>>5903834
>>Rival...
The Ash to our Gary. Welcome back OP!

>>5903834
>>Home...

>>5903834
>Rival...

>>5903834
>>Rival...

>>5903834
>>Rival...

inb4 thick yuri undertones

>>5904135
can we really call ourselves a Mahou Shoujo if we aren't at least a little gay?

>>5904135
>inb4 thick yuri undertones
I think that's the price of admission when you run a weebshit quest with a female protagonist

>>5903834
>Rival...
The only person who cared when we were left behind

>>5903834
>Home...

>>5903834
>School...

>>5903834
>Rival...

>>5903854
>>5904012
>>5904032
>>5904069
>>5904135
>>5904172
>>5904176
>>5904310
>>5904434
So we have rival as our dream
unfortunately friends invited me to go drink because of a birthday. Much to my surprise I ended up drinking shots of rum so I'll be posting tomorrow

As for our rival. I never planned on her with 'thick yuri undertones' but then again all those sports manga rivals have such homoerotic vibes you can cut it with a knife...

>>5904579
Foe Yay is a pretty popular trope after all.

File: shogi.jpg (27 KB, 840x319)

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You know you're dreaming.

It's annoying to know you're dreaming.

After spending hours outside in the rain trapped in a weird world and knowing it's full of monsters and other creepy things, it'd just be nice to have a peaceful rest and dream of something soothing and comforting.

Like your pet cat, Kizaemon.

Instead, your dream has you stuck in a room with a shogi board set up. It's ready to play. There's no reason to not follow along with the dream logic and sit down. Staring hard at the board, you realize this is your little sister's shogi board. You start fiddling with a pawn out of boredom and advance it. Immediately in response, you hear the clack of a piece on the opposite side. In surprise, you look up and see...

Nagumo Kyouya...

Why are you dreaming about Nagumo Kyouya, of all people?!

"Can't I dream about your really hot older brother? His name was Kyouichi, right?" You can't help but needle the illusion a little, even though it's pointless.

"What do you have in trade to make it worth my while... and his? And no, you can't offer your older brother in exchange," Kyouya counters with a roll of her eyes.

Wow, Dream Kyouya is really true to the real life version. It's hard to remember that you only really started interacting with this annoying girl in the third year of middle school. You were not an academically gifted child or hardworking. Much to the dismay of your parents, you ended up going to the very average Tanigaki Middle School because you didn't do too well on the entrance exams. It took a lot of effort to pass the entrance exam for Kusatsu High School.

Kyouya, on the other hand, attended the much more prestigious Ohtori Middle School, which your older brother attended and where your little sister is now. Your older brother, Touma, seemed impressed with Kyouya and probably had a crush on her. While your little sister Sakura kept on gushing about 'Kyouya-sempai' all the time after joining the Shogi club.

You remember how the constant praise annoyed you. You try to bury your irritation and make a move with another pawn on the shogi board. Kyouya is absolutely ruthless on her turns. Her aggressive climbing silver strategy completely overwhelms your defenses and captures so many of your pieces. Worse, she almost immediately redeploys the captured pieces to bolster her attack at certain points.

"This is the end! Tsumi!" Dream Kyouya calls out.

"What is the point of destroying me so thoroughly? I mean, have some mercy against a complete amateur!" You cry out as Kyouya checkmates your king with her lance piece.

"Are you serious? You always try to wheedle out of hard situations with smooth talk. Sometimes the best way is to learn to do better by not dodging the hard lessons. Besides, it's better to lose badly and learn from a friendly match than from a serious one." Dream Kyouya grumpily folds her arm and glares at you.

File: breakfast.jpg (34 KB, 407x297)

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>>5906171
"Gah. You absolute jerk! You just want to see me defeated and humiliated." You start scooping up the pieces to toss them at the Dream Kyouya, but you discover the girl has disappeared. The zabuton cushion she had been sitting on is empty.

"Isn't that just projection? That's what you want to do to me. Just be honest." Somehow, the voice of the other girl remains despite having disappeared.

You can't make an explosive denial because you can feel something shaking you awake. The dream ends abruptly as your eyes fly open and stare directly into the eyes of one of the strange goatmen servants from yesterday.

"Your Majesty, as per your orders, I have awakened you in the morning. Breakfast is ready too." The childish voice sounds incredibly proud to have fulfilled its duty perfectly. A quick glance out the very small window shows that dawn is barely breaking over the horizon. It was technically morning, so they really did follow your orders. Despite being made to sleep on a bed of boughs, you are surprisingly refreshed and rested.

"Ah man, what a weird dream," you groan and get out of bed. The servants have dried and cleaned some of Miki's clothing, and have laid out a small breakfast.

Flaw: Always Someone Better - You have a tendency of gloating and enjoying the sight of people you've defeated. Particularly over those who are superior to you in something.

You have no choice but to wear the overly large clothing for now. You sit down and begin to eat a particularly large fish and a cup of soup; it occurs to you that you can order some of these servants around to do other stuff for you.

So what will you ask them to do while you're eating?....

>write in

>>5906174

Gather some records about the history of this place. And some books on chess, if they have them. Kyouya might be good at shogi, but we'll master the game of kings.

>>5906174
Ask them to prepare the tailoring kit. We'll order them to make a dress fit for a queen.

>>5906174
Books and a map of this world

>>5906174
>>5906334
+1

>>5906174
>>5906334
+1

>>5906241
I would half expect them to make a goat onesie and then we would have to wear it because otherwise it would break their little goat hearts.

>>5906241
>>5906334
Supporting these

>>5906174
>>5906334

Supporting

>>5906241
>>5906334
+1

>>5906231
>>5906241
>>5906334
>>5906393
>>5906419
>>5906580
>>5906608
>>5906979
Books and a map of this world
Assuming there are such things...

File: islands.jpg (59 KB, 381x477)

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You chew breakfast thoughtfully; a warm meal does wonders for your mood. But relaxing isn't the only thing you should be doing.

Camelot is still a mystery to you; the island it's situated on is unusually small. If you were traveling on foot, you're pretty sure that you'd be able to walk around the island in less than a week. You received those mysterious phone calls from other Kings and Knights, so does that mean they're on the same island as you or somewhere else? Also, is there something written down about where you are?

"So, uh.... Hm, what should I call you guys?" You are about to give orders when it occurs to you that you have no idea what the little goat men acting as your servants are called. You turn to face the tallest of the lot, who seemed to be the leader of them.

"We're called Baphomets, Your Majesty. But you can call us anything at all; Sir Rodomonte called us 'Goats'. While Lord Mordred called 'Meeps' since we tend to meep sometimes." The tallest one answers quickly as he motions for the smaller ones to do various duties.

"Well, I'm going to name you 'Hanbei' specifically. Hanbei: Find any books and maps in the castle and bring them to me."

