only barely able to talk him down from learning Earth Element).
Raising WDB to 40 is a far faster achievement that increases his combat viability, which will provide Noburi with a safety net as he takes the time to invest in SC 30.
I have to disagree with this take. Ath + Alt to 49 and WW to 59 is a huge amount of XP - 1090 in all, from where Noburi currently is - whereas WDB -> 40 costs a sixth of that, 177.5 XP, and would give Noburi a multitarget ranged attack at 50. Plus, it's a step towards Water Element Journeyman.
I could agree with pushing Ath to 49 first, given that it's already at 45. But Alertness will be fine sitting at 40, and the cost to level WDB to 40 would only give us three levels of Water Whip - I think it makes sense to push up WDB first.
My impression was that that Kei's character sheet was a special case, and we're supposed to unbork it within a reasonable time frame (which we'll do as soon as we get CotWG to 40)? But it was before I joined the quest and I think even before I started following in detail; I could be wrong. Still, in the absence of an actual citation, I'd assume that the rules doc is correct.
I maintain that it wasn't a one-time ruling, but I'm also sick as heck, so I don't have the spoons to go hunting for the exact quote. Noburi's only, like, 70 or 71 XP away from folding SS 20 into my proposal.
I maintain that it wasn't a one-time ruling, but I'm also sick as heck, so I don't have the spoons to go hunting for the exact quote. Noburi's only, like, 70 or 71 XP away from folding SS 20 into my proposal.
Look at it this way: if we raise WDB to 40, then we'll have the pyramid support to raise Ath to 50. (Which Noburi desperately needs, I had not realized his Ath was that low.)
I maintain that it wasn't a one-time ruling, but I'm also sick as heck, so I don't have the spoons to go hunting for the exact quote. Noburi's only, like, 70 or 71 XP away from folding SS 20 into my proposal.
Screw it. @eaglejarl@Paperclipped@Velorien , what's the ruling on this? Is Kei's character sheet violating the pyramid rules a special case, or an example of a general rule that you can break the number-of-skills-at-AB requirement (bolded below) as long as you're not trying to raise a new capstone?
In order for a skill list to be valid, the number of your skills with Aspect bonus N must be >= the number of skills with bonus N+1. Additionally, if your highest level skill has Aspect Bonus N, you must have at least 2 stats at AB N-1, 3 stats at AB N-2, and so on. Your skill list must be valid in-between times you are actively spending XP, but you can spend large amounts of XP to jump between valid states. You are assumed to have an arbitrarily large number of skills at level 0-9 (that is, AB 1).
We could, at most, get Ath 49 right now... and mostly because it's already at 45. An extra 4 points in Athletics isn't going to be the difference between life or death. It wouldn't have helped Akane, and it won't help here. Better to give Noburi a powerful ranged/AOE option.
We could, at most, get Ath 49 right now... and mostly because it's already at 45. An extra 4 points in Athletics isn't going to be the difference between life or death. It wouldn't have helped Akane, and it won't help here. Better to give Noburi a powerful ranged/AOE option.
You are wrong about that. 4 points could easily be the deciding factor in a life or death situation. Most ninja combats are quite close.
And the team has ranged attacks. He's got Kei to hit stiff at range if he needs it. IMO raising Ath to 49 should take priority over an attack that probably won't hit anything
Kei refused to feel even a shred of guilt at the Taxiarchos' imperious glare.
"I have arrived precisely at our pre-arranged time, Taxiarchos."
The pangolin's glare did not lessen a whit. "Soldiers are expected to arrive fifteen minutes early, rather than risk being a second late."
Ami had not trained her in the fine art of precision timing for an extradimensional insectivore to castigate her over hallucinated violations of military etiquette.
"Any such risk is purely imagined, Taxiarchos. Now, we have wasted twenty-seven seconds thus far, so perhaps we could endeavor to use our next several minutes more productively."
The Taxiarchos continued to glare, then turned to gesture down at the war map spread across the floor, surprisingly similar to the war-rooms she'd endured in Leaf's war with Rock two years ago.
