Ryukuza Quest: Protector of Smiles and Youkai Hunter

But yeah, from where I'm sitting this doesn't really seem like the smartest thing to do to escalate things with clan Ryo right now, since while we can do this meeting because kami-enforced promises can trump our orders with the Jade Emperor, I don't think it protects us from the fallout of the meeting so it seems like Clan Ryo could start being more aggressive while we're busy fighting Chinese Devils.

However, I don't think Ryukusa would consider this as an option if it didn't have benefit, so there's probably something I'm missing.

[x] Collect a pair of fish.
Fish = prosperity!
Let's wish prosperity upon this house.

Damn. Change my vote to carp, then.

It's better to give the smart context from the get go. Or is us having to stop and think about it a feature?

Welcome back, XS!

Wait, symbolic how? Like I know that calling a dragon a carp is a mortal insult, so would that be making sure she understands that this is a threat?

>If the context is absolutely necessary I will provide it; otherwise it is generally open to debate or even entirely avoided by write ins.

So the actual trap is the place Akari found that seems to be where Himeyuri actually is, and the obvious trap is where Himeyuri is "supposed" to be?

Himeyuri is a human sorcerer so using carp would probably mean that we're not opposed to killing and cannibalizing dragons if we have to. I'd probably say it's more a threat than anything else.

>Himeyuri is in neither of those places. The obvious trap is Himeyuri's usual home. The actual trap is where Himeyuri seems to be and is not.

>Going to Himeyuri is a later option or immediate write in.

>[] Collect a pair of fish. (Carp)
>[] Head to the actual trap.

Wait, so from the last thread
>You look over it carefully, seeing where the most likely locations she is, her flunkies are, the best locations for traps, and the best baited traps that already exist might be. “If I were her, I would be here.” She points at a low income neighborhood with various Clan Ryo holdings nearby but not actually part of them. She has family relatively near there and there are bodyguards assigned from Ryo to them according to Akari's legend. “It has the only active cell phone under any alias she's ever used, and that one was her training name.”
So that place is not where Himeyuri actually is, and we figured it out, or it is but we're not going for it? I guess I should just figure that it's handled, but I'm still kind of confused.

>[] Collect a pair of fish.
>[] ….stop by Chisato's place.
I'm kind of curious to see what we might need from her.

Fuck, I'm far too late for Ryukusa.
>[] Collect a pair of fish. (Carp)
>[] Head to the actual trap.

[XX] Collect a pair of fish.
[X] Head to the actual trap.
[+] Let's be wicked....

Making the leaps you can and running hard means very few people notice you, and when they do they're usually too confused or surprised to actually track you before you're already too far away and hidden. The large part at the edge of Shinjuku has several ponds in it, and you dive in at speed and come up with a pair of large, heavy, and very old (although not even close to a decade old) koi, their gold and pearl scales glittering in the moonlight. Pausing in your headlong travel to make a momentary barrier to keep them in, you ensure their safety and health, flooding it with the brackish water they prefer.

It's always creeped you out a little to see how clean people tend to keep their aquariums.

You consult Akari-niji-chan's map inside your head, and then take to the air again, using the skyscrapers of Shinjuku to head towards the residential and wealthier section of Shidome in Minako ward. The new constructions are glistening and not yet entirely populated, making it an ideal place to hide. Or set up an ambush for someone you want to kill, especially if you plan on locking them into a Barrier so that the damage is minimal until later, when the collapse of a building on land reclaimed from the delta is more easily dismissed.

The fact that the building just happens not to belong to Clan Ryo, but an unassociated human Yakuza group (not Chisato's, you had Akari check) is undoubtedly no small coincidence. They're definitely taking you seriously. It's also some distance from Chiyoda, which is where Ryuu Himeyuri actually is, unsurprisingly. Chiyoda is where the Diet, the Palace, and a number of sacred (and one profane) shrines are would be a place no sane dragonette would go to pick a fight.

You suspect you haven't been sane for some time.