"A name?! MEEP! Thank you very much, Your Majesty!!! As for books and maps? Well, Lord Mordred made a map and left it here, but she took her journal when she went on a Quest. There might be some notes she left behind. I shall order the servants to leave no corner unsearched." Hanbei is inordinately pleased to have a personal name and throws himself into divvying up the servants to systemically search the castle for any leftover notes.

The map is found within minutes, and you learn that it had been left in another room close by. The previous ruler of Camelot, Lord Mordred, spent time exploring some of the nearby islands.

"Here be dragons?!" You look at the map incredulously. Multiple squiggly worms are crudely drawn on the surrounding waters of Camelot's island in crayon; even the words 'here be dragons' are sloppily scribbled in with crayon.

"Meep, Lord Mordred claims she saw them when she sailed the cruel seas in her travels. The Danes haven't been raiding because the creatures infest the area."
"Please accept this humble piece of advice from thy servants; don't ever pay the Danegeld should the Danes come again. Meep meep."
"Blessed be the dragons; they be the wyrd guardians of Camelot."

"Danes? Like, humans from Denmark travel to this weird world somehow."You stare at the little goat men in disbelief.

"The Danes are not humans! MEEP! Nay, they're monsters! Seven feet tall, with green skin. Oh, those horrid, long ships made regular journeys to raid us. The love to skin us Baphomets alive for our furs and steal whatever treasures they find." The group shudders at the terrifying memories and makes a strange cross motion with their hands. As though they are warding off evil by just mentioning the 'Danes'.

>>5907321
Hanbei takes the time to review the map with you and what he recalls from conversations with Lord Mordred about her travels. It seems that the previous ruler didn't really bother staying in Camelot for long because she had no patience with the idea of fixing the city or governing. Yet at the same time, she didn't want to give up the place at all. You can't help but think she should have given up Camelot and just gone adventuring instead since she enjoyed that more.

What little notes are left behind by this strange traveling Knight is not as informative as you wish. They consist mostly of 'Fuck King Arthur' and a glowing sword stabbing some generic-looking knights, all of it done with crayons. You think those knights are supposed to represent the Magical Girls who accidentally left you behind. If so, then you totally agree with Mordred's sentiment.

"Fuck King Arthur indeed. Wait, how did Mordred get to these places?" you ask, marveling at the islands that the previous ruler had gone to.

"Lord Mordred possesses a ship named 'Prydwen' which is why she could easily cross the seas to the other islands. Most find traveling by ship far too dangerous and opt to travel to the World first, and then discover a gate in the World to re-enter Avalon. You can never be sure where you'll end up with a new gate, though," he says as he guides you to what used to be the office of Mordred. The battered round table and chair originated from this room, and they transferred them back here. It seems furnishings are very scarce in the castle, so whatever is available is used for multiple purposes.

"WAIT! You mean, do you mean, back to Japan?!" You immediately grasped at this information hungrily.

"Oh yes, do you wish to venture on a Quest? I can arrange to have the servants guide you to the World and back."

YES! You can get the hell out of here! Who cares about Camelot, not even Mordred was interested in exploring this ruined city. She opted to get off this damn island and go elsewhere.

>Immediately head to a gate and get out of here...
>Explore Camelot. Why not? You know you can leave whenever you want...

>>5907324
>Explore Camelot. Why not? You know you can leave whenever you want...

>>5907324
>Explore Camelot. Why not? You know you can leave whenever you want...

Well, at least we know where the Magical Girls are. Better not to go there immediately.

>>5907321
> Hold it, you don't know enough to make an informed decision right now. Ask Hanbei what are Kings and Knights are supposed to be, what's a Quest and what he knows of this world (?) and yours.

More thinking, less charging straight on.

>>5907324
>Explore Camelot. Why not? You know you can leave whenever you want...

>>5907324
>>Explore Camelot. Why not? You know you can leave whenever you want...

>>5907324
>Explore Camelot. Why not? You know you can leave whenever you want...

>>5907324
>Explore Camelot. Why not? You know you can leave whenever you want...

>>5907432
>>5907465
>>5907508
>>5907536
>>5907970
>>5908025
>>5908043
We elect to explore Camelot, safe knowing there's a way back to Japan!

Oh yes, before I forget.
Full disclosure, the map I'm using is from Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series. I borrowed it for this quest.

File: inside camelot.jpg (74 KB, 776x508)

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The relief of knowing you can leave this strange world is immense. The depressing weight crushing your enthusiasm and zest for life is lifted, a mere feather easily blown away.

Best of all?

They say you can come back in and out whenever you want!

If that's the case, why not explore Camelot?

"Hanbei, I think I'll spend it exploring the city today instead. Come with me and give me a guided tour. Oh, and grab some pens and papers from the backpack. We mind as well survey the damage to the city, so pick out a few servants who can draw and write really well," you snap out orders easily. You might not rule Camelot for long given it seems to change hands so many times and you aren't going to stick around... but in honor of Mordred, you can leave something of use for the next person who comes to the city.

The Baphomets are enthusiastic; they are thinking that finally a King will restore the city, or at least make an attempt.

"There is an even better guide to the city than I, Your Majesty. Let me call the poet to attend your tour of Camelot," Hanbei quickly claps his hand, and a small glowing circle appears near his feet. A summon circle of some sort, you can only wonder. A sudden popping sound emits from the circle, and something rolls out. It is possibly the shortest Baphomet ever. A normal one was up to your waist in height, but this particular one just barely goes past your knees.

"Your Majesty, it is an honor to regale you with the wonders of Camelot! Allow this mere bard the honor to do this service," the little goat man has a voice worthy of Morgan Freeman. It has a low, soothing voice, so unlike the childish speech of the others, it is surreal.

You have a proper entourage with you. They carry the tiny Baphomet on a very simple wooden litter since he cannot possibly keep up with your much longer strides. A gaggle of goat men have paper and pens in hand.

First is an abbreviated tour of the castle.

It is massive and fills you with wonder. You don't know much about European castles beyond pictures, and the ones you've seen are nothing like this one. It's twice as big as Osaka Castle! The bard states it covers about 30 acres and is in fact home to two fortified castles. You just happened to sleep in the one that is still semi-livable; the other is a derelict shell with no roofs anywhere. There are hundreds of houses, granaries, and other buildings surrounded by two rings of walls. The amount of damage is staggering; a conventional repair with thousands of Baphomets working would take years, in your estimation.

File: walled city.jpg (107 KB, 506x462)

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>>5908408
"Nay, Your Majesty. If you gather relics and mana in a Quest, you will be able to command Avalon to restore parts of the castle. The same with the city surrounding it," the little bard guides you to a 'restored' portion of the castle. It seems that Rodomonte briefly ruled Camelot and experimented with repairing the place using the rewards of his Quest. The room is stunning to see. The morning sun filters in through the window to reveal its size and majesty.

"Just how many people ruled Camelot before I arrived?" You can't help but ask.

"A mere handful, first was King Arthur, who... renounced Camelot. Aye, many tears were shed that day. The Dread Argeste was absolutely incensed that the once and future King refused to return. Utterly shocking and unheard of! It must be the doing of Merlin, that Wizard is always having a hand in such things. It is Dread Argeste who decided to make it a Law that anyone who renounces Camelot shall never have a chance to rule over it. It caused quite a violent battle between King Arthur and Dread Argeste; they blew more holes into the walls. In the end, King Arthur fled back to the World with the help of Merlin."

As this tale is told, the Baphomets actually start crying at the memory. You are utterly baffled. Isn't King Arthur the true ruler of Camelot, according to legends? So wouldn't this place naturally be something she wants?

"Then there is Ser Rodomonte and Lord Mordred; they fought and fought over and over again to rule the city. The number of times the city has changed hands is staggering between the two. That is, until one night, a Damsel snuck in through the broken walls and defeated Ser Rodomonte. Her name and face are unknown, but she exiled the braggadocio to some island through her magic. Upon which, Mordred took back the city and lost all interest in it. After all, if some assassin in the night can bring about your downfall because there are so many ways in through the broken walls, why bother? Twas a sad day when Lord Mordred decided not to work to restore Camelot.... We do not miss Ser Rodomonte overly much."

You give the tiny goat man a puzzled look. Seeing the expression on your face, the bard expands his explanation.

"Ser Rodomonte did not see us as, well, worthy of much consideration. Rather, he treated us as 'NPCs' and untiring 'minions' who needed no praise or rewards. He also liked to use us in his Quests as mobile trap detectors or in 'zerg rushes' to distract monsters or experiment---"

"Whoa, whoa, stop right there. I get it. The guy sounds like a gamer isekai character. Probably said something about experience points and appraisal abilities at one point."

"Tis as you say, Your Majesty. Also, ye shall soon see the unfortunate side effects of having such a liege when we walk amongst the city. No point in explaining; t'would be better to see it to understand."

>>5908409
That doesn't sound too good but it probably isn't too dangerous if they want to show it to you. So you go down to the city to see its sad wonders. Blasted homes, burnt out temples, and overgrown fields as far as the eye can see.

"So tell me, bard. What are Kings and Knights supposed to be?" You need to get down to the brass tacks and figure this out.

"They are children such as yourself who come to Avalon and are blessed. Not all become Kings or Knights, some become Wizards or Witches or even Damsels or Dames. Some do not become blessed at all and become woebegone victims. Avalon is not safe; those with no powers quickly die unless they pledge themselves to someone or something to protect them. Fortuna is fickle."

That means, you could have easily died two days ago.

They bring you to a large tower, a remarkable structure standing proud and in good repair. You saw this place when you entered the city yesterday. It is surprising that the Baphomets didn't take you to reside here, seeing that it is in far better shape than the castle.

"And here you shall see the results of... poor Kingmanship." The bard sighs.

"Really, what am I supposed to---" You don't get to finish your sentence.

>two anons, roll 3d6!
>Also, do you also wish to use 'Let No Insult Pass'? Yes or No?

Rolled 4, 5, 1 = 10 (3d6)

>>5908412
Yes

Rolled 4, 2, 4 = 10 (3d6)

>>5908412
Yes

>>5908412
>Yes

>>5908460
>>5908479
>>5908771
Got home late, let's see if I can put up a post tonight

File: strike.jpg (54 KB, 721x630)

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The stench is what warns you of the danger from above. Your nose smells a pungent, foul mixture of rotting fish, tar, piss, grass clippings, your older brother's 3 day old sweaty underwear, dried vomit, and other noxious, indescribable reeking perfume before it's thrown over the parapets of the tower.

Someone dares to throw stinking shit at you? How dare they!?

Used 'Let No Insult Pass'

Anger courses through your veins as you take a mighty leap backwards away from the tower and summon Frostbind to arm yourself. The disgusting slop crashes into the ground and is unable to splash on you or your entourage. Oh hey! You can summon your weapon; you figured it out!

Frostbind - Your weapon. A spear with ice powers. Finally able to summon it whenever you want.

"Brother and Sisters, to your positions! We're being repressed! Meep! Come and see the violence inherent in the system!"

A dozen heads poke over the parapets, you can hear buckets being dragged along at the top. They must be arming themselves to throw more crap at you. These Baphomets are furious at the very sight of you; it's a great contrast to the happy, overjoyed servants you saw yesterday.

"I order you to stop that. I am your King!" You call upwards to these rebels.

"Meep! No Kings! No Tyrants! You only get to tramp around as King by exploiting the workers! Perpetuating economic and social differences in our ---"

Wait, you heard this sort of talk before from your social studies classes.

"I don't believe this. Are you telling me that Rodomonte sucked so badly that he drove some Baphomets to become communists?!" You blurt out to get confirmation from your entourage, but they can't answer because the goat men in the tower hiss and boo.

"Nonsense! We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune! Meep! Meep! We're taking turns to act as a sort of executive-officer-for-the-week. But all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting by a simple majority, in the case of purely internal affairs ---" The angry Baphomet, whom you nickname Chairman in your head, blathers on and on about the workings of their government.

"Factions have formed within the city; thus far, all have been harmless. This happens to be the smallest and most harmless of the harmless lot; they argue and debate so much that nothing gets done. Half the time, we give charity to them so..." The bard attempts to explain, but clearly it raises the hackles of the Chairman even more.

"Nonsense! We're living in a dictatorship! A self-perpetuating autocracy---"

You start walking away from the Tower. There can't be more than a dozen Baphomets residing in the place. It's a pretty important structure, as it's a Watch Tower with a clear view of the surrounding area and looks outward to the sea. It would have been convenient to go up there and take a look around the city from up high, but you'll have to make do by walking around.

File: lighthouse.jpg (43 KB, 1091x507)

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>>5909757
The Walls are in terrible shape. You learn from the bard that the magic in the stones used to create barriers of defense against divination and intrusion as well as act as a sort of alarm system should an enemy attempt to enter. But the breaches render those defenses moot since no sane enemy would attempt to climb over the intact portions of the Wall but rather just saunter in through the easier paths.

There is farmland lying fallow, burnt down houses, abandoned kilnworks and factories, blasted to smithereens markets, barely operational aqueducts and fountains, and so much more. The pens scribble on paper furiously, and the entourage dutifully fills up their pages with notes on Camelot's state of disrepair and drawing up the map.

The bard takes you to the Temple next, where apparently there's another faction of Baphomets residing. Unlike the residents of the Tower, they are a peaceable and obedient lot. They will follow orders, though with great reluctance. All in all, this bunch reminds you of a bunch of Buddhist monks living in a monastery. Their object of worship is a round red stone called the Stane O Scone.

"The Rightful King Society!? You believe King Arthur will come back and rule? But she renounced the city!" You stare at the quiet group of Baphomets trying to clean up and repair the Temple to the best of their ability. The place is falling apart; you almost don't enter the building because it looks like a stiff breeze can bring down the place.

"My Pretender King, please understand. All the tales say that Arthur is the once and future King. This is but a test of faith and I----," a priestly Baphomet spends the next 30 minutes expounding his religious belief that King Arthur will return. They must remain faithful and wait for the true King to come back; until that joyous day, all others are Pretenders to be humored and meekly obeyed.

You have no doubt that if Arthur did return, these particular Baphomets would turn traitor and put her on the throne to rule Camelot. Whoever tries to rule this place had better keep an eye on this lot.

The Docks are the last place you visit. The bard warns you that these Baphomets are partisans of Mordred. It seems they were her favorites and sometimes journeyed on her ship to the islands across the waters. They are therefore the most worldly and battle-hardened goat men in the city. Which amounts to very little combat ability overall, but they do look piratical. Their 'Captain' is a one-eyed Baphomet, slightly taller than his fellows but not by much. You learn that Baphomets can evolve under certain circumstances and the Captain seems close to achieving that. The only evolved Baphomet at your command is Hanbei...

The rest were killed by Rodomonte through carelessness while Questing or went with Mordred on her Quest over the waters.

>>5909760
"I tell you that once we get yonder Lighthouse up and running, then King Mordred will return. She be a good King, no shame pledging loyalty to her. Know King Lot, that she is merciful and worthy! So help us catch a Flame and let the light guide her home!" The Captain pleads, as does the rest of his crew. There's at least 40 of them, and they've been working hard to make small wooden boats. They do not look promisingly seaworthy, and the Lighthouse is far away on its own little island.

"Are you telling a true King to give up their throne and right to rule? Bit much to ask, don't you think?" You're a little cross even if you do intend to renounce Camelot. Also, it seems that Mordred is capable of inspiring personal loyalty. The Society nuts are delusional semi religious fanatics, but the Captain and crew are loyalists and solid.

"Meep. True but let's be honest. I know naught what sort of King you are. If ye turn out be another Ser Rodomonte (cursed be the day his mother whelped him), I'd rather throw meepself onto a ship and dare my way across the troubled cruel sea."

-1 dice due to tiredness

You spent the entire day exploring the city and feel exhausted. The sun is starting sink downwards. The map of the city is complete and the copious notes are stowed in the 'office' at the castle. You feel sad for these cute guys, they've done nothing wrong but they're about to lose their King.

After a quick meal, you shoulder the backpack to leave. Hanbei has been waiting patiently by a stone arch.

"I have found a guide to take you to the World. Or as you call it, 'Japan'. I wish you a safe Quest, Your Majesty. Please remember that only certain gates lead back to Camelot, so listen to your guide carefully." Hanbei points to a very adventuresome looking Baphomet with its own walking stick and backpack.

"Ye be in good hands, meep!" The guide waves his stick enthusiastically and jumps through the stone arch.

It was time to go! You jump through the gate and...

>Arrive in a city of some sort...
>Walk on to a rural train....
>Fall on your face in the hallway of a hotel...
>Smack face first into a door....
>Fall into the rushing waters of a river...

>>5909761
>Smack face first into a door....
What kind of Door? Doors lead places most of the time.

>>5909761
>>Fall on your face in the hallway of a hotel...

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>>5909761
i think i just stumbled into an image of an evolved meep

>Smack face first into a door....

>>5909761
>Arrive in a city of some sort...

>>5909761
>Fall on your face in the hallway of a hotel...

>>5909761
>>Fall on your face in the hallway of a hotel...

>>5909761
>Walk on to a rural train....

No post tonight, so I'll leave the votes open for a bit longer.

>Smack face first into a door....

>>5909761
>Fall on your face in the hallway of a hotel...

>>5909761
>Fall on your face in the hallway of a hotel...

>>5911781
>>5911434
>>5911278
>>5910728
>>5910617
>>5910472
>>5910075
>>5910041
>>5909853
>>5909784

faceplant into the soft carpetting of a hotel it is.

File: hotelhall.jpg (14 KB, 340x215)

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When walking through something, you always assume you're going to continue through while remaining upright and on level ground. There's no reason to suspect that when you go through a door or something, you'll fall downward like a stone dropped from the ledge of a cliff.

"AHHHH!"

The moment you stepped through, you felt the work of gravity dragging down towards a floral-patterned hotel carpet. Luckily, it was a short fall and didn't hurt. It reminds you of a game Haruhi mentioned playing before, Portals?

"MEEP. Your Majesty, are you okay?" Your guide asks with concern.

"Yeah, let me get up. Tell me, is it typical for a gate to drop people like that?" You get up from the floor with a groan and check your backpack. It's all in order; you stand up and stretch your back.

"Occasionally. It depends on what gate you use. I chose this gate because you mentioned 'Japan'. It has the additional property of find a good place to start a Quest. Also, you are a King; you will survive quite a long fall with your powers. Meep. Once, when I was guiding Ser Rodomonte, we fell a few kilometers downward from the sky into the sea, and it didn't kill us. It took a good few hours to swim to shore, though."

That's not very comforting... wait, there's something bothering you about your guide's answer. Did this guide try to murder Rodomonte?

".... Hey, quick question. Was that by accident?"

"Twas by choice, meep. Ser Rodomonte wouldn't listen when I told him the gate he chose has a tendency of sending voyagers to extremely dangerous places or exactly where they need to go. He was a gambling man, tended for 'all or nothing' and kept on choosing the Perilous Gate until his luck ran out.... meep... I barely survived that fall; mayhap it would have been better if I had died back then; it would have prevented him from returning to Avalon for a very long time."

Ah, so your guide is a professional, even to an asshole. That's good because you're about to give a very unreasonable order soon; the guide is to go home and leave you behind in Japan. That is, once you've determined where you are first. You look around in the hallway you've landed in. It's a typical cheap hotel, a serviceable but sort of rundown place for business travelers. You crash-landed right in front of the elevators.

The gate is supposed to take you where you need to go. So why did it land you here in the hallway? That question is answered very quickly when a door opens and a girl exits a room.

File: kyouya baffled.jpg (21 KB, 476x315)

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>>5912389
Nagumo Kyouya is literally right before you. If you had to guess why Kyouya is here at a hotel, then the school must have cancelled the trip because of what happened on the train. This must be the Smile Hotel in Asahikawa! In the original plan, on day 2 of the trip, the school arranged to stay in Asahikawa for one day before moving on to the National Park on day 3. But that got derailed. Day 3, and they're still here means that arrangements are being made to transport the kids back home. All your classmates are here! Relief blossoms within, and tears form at the corners of your eyes. You are back where you belong.

"I'm so glad to see you!" You rush to your annoying rival with joy and become shocked by her reaction.

There's no recognition in her eyes. There's no relief at your return, no worry about how you've been, and no joy at this reunion. Instead, Kyouya is staring at you curiously, the gears in her head turning as she tries to figure out who this stranger is. But you're no stranger!

"I'm sorry, I don't recognize you. Are you from another class?" Kyouya is clearly trying to place your face with a name, and she's failing utterly.

"Your Majesty... I think in our excitement about having a new King, we forgot to tell you. You are a Lost Child now; Avalon has called you from the World. You've gone widdershin; no one remembers you existed," your guide sounds very pained; every word out of the Baphomet is dragged out with great reluctance.

"What the----? IT TALKED?!" Kyouya screams and jumps back in shock at the sight of the Baphomet and hearing it speak.

"No, wait! It's me! I'm... I'm... King Lot..." You are now freaking out very badly. You have a name; you know it's not King Lot of Lothian and Orkney.

"Meep, well, the lass has seen me. Shall we reap some Mana from this girl, Your Majesty? It'd be a good start in the Quest to practice with such an easy target and go over the steps," the guide sounds so cheerful at his frightening suggestions.

The day cannot get any worse. So you thought, but it does get worse because Kyouya's shout causes the door she exited from to open. Two students of class 1-C poke their heads out the doors to see what the ruckus is about. It is immensely painful to see the lack of recognition in everyone's eyes.

"Kyouya, are you okay? Who is this girl?" A short bespectacled girl asks in a soft voice of concern. Tatemichi Haruhi takes in the sight of you standing like an idiot gaping in shock at the turn of events. Then the smart girl's eyes drifts downwards and see little Baphomet prancing about with his little walking stick and rummaging through his backpack.

"Huh? Why the hell is that girl wearing my clothes? Also, is that my backpack?" A tall girl exits the room and steps out into the hallway fully. Fushimi Miki starts stomping towards you. The other girl follows from behind, making sure to keep the taller girl between her and the Baphomet.

>>5912390

"Meep. I had hoped to start off the Quest with one girl harvested in secret but Fortuna was not with us. Three witnesses means it's safer to spirit them all away." Your guide is clearly trying to be helpful by giving out advice.

There's a problem though.

"Stop talking, you're scaring the crap out of them!" You snap at your guide. The sinister quality of every word out of your guide's mouth has left all three girls completely frightened.

A voice down the hallway laughs.

"The maidens shall have no reason to be scared, for I am here to protect them!"

And then a blur of gold and blue metal charges straight at you.

Due to exhaustion, you have -1 dice when making rolls. You do not have 'Let No Insult Pass'.

>two anons, one must roll a 3d6 and the other 2d6...

Rolled 4, 1, 6 = 11 (3d6)

>>5912393

Rolled 4, 1, 5 = 10 (3d6)

>>5912393

Rolled 3, 5 = 8 (2d6)

>>5912406
I can't read apparently, it's supposed to be 2d6

>>5912400
>>5912407
2 successes!

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You barely make it in time to block the sudden attack. It's a good thing you mastered summoning Frostbind automatically, but it doesn't change the fact that you are most definitely not a fighter. The sheer energy of the attack pushes you backwards despite digging in your feet. Feet literally slide across the hotel carpet, gouging furrows into it for a meter. Your spear is locked against a sharp sword and is barely able to push it back. Like a solid wall pressing forward, you can feel your arms buckling under the strain, while the opponent is like an unmovable mountain.

The girl who attacked is... whoa... She's beautiful. Long blonde hair, a wicked audacious smile, and fierce, proud eyes relishing combat, but there's a hint of disappointment. A 'is that all to you?' inherent in the gaze, which really burns your pride. You grit your teeth in annoyance and glare back.

"For a newbie black knight, you actually managed to block me. But if this is all you got, then you're in real trouble when the sun is high and you're against me!" The magical girl suddenly kicks you in the stomach and sends you flying backward. By some miracle, you manage to land on your feet from the blow and not crash into Miki and Haruhi, who press themselves against the hallway walls.

"Meep! Stop! STOP! MEEP! I'll prepare the tourney grounds. We mustn't fight in the World or else the backlash will curse us all!" Your guide wrenches out a strange stone from his pack and tosses it into the air. The stone is a pitch-black obsidian that simply floats in the air, suspended and unheeding of gravity. Little tendrils of black lightning shoot out from it, but it's taking its sweet time doing what it's supposed to do.

In anime and manga, this sort of thing usually just explodes and gets into action within a second to transport people to another world or someplace to keep fighting. There are five girls and one Baphomet awkwardly standing around for the stone to kick into action. Well actually, Miki takes action and tries to open the door to flee back to her room but discovers it won't open.

Should you say something to break up the dead air?

"My fair maiden, I'm so glad to see you once more. Do you remember me? Tis I, Gawain, Knight of the Pentacle." Gawain has taken this time to gallantly take Kyouya's hand and press it against her lips. The knight glows with an aura of chivalry that even makes you blush. Heck, even Miki and Haruhi look stunned by this overwhelming courtliness.

Which makes it even more remarkable that Kyouya is completely unaffected and snatches her hand back.

Gawain's Trait: ??? is resisted by Kyouya's Trait:???

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>>5913563
"Listen, strange women who accost me out of nowhere and act as though they've met me before when I don't know them are no basis for a relationship. That includes you! Who the hell are you!? Kyouya points her finger at you.

"I'm... I'm... King Lot of Lothian and Orkney... GAH! No, I am the Class President of 1-C at Kusatsu High School." Surely mentioning this will jog their memories.

"Hey, Haruhi, when did you stop being class president of 1-C?" Miki snarkily asks the genius of your class.

"If she wants the position, she can have it. But no, I didn't stop being class president," Haruhi adjusts her glasses and stares at you.

"MEEP! At last, the stone will take us to the tourney grounds!" Your guide jumps up excitedly as the stone now rapidly expands.

You were once standing in the hallway of a hotel. Now you stand on the rocky ledge of a great crater of some sort. Below, chalky white rivers course down ledges and join a river rushing out towards a hole in the crater walls. The sun threatens to dip below the rocks, and the sky is painted orange and red.

"Ah, Nagumo Kyouya, know that with this blade I shall be victorious in your name." Gawain swings her sword and points it at you in challenge.

"To the victor goes the spoils! Go defeat her Your Majesty, we need the Mana!" Your guide cheers you on and swings his walking stick. The overly enthusiastic Baphomet only makes things worse.

"Wait, wait, let's talk this----," You really don't want to fight; if you could only convince this nutter to talk and not attack, then things would get cleared up, but it's in vain.

Gawain closes the distance with a leap and mighty swing, which you barely dodge in time. It's gouges a deep trench into the rocks.

You need to defeat Gawain or get the hell out of here....

>Run away! Flee from battle; tell the guide to lead you out of the tourney grounds...
>Fight back, fight dirty! No way you can win a fair fight...
>Fight like a King, a not very particularly strong one but a fair one...
>Take one of your classmates hostage/human shield, who will it be?...
>Fight defensively, maybe you can tire out your opponent, it's risky though...
>Make fun of Gawain as a lesbian simp, surely enraging the opponent will be to your advantage...
>write in

>>5913564
>>Make fun of Gawain as a lesbian simp, surely enraging the opponent will be to your advantage...

>>5913564
>Fight like a King, a not very particularly strong one but a fair one...

>>5913564

Between the latest revelations and this jackass attacking all of a sudden I don't feel the MC has many fucks left to give.

>Make fun of Gawain as a lesbian simp, surely enraging the opponent will be to your advantage...

This should trigger A True Heart, from there we can pull some dirty trick more easily.

>>5913564
>Make fun of Gawain as a lesbian simp, surely enraging the opponent will be to your advantage...

I'll leave up the vote for longer, but it appears people want to make fun of Gawain is in the lead.

>>5913564
>Fight back, fight dirty! No way you can win a fair fight...

>>5914327
sorry by longer, I mean I will post tomorrow.

>>5913564
>Make fun of Gawain as a lesbian simp, surely enraging the opponent will be to your advantage...

>>5915811
>>5914350
>>5914026
>>5913865
>>5913834
>>5913681
I shall taunt you!

>>5913564
>Make fun of Gawain as a lesbian simp, surely enraging the opponent will be to your advantage...

Is it common for you knights to swing your swords without introductions like common brigands?
Or is it because the girl you like is here that you can't think straight?

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Typically, the default choice is to talk and try to convince people to cooperate with you or shift them to a more positive direction. Negotiating and communication are never a bad thing.

However, if an asshole is hellbent on beating the crap out of you no matter what, then trying to make peace is pointless. There are then two options if you still insist on 'peace'. Run away and hope that time will cool off tempers, or surrender and hope that your passiveness will blunt their thirst for your blood.

With the sheer speed of Gawain's slashing blade and the damage it wrecks, you are reluctant to try the 'surrender' route. In addition, this dumb lesbian bitch really pisses you off. She's toying with you; her self-confidence in eventually defeating you is telegraphed with every blow you barely manage to fend off with Frostbind.

And she sparkles! How the fuck can she sparkle? Or maybe your mistaking fear for arousal and it's creating delusions of how hot this battle-crazy beauty is. In between blows, you catch a glimpse of your three unfortunate classmates being dragged along for the ride. You can't help but notice the effect Gawain has on Miki and Haruhi. The two girls are clearly blushing and ogling Gawain, while Kyouya is hilariously grumpy-looking and speaks to them about something.

Why are those two blushing? What are the odds that two of your classmates are attracted to women?... You refuse to believe you have a thing for another chick. If you remember correctly from your gay uncle, the odds are one out of ten that someone is gay. Therefore, in your class of forty kids, the odds are maybe four of them are gay. You have some suspicions about certain classmates, and they're not among the three girls trapped in this world.

"Sirrah, good King, this battle will be over soon if you don't pick up the pace! Or else I, Gawain, shall be victor!" Gawain boasts and does a particularly fancy looking attack to knock you back. It creates a bit of distance between you and her. An opportunity to use your skills! You don't usually act like a stereotypical mean girl, but it was time to jam the proverbial finger into an enemy's eye. Pissing off the enemy might help by making her careless.

Also, you have some suspicions about Gawain's charming personality. You can use it to get the other three girls to help anger the Knight more.

"Oh, shut up, you thirsty lesbian simp! Let me guess, all the straight girls are disgusted by your advances, so you wished for special powers to pull in any girl that catches your fancy? Because I'm pretty sure Haruhi and me is straight... Sorry, Miki, I don't know you well enough to comment because you just transferred in."

This causes Gawain to pause in her attacks.

Auto success!

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>>5916186
"So with your special date rape magical power, you find Kyouya isn't affected. That can't be! Your ego can't take it! It has to work after all those other girls drape themselves over you. You need to simp and throw your attention at her to gain her affection since your bullshit powers aren't working."

"Shut up! My charming personality is not a 'date rape magical power'!" Gawain shouts with rage. This denial is undermined straight away; something from her aura pulses outwards and gives you a weird feeling of attraction.

An angry Gawain is pretty damn fetching. You totally want her to throw you on the ground and leer over you... Okay, yeah, that's pretty damn scary. You were just flinging shit accusations out to piss her off, but this might be an actual ability she has.

Your three classmates are stunned by your suspicions and look warily at Gawain. That seems to be more effective than any words you could lob at the battle-hungry Knight to anger her. A silence in which you could hear a pin drop ensues for a few seconds.

"Why not? A lesbian with magical mind-bending powers of some sort." Haruhi mutters, relieved that there's an explanation for her feelings.

"That's a pretty fucking creepy power, if you ask me. What the hell!?" Miki blushes are replaced with a blush of anger at the very notion.

"We have a magical girl villainess who wants to drain us of Mana, and on the other hand, a magical girl heroine with probable mind-rape powers of some sort. I want out of this situation..." Kyouya groans with despair.

It is Kyouya's comment that pushes Gawain over the edge.

"I assure you that it is not a 'mind rape power'; it merely amplifies... Oh, never mind! First, I have to make you eat your words, King Lot! Fair Kyouya, I pledge to do chivalrous deeds in thy name for a mere token of your affection."

You know a trait of Gawain! Trait: Knight of Maidens. Defender and charmer of women, bonus when pledging your blade to a maiden.

"I don't want your pledge; I just want to get the fuck out of here!" Kyouya angrily shouts back.

Pledge rejected by the maiden. Bonus lost!

Oh, wow. You didn't expect that to happen. You figure that you'd piss Gawain off enough to make her careless, not that it would have an actual depowering effect. The aura of the enemy dampens, but it doesn't give much comfort. Instead of enraged carelessness, you get a hyper-focused Gawain attacking three times faster! The dancing enemy blade cuts a shallow wound into your forearm when you couldn't retreat fast enough from a blow, and deep notches are etched into the handle of your spear. It's a good thing this spear is made of ice; you can instantly repair the damage with your abilities.

>>5916191
There is no way you can win if you fight fair. Time for some dirty tricks!

Dice is 7d6! 1 anon must roll 3d6, two anons must roll 2d6.

>Make a patch of ice to cause Gawain to slip...
>Pretend to attack one of your classmates, throw a harmless ice block to distract...
>Toss your blood into Gawain's eyes, she won't expect that!...
>Order the Baphomet to give combat support! Two opponents on one, no reason for this to be one on one!...
>Let Gawain cut your spear in half, and counterattack during the unexpected breakage...
>write in....

Rolled 2, 3, 4 = 9 (3d6)

>>5916195
>Make a patch of ice to cause Gawain to slip...

Rolled 5, 5 = 10 (2d6)

>>5916195
>Make a patch of ice to cause Gawain to slip...

Rolled 2, 4 = 6 (2d6)

>>5916195
>>Let Gawain cut your spear in half, and counterattack during the unexpected breakage...

So we have 'Make a patch of ice' with two votes and 'weapon breakage' with one vote.
If one more anon votes for 'patch with ice' with a roll of 2d6, then it'll be the winner.

Rolled 6, 1 = 7 (2d6)

>>5916195
>Make a patch of ice to cause Gawain to slip...
Moving along, the janitor will come shortly to fix the wet floor.

>>5916195
>Make a patch of ice to cause Gawain to slip...

>>5916621
>>5916593
>>5916470
>>5916345
>>5916224
3 successes out of 7 dice
Does the trick though.

>>5917257
>"Be careful Gawain, you look like you're on thin ice!"

>>5917541
>"Be careful Gawain, you look like you're on thin ice!"

Hm, I just finished writing but I'll see if I can stick that in the post.

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In terms of pure combat ability, Gawain blows you out of the water. There's just no comparison to be made; you can't even strike back at her. All you can do is defend... and fight dirty.

Yesterday, you thought that ability to form ice whenever wanted as utterly useless. A neat parlor trick to entertain yourself or supply some fresh water, nothing more.

Beira, the Cailleach: You have the ability to form ice; it could get stronger.

Today, it's an essential element of your plan for victory.

"Stand still, cur!" Gawain shouts with frustration at your constant retreating. "Don't drag out your agony like this!"

She is so focused on defeating you that she barely seems aware that you are leading her closer to the ledge of the crater. You've earned a few nicks and scratches from the whirling blade of the enemy; small driblets of blood trickle down your arm and chest. You don't have armor on. You're just wearing the overly large clothing of Fushimi Miki while fighting against a fully armored opponent.

"Be careful Gawain, you look like you're on thin ice!" You quip and give a nasty grin at the girl.

You're close enough to the ledge now. You raise your spear at your opponent and point it at her, ready to parry. There's no more room to retreat, and Gawain's eyes flash with triumph as she takes a lunge forward to strike.

That lunge is what you've been waiting for.

A slick patch of ice is instantly formed where Gawain's feet are supposed to land. As you knock the arc of the enemy's blade to the side, step out of the way. Gawain scarcely knows what is happening; the energy from her advance causes her to slip and slide over the frictionless ice. You use your powers to keep extending the patch of ice to the ledge.

"Do you think such a thing will defeat me!?" Gawain screams as she manages to jump off the ice before she topples over the ledge.

Just barely.

The way the other Knight swings her arms in circles, trying to rebalance herself, looks so ridiculous that laughter escapes from you. Gawain is too busy trying to not fall over the ledge to do anything against you; it looks like she's about to correct herself and fall back into safety.

You can't have that.

Flaw: Always Someone Better - You have a tendency of gloating and enjoying the sight of people you've defeated. Particularly over those who are superior to you in something.

With a smile on your lips and a song in your heart, you take your spear butt and give the Knight of Maidens a very gentle poke in the ribs. It could not be properly called a blow; it's far too gentle. The energy behind it is more like the gentle caress of a cat rubbing against your legs.

That little, itty-bitty push is enough to cause Gawain to lean towards the ledge and then over it.

For one second, the world seems to go completely still. The wide eyes of shock, the expression of horror on her face, and the way her body seems to float in the air are forever captured in your memories.

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>>5917578
Then Gawain plunges downward like a stone.

"OW!"
*SMASH*
"SHI-!"
*CRASH*
"DAMN YOU----!"
*BANG*
"LLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTT!"

It's like a cartoon. Curses cut short and punctuated by a body smashing into the cliff face, the sounds of crashing stones to accompany vows of vengeance, angry nonsense screams, and shouts by the luckless Magical Girl go on for a good minute or so. You even dare to glance over the ledge to see how the enemy fares on her trip downward. It doesn't seem that the fall is battering your enemy too badly; after all, the stupid lesbian has enough energy to continue swearing and cursing until she hits the very bottom of the crater.

A rushing pillar of energy shoots upward into the sky.

Gawain screams in vain as she is transported upwards into the sky, where a strange crest suddenly appears: "NOOOOOOO!!! I CAN'T LOSE HERE!!!"

The tiny figure of the angry Knight raging and shaking her fists in frustration is hilarious, like a tiny doll jerking about on invisible strings striving to become free.

Unfortunately, you might have gloated over your victory a bit too much.

"Your Majesty, you are triumphant! But lo, you must act quickly! The maidens are fleeing!" Your guide shouts as he points to Kyouya, Haruhi, and Miki running away. The stony boulder litter ground is clearly impeding their escape as they must climb or go around large rocks.

Oh yeah, you forgot about those three.

"Quickly! MEEP! We must harvest the precious Mana from them. Then we can return them back into the World, none the wiser," the guide pulls out a sickle from his backpack and with great agility scrambles over the stones after the fleeing girls.

You sigh and issue your orders, "stop guide, I'm not going to victimize them. Return them back where they belong."

The Baphomet slides to a stop in despair.

"But, but they won't even remember what happened here... MEEP! MEEP! MANA!!!" He croaks and waves his walking stick and sickle in the air at the escaping girls.

"I'll not say it twice, Your King commands it," you bark out your order.

"Aye, it shall be as you wish... Meep..." The guide droops in defeat and waves his hand. Three pillars light shine down on the girls, and begin lifting them upwards to the sky. You see the three flailing in the air in panic and watch until they wink out of sight.

It is only you and the guide on tourney grounds now.

You've got questions, you are going to grill the guide! Afterwards you'll...

>Order the guide to take you back to Camelot...
>Explore the tourney grounds a bit...
>Order the guide to take you back Japan, you need confirm no one remembers you...
>Order the guide to take you somewhere in the World...
>Order the guide to take you somewhere in Avalon...
>write in

>>5917581
>>Order the guide to take you somewhere in the World...

>>5917581
GG ez fight, git gud scrub.

>ask the meeps-a-lot to explain mana and stuff, why nobody remembers us and then we can decide if we want to entertain this "harvesting mana" escapade of his.

>>5917581
>Order the guide to take you somewhere in Avalon...

>>5917581
>>Order the guide to take you somewhere in the World...

>>5917673
+1

>>5917581
>Order the guide to take you somewhere in Avalon...

>>5918343
>>5918215
>>5917856
>>5917848
>>5917673
>>5917671
Hm, we have a tie.
Also, you're already going to grill the guide after this, so emphasizing it again as a choice is odd.

>>5918548
Crap I checked in too late, I'll leave the vote open for tonight as I watch the Sailor Scouts die again on tv. Sorry I started watching Sailor Moon again.

>>5918548
Ah my bad, it seems it slipped my notice.
But in my defense asking directions now before knowing the why and how is a bit strange too.

How do we compare with other monsters of Avalon? i assume Gawain isn't the pinnacle of the food chain there, so it would be prudent to harvest mana from humans, or is it more dangerous because of hidden protectors and the world fighting back? Or it's morally dubious?
What are the side effects of mana harvesting? Etc.. etc..

>>5917581
>>Order the guide to take you somewhere in Avalon...

>>5919038
TIE BREAK
off to avalon after you squeeze info

Sorry for the delay, I fell down some stairs. I don't recommend it. Shall post tomorrow.

>>5919849
stay safe
I just caught up to the quest again after putting it on hold for a while

If we can make portals around the world, is it possible to go on some raiding tours?

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Today has been a terrible day. Despair hasn't beaten your soul black and blue with a metaphorical lead pipe yet. It's probably because you don't quite fully understand how deep you are in the well of 'things fucking suck'. Once you get the full picture, you'll probably fall to your hands and knees, cursing whatever gods decided to ruin your life.

Your guide is about to pack away his little silver sickle; he had been waving that thing about when chasing after your classmates.

"Hey, let me see that," you say, pointing at the implement. The guide obliges and hands you the sickle; it's made of silver and has strange runes written all over. It's fancy looking. Light. You run your finger over the blade and feel it cut into your skin effortlessly. This could easily cut flesh.

"Tis the Mana reaper I use. I keep it sharp so it'll gather as quick as a twitch," the Baphomet sounds mightily proud of it. You imagine, for a moment, the guide hacking away at the undefended flesh of Kyouya with the blade and recoil at the thought.

"My dear goat, I'm going to ask you to start educating me about every little thing about Mana, Relics, and Quests... and why everyone has forgotten about me."

The guide begins with Quests, which is a fancy term used to describe of attacking places and people for Mana and Relics.

"Why not just call it a raid or something more specific? When I hear the word Quest, I think of some sort of adventure or exploration of some unknown place," you are quibbling over the terminology.

"Meep? Well, we could try to make an effort to differentiate a Quest a bit more if you would like. So, er, this we could properly term a raiding Quest?" The poor Baphomet is trying its best to satisfy your desire for more precise terminology.

You'll probably have to get back to Camelot, hammer out the specifics with Hanbei, and propagate new ways to describe forays like this. It's pointless to do that now with just one of your servants.

Relics can literally be any old object with a story or history attached to it. Anything from a very well-loved family teddy bear to valuable historical items like, say, the Masamune. There's only one problem: it's really hard to figure out if something is a Relic worth stealing and destroying. Even vaunted and storied items like famous samurai swords are not guaranteed to provide anything more than scrap metal when broken down.

"Wait, so if I stole something like a Masamune sword and tossed it in the 'crucible' to extract Mana, there's no guarantee that it was worth taking the damn thing? You know, I seem to remember a bunch of museums getting broken into last year. So someone from Avalon stole a bunch of Relics and tried to see if they could gain Mana from it?" You remember the news going on about a crime spree that was emptying out Japan's most famous museums. There was speculation that it was the work of a crew of art thieves.

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>>5921098
"I recall taking Relics with Ser Rodomonte and Lord Mordred. Mixed results. We would take truly beautiful ones and melt them down, only to discover that there was nothing for our efforts. Meep. Though occasionally, we found a Relic that resulted in an incredible bounty! Oh, those were festive days of celebration." The guide seems lost in memory of the successes he had with Relics. A dreamy look of ecstasy.

The next subject is Mana. The way the guide describes Mana reminds you of how Qi is described. An intangible energy or vital force that runs through all living beings that apparently most people can't tap into at all. It's not quite connected to your life force. Being completely drained of Mana damages your ability to generate it, but it doesn't impair a person's life overly much. However, in the same breath, the guide notes that completely draining a person of Mana multiple times is likely going to kill them. So you're going to assume that draining a person of all their Mana is not healthy for the victim.

"Can't you just drain Mana from animals?" You try to figure out if there's a way around targeting people.

"The amount of Mana from the effort isn't worth it. Lord Mordred did not like draining Mana from humans, so she tried dangerous animals of all sorts, from bears to dragons. Animals from the World are too weak, while creatures here in Avalon give Mana in abundance but are very dangerous. She preferred to go after Relics," the guide pauses and looks at the sky over the tourney ground. "Meep, we must leave the tourney grounds now. Where shall I take you next?"

You too look upwards at the sky to see what he sees and note that the sky is turning gray. Then you turn your attention to the rocks and river below and see that they are starting to turn into a dreamy haze of mist.

You pause and think it over for a moment before answering, "somewhere in Avalon."

The little goat man takes you on a gigantic rock and begins drawing a door with chalk. Unfortunately, due to his height, he draws it as very large for a Baphomet and not for a human girl such as yourself. When he jumps in through his chalk drawing, you are forced to bend down a bit and walk through after him.

An odd sensation takes hold as you pass through it. It is like walking through a gigantic pile of jelly; stickiness crawls over your skin and then disappears. When you stand up to your full height, another breathtaking sight reveals itself to you. Off in the distance, the red sun is dipping below the horizon and painting the sea with its dying rays, and many small outlaying islands are planted all around. No matter which direction you look, more craggy, rocky islands reveal themselves. A wind blows, gentle and constant.

>>5921099
"We shall camp here for the night. I shall take our bearings by observing the stars and Luna." With that, the guide begins setting up camp and continues his explanation of a "Lost Child". The long and short of it, as he busies with starting a fire, is that Avalon claims something of the World. Once claimed, the World simply erases the very memory of it.

"Lord Mordred learned the hard way. She brought her father to Camelot in the hopes that he would remember her. An unmitigated disaster, the man thought she was mad. Ran away back to the World almost immediately. Meep. Of course, once he returned, he promptly forgot that Lord Mordred had kidnapped him in the first place. Those who haven't gone widderinshin never remember their time here. Thy mother, father, brothers, sisters, friends, and lovers... Aye, all knowledge of your existence is taken," the guide starts cooking up a meal. There's nothing for you to do but sit and listen to this disheartening information.

"Is there nothing that can be done to fix that?" You feel depression taking hold. A lonely gull cries as they land somewhere to rest for the night.

"Meep. Not unless ye can take back from Avalon what belongs to you. First is your name, the second is the Geas, and the third, well, the third is a mystery."

You dig into your backpack and get out all four survival booklets. Opening them, you find the names in them.

Nagumo Kyouya, Tatemichi Haruhi, Yanagi Naomi, and a thank you message to Fushimi Miki.... By a girl whose name is Kuroda Haruka.

Something comes over you. Tears well up as you laugh hysterically with joy. You have your name back! You don't have to run around calling yourself King Lot of Lothian and Orkney.

"AHAHAHA! I think part one of taking back what's mine from Avalon is done!" You show the guide the booklet.

"MEEP! HIP HIP HOORAY!" The guide dances with joy. You take the little hands of your guide into your own and start dancing around the fire. "Then the next is the Geas. You must discover what you need to do! Somewhere in Avalon, there is the Lady of the Lake. Seek her, and beseech her for help! Oh, poor Lord Mordred tried to so hard to find her name again. Meep. You are so lucky, Your Majesty."

It's been a long day, the night is in full force. Further explanations will have to come later, the guide needs to take his bearing from the stars.

"Meep. