Rolled 2, 10, 10 = 22 (3d10)

>>6419922

>>6419922

You jumped down from the edge of the roof towards the ground. You used your Semblance to lighten your fall, making it soundless. You felt trickles coming from your skin as you noticed small damp patches of red appear on your pants. Using your Semblance caused your skin to receive tiny cuts, it seemed. Your new physiology healed them quickly enough, but it was good to know that new curious fact about you. A bit too gory for your tastes, but... there wasn't much you could do about it right now.

The man landed besides you a few seconds later, still holding his sword out. He was hesitating between sheathing it and keeping it ready. He didn't fully trust you, and to be completely fair to him, you didn't fully trust him either.

"I want to make a detour." You kept looking at him as you spoke.

"A detour? We just agreed on something and you're already changing it up." He sounded both annoyed and, weirdly, a little amused.

"It's a small one. I want to find my friend first. The girl? Remember?" You wouldn't leave her alone. Luckily, she shouldn't be too far, and even if she was, you could probably track her with your senses.

The man rolled his eyes but didn't answer back. He was tolerating this. "Nothing's stopping you from talking while we go find your little sidekick."

"She's not my sidekick. She's my..." You stopped for an instant. She was technically your sidekick, or minion, but saying that out loud sounded so, so wrong. It wasn't like you had asked her to be like that. She just was. "...friend. Don't be rude to her."

The man snorted softly. He'd noticed your stutter. "Sure. So, let's hear it then. I'm all ears."

If he was going to be this insufferable, it was probably best to start explaining what you remembered, hitting the key details about who you were, your relationship with the city, your transformation. Just enough without giving away too much.

"It all started when I was on this train..."

---

Traveling with the man while you talked wasn't a bad experience. It wasn't a good one either. Talking that much without rest wasn't your strong suit, and it left you mentally tired. But you managed to condense the story well enough.

Finding Cerise wasn't hard, either. She hadn't strayed far from the memorial. When you found her, there wasn't much to say. A lone girl looking up at the sky, hugging your saber as if waiting patiently for your return. That was... equal parts sweet and unsettling.

She joined the group, and the three of you started walking toward the Skillful. The man showed some mild interest in her and began probing into her relationship with you. There wasn't much to hide on that front. She corroborated your story, particularly the part about the strange girl from the lab, how she had revived you, and everything that followed.

What caught his interest the most, however, wasn't the White Fang situation, nor the Black Sheep family drama, strange as that was. He knew this city was crime-ridden and it didn't seem to bother him. The so-called monsters of the city, like the one you had fought alongside Sora, drew his attention briefly but nothing more.

No. What really caught his attention were two things. First, Cerise’s account of how she had been permitted to conduct all those unsettling experiments on you while you were still a student, with Lionheart as a passive accomplice. And second, the strange Grimm creature in the lab, the one you had actually held a conversation with.

He didn't share much about himself. The exchange was mostly him drawing out explanations from you and Cerise. You left out certain details, of course. The conversation with the White Fang leader, the names of your friends, the extent of your role within the organization, etc.

---

"...and you're telling me that even knowing all of this, he never once told you to stop?" The man asked Cerise as the three of you walked toward the tavern, a large two-story wooden building tucked behind a few alleyways near the city square.

Cerise glanced your way. You nodded. He was taking his time with her, and she answered fully each time as long as she had your explicit permission. You considered telling her she could answer freely, but you didn't trust him enough for that yet.

"Correct. At most I received sad glances from Mr. Lionheart, but he never explicitly told me to stop. I was fully prepared to report any interference to my superior in the Black Sheep, Miss Victoria, but I never had to." Cerise's tone was the same as always. Neutral, measured, though not as strained as it had been back at the Atlas camps.

"No outside interference then? No one sticking their nose in from another kingdom?"

"No. Not from Vacuo, and especially not from Atlas. I would not have tolerated that under any circumstances." She paused. "I would've sooner have shot myself in the mouth if that were the case.”

The man laughed, walking with both hands behind his head. "Ha. Can't say I blame you. Trust me, I know the feeling."

Both of them really were bonding over their hatred over Atlas? Well, it was working out so… better not to stop them.

Cerise entered the building first, followed by the man, both still talking to each other. But something caught your attention just before you stepped inside. A faint sound. Something small, metallic, spinning. Like the quiet buzzing of a tiny motor.

You resisted the urge to turn immediately. Sudden movement would spook whatever was there. You focused instead on your hearing, then on your emotional sense.

Your emotional sense picked up nothing, but your hearing pinpointed the source of the buzzing precisely.

You turned your head quickly and caught a glimpse of something peeking out from behind the wall of a three-story building across the way. A small mechanical insect, butterfly-shaped, clearly made of metal. The moment you turned, it ducked back behind the wall. The buzzing stopped, but you knew it was still there.

A mechanical butterfly. You had seen something like this before. It reminded you of a very particular someone.

"Something wrong, Shelly?" The man spoke from the entrance of the tavern, watching you. Then, quieter, more serious: "...or did someone follow us?"

> Ignore the butterfly for now. You were being watched. Fine. You could deal with that after the meeting. The man could still prove useful, and there wasn't much left to discuss before you'd have a better read on him.
> Tell the man about the uninvited guest. It would likely earn you some goodwill with him. You already had a strong suspicion about who owned that piece of machinery, and sharing that probably wouldn't lead to anywhere bad.
> Send both the man and Cerise inside without you. Make a quick excuse and slip away for a moment. You wanted to speak with the butterfly’s owner privately first.
> Other (Write in)

>>6422922
>> Tell the man about the uninvited guest. It would likely earn you some goodwill with him. You already had a strong suspicion about who owned that piece of machinery, and sharing that probably wouldn't lead to anywhere bad.

>>6422922
>Tell the man about the uninvited guest. It would likely earn you some goodwill with him. You already had a strong suspicion about who owned that piece of machinery, and sharing that probably wouldn't lead to anywhere bad.

>>6422922
>Tell the man about the uninvited guest. It would likely earn you some goodwill with him. You already had a strong suspicion about who owned that piece of machinery, and sharing that probably wouldn't lead to anywhere bad.