But you're not planning to pick a fight with Himeyuri. In fact, you're not planning to pick one here. But it is good sense to see who and what they have watching this location. Even if you only get an idea of what they are planning to array against you, it would be time well spent. Of course, springing the trap would be a terrible idea; you do intend to be back in bed before sunrise, Barriers or not.

You sigh when you catch sight of the time on one of the billboards on a newly completed building. You only slept three hours. It's not even 1:00 am.

[] Take your time and circle the ambush sight and see what you can glean.
[] Sneak into the trap and study it from within, so to speak.
[] See if you can actually catch sight of Himeyuri's double and her bodyguards.
[] Abscond with one of the backup warriors and gather intel that way.
[] Slip through entirely and leave a trace of passage on purpose.

>[x] Take your time and circle the ambush sight and see what you can glean.
>[x] See if you can actually catch sight of Himeyuri's double and her bodyguards.

>Chiyoda is where the Diet, the Palace, and a number of sacred (and one profane) shrines are and would be a place no sane dragonette would go to pick a fight.

Missed a connector.

>Ryukuza knows where she most likely is, and is (depending on user) just sneaking by and gathering basic intel and practicing with her new abilities all at once. Akari believes her to be in Chiyoda in a small out of the way area. Even major Special Wards of Tokyo such as Chiyoda has it's slums anbd underbelly.

>[] Take your time and circle the ambush sight and see what you can glean.
>[] See if you can actually catch sight of Himeyuri's double and her bodyguards.

[x] See if you can actually catch sight of Himeyuri's double and her bodyguards

I kind of feel like snatching someone and leaving a trace of our passing is accelerating things too much, however it seems possible that Clan Ryo is unprepared enough for how far we've grown that we can study the trap from inside and not spring it? Like I don't know, it doesn't make sense for them to underestimate Ryukusa, but has she grown to a level where plans don't even matter anymore?

You can always write in a vote that does none of the suggestions user. XS has mentioned many times that write ins do take precedence.

Purposely leaving traces? I didn't know we wanted to torture Himeyuri mentally, haha. Also, morning XS!
>[] Sneak into the trap and study it from within, so to speak.
>[] See if you can actually catch sight of Himeyuri's double and her bodyguards.

So, obviously Ryukusa isn't very interested in the waiting game, but is Himeyuri basically allowed to stay at this Chiyoda place indefinitely? Or is it just a case of temporary protection?

>Ryukusa doesn't know. She can only surmise from what Clan Ryo has done in the past and what Akari has dug up in her very thorough work, which is still not a whole lot of information to go by.

Alright, so it's not like a standard place auntie sends people in danger or whatever then.

>[] Take your time and circle the ambush sight and see what you can glean.
>[] Slip through entirely and leave a trace of passage on purpose.

>[x] Sneak into the trap and study it from within, so to speak.
>[x] See if you can actually catch sight of Himeyuri's double and her bodyguards.

>[] Take your time and circle the ambush sight and see what you can glean.

>[] Take your time and circle the ambush sight and see what you can glean.
and I guess if it looks like we can get away with it
>[] Sneak into the trap and study it from within, so to speak.
Not really sure about three votes but
>[] See if you can actually catch sight of Himeyuri's double and her bodyguards.
I feel like that's helpful because it might let us know who isn't actually guarding Himeyuri, I'm assuming Ryukusa has long-since memorized every member of clan Ryo she's aware of.

So are we planning to head straight to Himeyuri after we've done some light recon here? Hope they don't notice we were around until we get to her and such?

That's what I was generally thinking, but it depends on if we discover anything after looking around here first.

True, but what are we actually going to, well, do there? Our Promise kinda started off as her being asleep and not wanting her to wake up, at this point neither of those seem very likely, but maybe she can still manage to sleep with the threat of Ryukusa hanging over her. Not sure how this is gonna end up going down.

Yeah I'm not really sure what Ryukusa's plan is, and I'm almost completely certain that we the players don't really have one.

Like we kind of want Himeyuri to change sides or at least just find a way to stay out of this, but fully expect her to do something stupid and dangerous instead, and this is the first time we're taking the conflict to clan Ryo instead of just dealing with their shit.

Like the ultimate goal I think is we need to make sure they won't get in our way when we kick Enma out of Japan.

Well to be fair we're doing it because she 'forced' us to make a promise, and now said promise is forcing Ryukusa to act. Not the ideal time to make a move against Ryo really.

Technically the only reason we're doing this NOW is because Ryukusa is still having trouble coping with her demigod nature being really intolerant to inaction and unfortunately that includes sleeping.

Like I don't think we ever gave ourselves any particular deadline, and I'm not really sure we'd be breaking laws if we turned back now though after that whole talk with Akari I think we probably do need to follow through.

[XX] See if you can actually catch sight of Himeyuri's double and her bodyguards.
[X] Take your time and circle the ambush site and see what you can glean.

The location where Himeyuri has supposedly been take to protect her is not an easy building to infiltrate. Rooftop access, of course, delivery entrance, front doors. It's a business building, a legitimate one, so they have their own night security and front desk people. Offices for the most part, which of course makes it easy to hide a person who can create legal and verifiable business with which to rent an office space. Naturally it would be towards the center of the building, because they don't want to make it too easily infiltrated, but not in a heavily secured area, which would 'scare you off' if you were going to hunt down Himeyuri.

Of course, all this effort means that Oba-san and Himeyuri discussed your promise and what it would mean for her. As you circle the buildings which circle the target building, you switch from one form of Eyes to another, using them all and getting used to switching between them quickly and effectively. The information and utility of each type of elemental force is quite different and in some cases useful and in others hopelessly useless. Stone Eyes turns out to be a great deal more effective in the city than you thought, while also having some serious drawbacks – for instance, being unable to see the asphalt or concrete around you or even that you are walking on, or literally seeing through glass as though it were air (potentially embarrassing, that).

Still, being able to see through said concrete, glass, and stone means you can spot people hiding in unusual places, like the Stone dragonette hidden amongst the piping and ducts of the target building, or the Fire oni-child hidden in a panel cut into the walls of a building where you could have a good vantage point on the entrance of the actual target building. Void Eyes tells you of their relative spiritual strengths, as well as revealing which ones are sorcerers or priests, and how bad the feng-shui of this area is in general, something which is undoubtedly meant to annoy and trouble you as you conduct an infiltration.

You come up with a rough estimate of their forces by slipping in and out of the area around the target building – eleven oni-children and dragonnes and dragonettes, aside from those actually in the rooms with “Himeyuri”. There are many places where you can't actually look, but the movements and positioning of the others gives you information on their allies, as does Water Eyes. Fire Eyes are unsurprisingly unhelpful in this situation, while Wood Eyes would only be useful in dealing with one person. All in all, it is good practice, but that's all it is – practice. Slipping into and out of the circle of buildings helps too, but entering the target building is a little bit more of a commitment than you're ready to make, ara ara.

It doesn't take long to break into a completely different and relatively unguarded building, and while you're not the supreme hacker Akari is, you're capable enough to get into their security systems and take a look at the tapes of the front doors – and those of the target building. Finding the part you want takes you less time than it would another, because you can actually process the images that are moving too fast for others to follow. Learning how to do it gave you the worst migraines, mostly because you didn't blink often and the white noise of the screen itself was horrid to look at.

Trying to explain that you could see the individual electron excitation on a CRT screen didn't happen until you were in your teens, because you didn't actually understand what you were looking at yourself until then.

“Himeyuri” isn't someone you know disguised as Himeyuri. It looks, for anyone who doesn't memorize how someone moves as a matter of course as they look at someone, exactly like her. Which means it's probably much more powerful than an illusion. A shapechanger perhaps. It IS the real Ah-sama and Oh-sama accompanying her, though, which explains the elaborate set up. Trying to catch and kill them would be trouble at the best of times. In this situation? Pretty close to suicide without serious backup and maybe a harpoon gun. Guided missiles would make it impossible to butcher them, so those would be right out.

You lean back in the chair and ponder.

[] Right, time to go and talk to Himeyuri – the real one.
[] There's a couple of people you could potentially snatch, if you were of a mind to.
[] Maybe go take a look at how well guarded those relatives of Himeyuri's are.
[] Give Chisato a call, have her set up a business in the target building, just in case.
[] Check out the obvious trap next, just to see what they did there.

>[] Check out the obvious trap next, just to see what they did there.
Sounds fun!

I thought we couldn't see through insulation? I'm not complaining though.

>[x] Right, time to go and talk to Himeyuri – the real one.
>[x] There's a couple of people you could potentially snatch, if you were of a mind to.
>[x] Check out the obvious trap next, just to see what they did there.
But let's just consider the snatching, I'm no ready to commit to it yet without knowing who is involved.

It's too bad we don't really have much time to mess with Clan Ryo, because after we fulfill their promise, Ah and Oh won't be stuck here and might be free to mess with us.

[XXX] See if you can actually catch sight of Himeyuri's double and her bodyguards.
[XX] Take your time and circle the ambush site and see what you can glean.
[X] Sneak into the trap and study it from within, so to speak.
The actual votes used.. I updated the posts but missed updating the votes before I sent the first post

>Depends on what it is made out of.

>[] Right, time to go and talk to Himeyuri – the real one.

I do enjoying the mental image of Ryukusa smacking into a window because she was leaping and using stones eyes

>[x] Right, time to go and talk to Himeyuri – the real one.
Let's not dilly-dally, trip up, and get noticed.

>[] Check out the obvious trap next, just to see what they did there.
>[] Right, time to go and talk to Himeyuri – the real one.

>[] Right, time to go and talk to Himeyuri – the real one.

>[] Check out the obvious trap next, just to see what they did there.

>[] Check out the obvious trap next, just to see what they did there.

Damn checking the obvious trap sounds kind of fun and unlikely to backfire but I'm not sure if it's a great use of our time.

Well, as long as we don't get seen I think Ryukusa has plenty of time.

>[X] Right, time to go and talk to Himeyuri – the real one.

If the trap had this kind of ambush waiting, I'm scared/excited to see what is waiting at her actual location.

Oh, kamidammit.
There is the obvious trap, and then the non obvious trap.

And then, there's the trap which is in place about Himeyuri, because Oba-san is a bitch and would not hesitate to get the somewhat compromised and also failure -committing Himeyuri killed if it meant taking down Ryukusa at the same time.

That can play into our hands, as long as we expect a third trap in place. Easier to convince someone to bail when their boss sells them out.

Assumptions, admittedly, but it's what I would do in Oba-san's shoes.

Potentially some sort of curse or other non-obvious magical effect rather than physical guards.

Yeah I'm not sure what she has that could be an order of magnitude worse than what's right here.

>[x] Check out the obvious trap next, just to see what they did there.
>[x] Right, time to go and talk to Himeyuri – the real one.
>After seeing how much muscle Oba-san has used already in the last two spots, do risk assessment on how much physical/sorcerous threat is at third spot, assuming Oba-san is using everything + having called in some favours

Oh right that is an advantage, it lets us gauge what Oba-san has left.

Also I feel like there's still a very small chance that Himeyuri might actually be at her house because they think we wouldn't be bored enough to check a place we know is a trap.

From the sound of it Ryukusa is definitely aware that what's waiting for her is gonna be really dangerous. I'm sure she'll take the proper precautions even unprompted.

>barrier combat with Himeyuri
>cutting words
>by means of making her fish for dinner

>leave her quivering and mindbroken in the middle of the trap with a plate of steamed fish on her lap

problem solved all round

Do we really want to break her mind, user?

[XX] Check out the obvious trap next, just to see what they did there.
[XXX] Right, time to go and talk to Himeyuri – the real one.

You undo your rather basic hacks and wipe down anything you need to, which honestly isn't all that much. Then you're out and off again, leaping between buildings and running down the alleys and up walls on occasion. Well, not really, you're mostly climbing them without using too much of your hands. Your claw-tips are still sensitive on your right hand.

It doesn't take too long at all to get to where Himeyuri lives, and even less time to scout the area. Aside from a couple of exceedingly bored elite warriors on the (poorly guarded) perimeter, most of the assault team is actually in Himeyuri's home. It takes next to no effort to infiltrate a room next door to hers, which is unoccupied except for a very unfortunate novice oni-child whom you render unconscious by dropping his blood pressure to barely survivable levels. It's a lot harder than you had thought it would be, but Fire is always weak to water, even if his heart could chew up scalpels if they tried open heart surgery on him.

It doesn't take long to identify the voices and their owners. You can feel the wards on the rooms; they're clearly designed to keep you from entering or Void magics from affecting those within, though they're not on par for a Clan Ryo VIP. And they don't stop you from simply listening through the wall in the slightest.

“I still don't see why they consider this necessary. I mean, it's ridiculous to have us wait here while they actually try and capture her with an actual trap.” Natsuo-san, a fire oni-child, and one of your cousin's harem. She's pissed, and half of that is most likely because she's pretending to be part of the clan still.

One thing we need to keep in mind is that Stone and Wood are now extra-dangerous for us as a fully matured Demigod, though I'm not sure we know the specifics of how yet.

Fortunately I think it's pretty unlikely that Oba-san knows what elements we chose, or would be confident enough in guessing to make it a key factor in her plans.

“Why wouldn't she come here?” That would be Ichika, your cousin's Wood-oni cannibal girl harem girl. She sounds lovely.

“She won't come here because she's a Water dragonette. Only an idiot would actually come looking for someone where they live after threatening them.” Well, Kanako-chan isn't wrong, but she's mistaken. She was probably assigned to keep an eye on these kids after her disastrous capture mission where you and Akari scared the hell out of all of them. Might be fun to show yourself just to terrify her and prove her wrong in the same instant. “That's why they didn't concern themselves with your elemental types.”

“I'd like to see her. Just to see if I can actually hurt her.” Huh, you don't know her. Has the same accent as Hebiki Naoto, though; could be a relative of Akari or her sister.

“You can't.” Musumi Kanako again. “Water overcomes Fire.” An annoyed humph from the mysterious person. Pretty even tempered for a Fire creature. You can almost hear the unvoiced disagreements churning their way through her mind.

“You should stop talking about her. She might sense it.” Oh, that voice you know. Ryuu Fuuta, one of the cutest Void Oni-chicks you've ever had the pleasure of practicing with. You made a point of practicing with her because she had a tendency to distract her opponents by 'losing' her clothing. Mostly because it made her itch, but still. She was well on her way to becoming a potent practitioner of oni-magic.

“That's nonsense, Fuuta-chan.” Hebiki Gii, Akari's cousin, much the same as Hauko is your cousin. Human shinobi-sorceress-in-training. An experimental counter to the Kaga Clan demon quellers. “She's not a Void dragonette.” You can just imagine Fuuta pinning Gii-chan with a one eyed stare, the other hidden under her hair, and looking dubious.

All girls. Must have been something like Oba-san suggesting a sleepover, which translates to 'stay here, guard the place, and report back when called'.

You could take most of them easily, but there are enough wildcards that underestimating them could get you hurt. Probably not killed, and definitely not captured.

[] Sneak into the hallway and leave a note for them before taking off.
[] ….Fuuta might be salvageable....
[] Wait just a few minutes longer, this almost got interesting.
[] See if you can blow the wards with Fire the way you blow electronics with Water.
[] Maybe later. Time to go see the spymaster. Mistress. Whatever.

Aw man, these guys seem pretty interesting but unfortunately we can't afford to play with them right now.

Ryukusa is clever enough to leave a note in such a way that almost certainly won't be discovered until we've already met with Himeyuri right?

No. That doesn't solve anything.

We don't.

This Fuuta seems to have the right idea for besting Ryukusa. Granted it'd still only work when Ryukusa doesn't mind losing, but that's better than the rest.

She basically ran to Oba-san about this, which makes her a: fair game, and b: unlikely to turn away without putting ourselves at serious risk.

Physically incapacitating her for extended periods of time wouldn't help, because her mind is what makes her useful.

Mindbreak and leaving her effectively dead, and at best able to regather the scraps of her mind into some semblance of sanity if never to regain the heights of her spymastering is slightly better than killing her (but only slightly, admittedly) and removes her from play.

I just want to make someone mind shatter due to cooking, actually

>[] Wait just a few minutes longer, this almost got interesting.

Then

>[] See if you can blow the wards with Fire the way you blow electronics with Water.

>[x] Wait just a few minutes longer, this almost got interesting.
>[x] Sneak into the hallway and leave a note for them before taking off.
Ryuu Ryukusa, professional voyeur.
If we can, let's make it so they won't notice it for a while.

>[] Wait just a few minutes longer, this almost got interesting.
>[] Afterwards, go see the spymaster. Mistress. Whatever.

I mean, she is actually loyal to Oba-san and was worried Ryukusa would come and kill her whole family. I find it hard to blame her for telling after the fact.

>[] Sneak into the hallway and leave a note for them before taking off.
>[] Maybe later. Time to go see the spymaster. Mistress. Whatever.

Man, I can't believe I missed so much of this thread.

Musumi is pretty.

More seriously, our cousin's harem really love him, right?

We can deal with them after we completed the promise.

>[x] See if you can blow the wards with Fire the way you blow electronics with Water.
Sounds fun!

One, Ryukusa is not a shitty person, and so won't mind break people like you want to do.

Two, no, it's worse than killing her by far.

Three, it'd be completly OOC

Four, no, she didn't ran to Oba-san, and even if she did, that doesn't make her fair game.

Then she can take solace while mindbroken that she gets to keep her family.

Ryukusa's marked her family for death as a demigod, has a killed for less, and someone loyal is admirable, but no less of a target, and no less deadly just because she's cute and does spywork instead of straight up combat.

Compare her to that snake guy that was guarding Colonel German Asshole/Melinda's Dad. We respected him because he was loyal and willing to die for his boss, but still killed him in a straight up fight.

Well not quite, the promise is pretty much a loophole to gather intel on Clan Ryo in a way that doesn't violate our contract with the Jade Emperor.

>[] Wait just a few minutes longer, this almost got interesting.

>Fuuta might be salvageable. And you have to tell your cousin's harem about his whereabouts. But later.

>[] Maybe later. Time to go see the spymaster. Mistress. Whatever.

>Time to fulfil your promise, in the most Ryukusa way.

Dude, give it up, we are not mindbreaking her.

Yeah, but Ryukusa quite explicitly didn't really plan to kill her family, just make the threat and then not go through with it (or rather, go through with it in a very different and harmless way).

>More seriously, our cousin's harem really love him, right?
Do Er Yin, Akari, Yui, Kiku, and Kiki-hime love Ryukusa?

Yeah, no.

I don't know what got into your head, but mind-breaking and crippling people's mentaly is worth than killing.

And Ryukusa only threatened her because the threat had an obvious loophole. Ryukusa wouldn't have bothered with a loophole if she wanted dead.

>[X] Sneak into the hallway and leave a note for them before taking off.

>[] Wait just a few minutes longer, this almost got interesting.
>[] ….Fuuta might be salvageable....

Does his love interests represent or is equivalent to a kami/kamuy the same way Ryukusa's correspond to Inari?

I sure hope so!...is what I'd say if we didn't know for sure.

Also I wonder if we could investigate what happened to the original Madness Kamuy's harem if she(?) had one when we have time.

Like not really relevant at all, but wondering where things slipped up assuming they had a similar purpose as Horobi's.