"This valley," the pangolin said, gesturing, "is a chokepoint stopping our advance to the northwest. It is well defended from every angle, and it would cost too many pangolin lives to take by brute force. If we claimed the valley, though, it would give us a foothold to expand to the rest of the region. You will help us take it."
"The scale of this mission exceeds my capabilities, Taxiarchos," Kei said. "This map indicates six dozen hyenas in the valley. I cannot fight so many, nor could I make a non-negligible dent in their forces."
Though…
"Perhaps if the hyenas did not necessarily need to be killed, I could find a way to secure the valley."
The Taxiarchos scoffed. "What, are you going to put the Bonds of Civilization on them and walk them out of there? I don't care how you get the hyenas out of the valley, but they're holding onto it for dear life. Obviously, since it's the keystone of their defense in the region. They're not leaving except as corpses."
"I cannot comment on its feasibility, but if I arranged to fill the valley with noxious gasses, they would have no choice but to leave."
"Huh. If you can arrange that, then so be it. I'm putting a squad of soldiers under your command, Ypolochagos Nara, and you may deploy them as you will. There will be several other squads as well, and if your scheme earns my approval, I will instruct them to coordinate with you.
"Still, I did not call you here to figure it out yourself. I called you here because I had an intention to deploy you. You may make your suggestions afterwards. I said that there was no good approach into the valley, but in fact, there is only no good approach on the ground. Your skywalker seals could let you make approaches that no pangolin could match and no hyenas would expect. The watch outposts on the mountain outcroppings, here and here, if taken out, would make these areas here temporarily unobserved, letting us move in forces from here…"
o-o-o
"So, that's the gist of it," Hazō said. "If I go back too soon, then I'm wasting valuable research time that could be used to make better weapons to kill Akatsuki with. If I go back too late, the Riftwar will already be decided and all my efforts will have gone to waste. Which is why I'd like to ask you to get in contact with Orochimaru for me. He's dangerous and might hurt me if I talk to him directly, but I think he also wants Akatsuki dead, so he'll be willing to pass me a message if it's time to head back to Leaf. You just need to give him this."
Hazō offered a bound-up parcel (avoiding storage seals for the Great Seal's sake was going to be hard), with a letter outlining Hazō's requests for Orochimaru (both in terms of stopping Akatsuki and stopping the storage-seal-fueled Conclave trade network) and Hazō's hastily-copied research notes for the Runic Force Dome as payment.
"That to I can agree, summoner of Dog, but to you an oath to carry no messages sworn I have from others. Why I have come so far from Sanctuary it is, that you to I may speak without risk of another close coming and you unwanted knowledge giving."
"Ah, but you won't carry a message from anyone to me," Hazō said. "On a somewhat related note, could you keep this rock safe for me?"
He reached into a pocket and revealed a simple fist-sized stone that he'd grabbed off the beach and painted red that morning. The paint was already peeling, but that was more because of his uneven paint job rather than any flaw in Kagome-sensei's paints.
"Safe for you keep it? Can this thing I do," Kumokōgō said, extending a hairy foreleg to accept it, her confusion evident only in the delay she took to respond.
"Good," Hazō said. "And, when Orochimaru tells you that it's time for the attack, could you return the rock to me?"
There were any number of ways he could get Orochimaru to communicate back to Hazō, such as leaving a dead drop somewhere they could both access, but Hazō didn't want Orochimaru to be able to send Hazō arbitrary information that the Sannin could use to manipulate or hurt him. Instead, the challenge had been to find a way that Orochimaru could only send the signal that it was time to attack Akatsuki.
"It's not a message, of course, so it's not related to your oaths. It's just a rock. Plus, even if it were a message, it's not from anyone else – it's my rock, right? So giving it back to me doesn't conflict with your oaths either."
"Summoner of dogs, know I the oaths' intention. You from the outside world information to not give you for me wished, and want not to that circumvent I do," Kumokōgō said.
"Well, if it's going to be a problem, we can do the oath ceremonies again," Hazō said. He'd been trying to avoid that whole mess.
Kumokōgō dipped her head again. "No. It is fine. Your plan a greater issue with I have. Certain I am not to aid you I want. Akatsuki before you have told me about, yes, but deeply thought I have not about whether to aid you in them killing I want. The day of the battle on killed personally one of the Dragons the Summoner of Crow, and another wounded, and Summoner of Shark, alongside fought us all. Both of them pledged have to the Arachnid Clan aid if from the Great Seal additional Dragons appear. As well, Karanium and Makomalika both their aid have pledged, and both well-aligned are their summoners with.
"Destroy could the Arachnid Clan's relationship with them in this way betraying them, mere inaction in a way does not, and presents a risk that certain I am not can Arachnid afford to take. Sworn I have to your location to them not give, but mean does not that help them you destroy I must."
"Kumokōgō," Hazō said, gritting his teeth. "Empress. Akatsuki are evil. They aimed to take over the Human Path once before, and they are aiming to do it again. Please, for all the help I gave you against the Dragons, for all the help that I will give you in fixing the Great Seal, do this for me."
"...will consider I it," Kumokōgō said. "Your explanation of the circumstances I have heard and arguments my summoner's own, but consider it still I must. An oath I will not swear you to your rock return. Not yet."
Hazō sighed. "That's fine. For now, at least, it shouldn't be urgent." And, if need be, he could find another way to get in contact with Leaf.
"Will you take this to Orochimaru, at least?" Hazō asked, offering the package. "Or leave it somewhere that he'll surely see it. Actually…"
Hazō pawed for his paper and a charcoal, and quickly scribbled a note to Orochimaru. He described the situation and Kumokōgō's reluctance to help them save the world. Maybe, if the time came and Orochimaru realized that Hazō's runes would be essential to opening the rift, the man would somehow find some way to get in touch with Hazō. He shoved the note in the package.
"There you go."
"For you I that much will do," Kumokōgō said. Another foreleg claimed the bundle of papers. "To keep it where, not know I, as him have not seen I weeks for. Once returns he, given it shall be."
"Thank you, Empress," Hazō said, the Iron Nerve letting him keep his expression deferential despite the sting of betrayal he felt.
o-o-o
Cannai blended out of the forest around him in that silent, inexplicable way of his.
"Apologies for keeping you waiting, summoner," Cannai said. "There are many things in my territory demanding my attention and my power, and even travel and communication grows expensive for me."
Hazō looked at Cannai. The Dog Clan's leader wasn't exerting his presence as the Alpha the same way he had when the war first broke out. Cannai had become more comfortable with remaining himself while protecting the Dog Clan on whatever metaphysical level he needed to, but still, Hazō could tell that Cannai was tired. The Alpha moved slightly slower, and he had a deep weariness in his voice.
"Let me help," Hazō said. "Let me take messages across your territory for you. I'll have a bit of time every few days. I feel like I'm not doing enough for the war."
"As I have said, you do not need to do anything for the war," Cannai said. "But your aid would be appreciated. How many times in a day could you summon a Dog such as Canoe?"
"Huh, I don't know. Four, maybe? Five?"
"Your chakra reserves have not progressed much since you acquired the scroll, then," Cannai said. "That is fine. How about with the aid of your brother, who transfers chakra?"
"Triple that," Hazō said. "But we don't have that much chakra to spare right now, since we've been removed from our village. Why does it matter how many Canoe-strength dogs I can summon? Surely I should summon puppies for moving messages around, right?"
"I would not send puppies to the front lines," Cannai said. "We have dedicated messengers, but they are not puppies. I shall attempt to find the fastest ones which will nonetheless cost you the least to summon. Beware though, summoner – you wished not to be disturbed by outside elements, correct? If it becomes known that you are passing messages for us, as Leopard may well infer if our coordination suddenly improves on given days – though I shall attempt to obscure it – then the Akatsuki you fear may well search for your contractees. The Dusk Willow pack is kept in Dog's heartlands for this very reason, so that your enemies will not be able to reach them. Dedicated messengers on the borders are far more vulnerable."
"Can't you help keep any outside elements away?" Hazō asked.
"To an extent," Cannai said. "But I took an oath not to pass messages because you want a defense with no weaknesses, and I believe this would open weaknesses. I cannot predict what will happen, but with a war dividing my attention and my strength I know there would be risks."
"I can live with that in order to help with the war," Hazō said. "Really, I regret that I'm not doing more. I was going to offer you skytowers, except I recently found a… concerning discovery about how dimensional seals are damaging the Great Seal, and I really can't afford to make that problem any worse. As it is, the Seventh Path trade network needs to be completely shut down – so maybe it's a good thing that we pulled Dog out of it earlier."
"You're saying that storage seals also interfere with the Great Seal?" Cannai asked.
"That's right."
"Including the storage seals you gave us, so that we could transport the sleds you made for our pups everywhere without weighing ourselves down, as well as for the saddlebags and foodstuffs?"
"Right… yeah, you really shouldn't use those either. Can you get those back to me so I can take them off the Path?"
Cannai lowered his head to the ground and huffed. He scratched the ground with the bare forepaw he'd nearly lost to the Mirror Dragon, then looked back up at Hazō. "So be it, summoner. I would not want the Great Seal to further deteriorate while so many other crises occupy the Seventh Path. I shall prepare this for you within the week."
"I'm sorry."
"It is not your fault that the storage seals interfere with the Great Seal," Cannai said. "That is just the fact of nature. I had wondered whether I ought to ask you for skytowers, or whether your experiences with the Pangolins would make this request damage our relationship. Perhaps I should be grateful that the option has been taken away from me."
"I really do want to help, though," Hazō said. "I can supply you with Force Blades, and the MARS needed to use them effectively. We have a half-dozen spare combat harnesses that your warriors could use right away, and I could ask Kagome-sensei to make more for you."
"I will accept this gift, if you think it will do more good than harm."
"I think it's fine," Hazō said. "I don't offer it lightly, after the horrors of the Pangolin conquest of Condor, but it's a gift without an indefinite commitment of supply, so I trust that you'll use them well."
"For harms, I meant against the Great Seal."
"Ah. Sorry. Yes, Force Blades aren't dimensional, so unless they fail unexpectedly, it should be fine."
"It will be appreciated," Cannai said, turning to look out as if the woods around them were transparent. "Making a handful of dogs more lethal in combat is a far cry from the aerial superiority that enabled Pangolin to conquer Condor, but it will help."
Hazō waited, while Cannai looked out, presumably to the front lines in the distant south (or, at least Hazō assumed it was the south. Judging direction without the sun was nearly impossible).
"You have something else you want to say," Cannai said as he turned back to Hazō and lay down again.
"Yes," Hazō said. "It's a request, and I want to preface this by saying that you should feel no pressure to say yes. I know the Leopard war and your battle with Hyōhakken must demand a lot out of you, and I don't want to distract you, but it would be incredibly useful if I could summon an S-rank combatant for the final battle against Akatsuki. I can't summon you with my natural reserves, but my brother who can transfer chakra has another ability – he can temporarily expand a person's chakra reserves by a massive amount. It could be enough to let me summon you to the Human Path. Would you be willing to let me try?"
"Let me think, summoner," Cannai said, resting his head and letting his eyes close momentarily.
Hazō waited.
"Yes," Cannai said finally, and Hazō felt an almost-physical weight settle around his shoulders as a contract formed, the contract that would let Hazō summon the Dog Clan's Alpha.
"You will summon me only once as a test, and if it works, I will need to return to Dog immediately. My impression is that when the final battle happens, you will have forewarning, correct? You will tell me about when I must battle as far ahead as you can, that I may arrange for our clan to lose as little to Leopard as possible in the intervening time."
"Defeating Akatsuki is important," Cannai said. "I see that much. Moreover, it is fast. If things go well, Dog will lose barely anything. Even if it goes poorly and I am metaphysically disjointed for a few weeks, I will still return to my territory in my diminished form rather quickly. We will stop our advance, or maybe get pushed back until I recover, but it will not be the end for us in the same way that failure against Akatsuki risks the end for you."
"This is what it means to be member of the Dog Clan, Hazō. The Dog Clan fights with you. I will fight with you."
o-o-o
Hazō waited while Kagome-sensei's brush crossed the page in slow, careful methodical strokes. The brush lifted and he saw his mentor's lips quirk slightly to the side as he considered the stroke he'd laid down. Kagome-sensei lowered his brush again, making some infinitesimal adjustment to correct the blank appropriately according to whatever infinitesimal deviation his steady arm had made.
Minutes later, Kagome-sensei gently slid the blank with its ink still drying to the side and reached for a storage seal, from which he released a gently steaming mug of hot chocolate.
He turned to Hazō. "What's up?"
"Nothing urgent, Kagome-sensei," Hazō replied. "Can we talk?"
"Sure," Kagome-sensei said, and Hazō went ahead and unsealed his own chair, hot drink, and blanket. Winter in the Southern Isles was mild enough that no one needed to wear a coat, but with the wind and clouded skies, the team's stock of pre-prepared winter coziness was still going fast.
"I wanted to ask you about rift safety," Hazō said.
"Right. Well, I taught you the six core rift-safety protocols, depending on the type of rift," Kagome-sensei said. "As well as the auxiliary protocols depending on which kami-and-Outer-entity-satisfying dances you needed to do to prepare for the infusion. Do you need to review any of that?"
"Not at all," Hazō said quickly, hoping to forestall hours of lecture. "I remember everything. The thing is, I'm going to open a rift, and I was wondering if the rift safety protocols should be adjusted if I do get to pick the time and place of infusion, but I still don't know what's behind it. I'll be doing it through a shadow clone of course, with Prime miles away and up on a skytower, but I wanted to pick your brain about any other changes to the protocols we should make."
"Huh, a controlled rift opening," Kagome-sensei said. "Makes sense that we should do things differently if we can prepare. Get all the barriers and stuff ready, maybe even put the rift in a Five-Seal Barrier shell of something thin… But when did you manage to finish the rift-opening seals? And which rift are you working on? And how come you don't know what's behind it?"
"There's one answer to all of those questions," Hazō said, cautiously sipping at his tea. "I'm going to make a rune that opens a new rift to… somewhere. I can't make heads or tails of the targeting, so it's just going to be random."
"What." Kagome-sensei's tone was completely flat, disbelieving.
"It's our only real option," Hazō said. "The weapons and defense programs are coming along fine, and we have the barest smidgen of a route of communication opened with Leaf, so the last thing we need to develop is the rift seals. While we can get started without a rift, we can't actually go all the way to opening it, moving it, whatever else we want to do, unless we have a rift to experiment on. And I've already done the math: runes should be able to punch a hole out of the Human Path just fine, so-"
"Are you crazy!?" Kagome-sensei said, gesturing outwards and spilling hot chocolate on his desk, ruining the blank. "Hazō, that's replicating a seal failure! We never do that!"
"It's not replicating a seal failure," Hazō said, meeting his mentor's gaze. "I'm not trying to make a rift to anywhere that a seal failure has aimed at. Like I said, I'm sure I can make the rune correctly. It's not going to fail."
"No! Are you being stupid on purpose? Making a rift to some random Path or part of the Out or something worse is a sealing failure effect!"
"Fine. It'll be a controlled one," Hazō said. "Rune effects have been bigger than expected before, but it's never caused any real problems, and I'm pretty sure I can keep the size of the rift generated below what regular seal failures produce. We can take all the precautions we need ahead of time. I'll be on a skytower miles away, you and Noburi and Kei can be reverse summoned, and everyone else can be miles farther out. I think the risk is low enough that we can do it."
Kagome-sensei's gestures had long since emptied his mug, and the man's eyes were wide. "Hazō, you can't do this. Sure, a lot of things can't kill you with all the safety precautions, but lots of things can! What if you open a rift into concept-space and you get your mind eaten via the shadow clone link? What if you open into a highly energetic space that just explodes all of us for miles before you can react and reverse summon? What if an Omicron-class entity incarnates? And it's not just you, Hazō! It's the whole world! I know you don't believe that Watcher crap Jiraiya tried to feed you, but sealmasters really shouldn't do this because we have a responsibility to the world to not blow the stinking thing up just because we did the math and it seemed like a good idea!"
"Actually, I disagree with that," Hazō said. "Statistically, there have been too many sealmasters and probably too many sealing failures that made rifts for that to be a real possibility. If rifts had a real chance of ending the world, the world probably would have ended by now."
"You don't know what's out there, Hazō. No one does!" Kagome-sensei glowered at him, then leaned back in his chair, thinking. "How many rift sealing failures do you think there have been since the Sage made chakra? A thousand? The odds of a world ending rift can't be that high, but that doesn't mean they're zero either. Are you ready to gamble everything over it?"
"Frankly, yes," Hazō said. "I think the odds are low of that outcome, but Akatsuki's odds of winning are single-digit percentages or above. Opening a new rift it a gamble I have to take."
"Why do you have to take it?" Kagome-sensei asked. "Why not use another rift to make your rift seals?"
"Which one?" Hazō asked. "Akatsuki owns the O'uzu one, and the one in Iron is going to be crawling with hunter-nin right now."
"Any of the others!" Kagome-sensei said. "I know two- no, three that killed the stinking idiots I used to work with. There's one in northern Lightning country, another in Sky, and the last one is at a black site on one of the Haran Bay islands. I only heard about that one though, I don't know exactly where it is, but we could find it. None of them are occupied, probably. Why not use one of those?"
Huh.
"I didn't know you knew any rift locations," Hazō said.
"How do you think I came up with the dang rift protocols?"
"Well, there are downsides to using those rifts. What's on the other side? Are they even safe enough to open up?" Hazō asked.
"Safe?" Kagome-sensei asked. "No. But if you use a shadow clone and stay miles away and reverse summon at first notice of anything going wrong? Still not safe, but safe enough, yes. Safer than punching a new hole in the Path and praying it works out."
"There would still be downsides to going to any of those," Hazō said. "There's the travel time, of course, which is probably five days of travel to the closest, more if we go for the others. Mari would be miserable going back up north in winter. We'd be getting closer to the Elemental Nations, to hunter-nin, and maybe to Akatsuki."
"But it's still better," Kagome-sensei said. "You see that, right? You're not going to push ahead with the rift-making rune, are you?"
"On the whole, I think…"
What does Hazō think?
Much as I would like to write this plan's research (the Storm Rune looks particularly fun), this seems like a good point for a controlled vote. Your options are:
[X] Yes, push ahead with the Microrift rune.
Hazō thinks Kagome is unlikely to make a huge fuss over it. Kagome will feel slighted (perhaps as an extension of the previous trend of Hazō not accepting Kagome's advice on things Kagome perceives as important), but will accept it as a necessary part of your mission to win the O'uzu rift without dying to hunter-nin.
If this wins, I will finish writing the plan as-is on Sunday.
[X] No, go to one of Kagome's rift-sites.
The team will discuss between themselves and pick the best rift site using their in-character knowledge.
If this wins, I will finish writing the plan on Sunday, but with the adjustment that Hazō and co. travel to one of Kagome's rift sites, and Hazō immediately starts researching the Rift-Opener instead of the Microrift rune.
[X] Cancel Microrift rune, but do something else. (write-in)
Hazō agrees with Kagome that the Microrift rune should be skipped for now, but doesn't want to directly proceed to one of Kagome's rift sites. In this case, the highest voted Action Plan (or interlude) will win, and I will write that on Sunday.
Needless to say, this will rule out doing the Microrift rune.
You guys do realize we are wasting another 7-10 days (5 days travel time 2-5 days locating the rift) by doing this? We don't have the time to waste. If we're going to abandon the Microrift Rune at least wait until we've burned this location and need to move anyway.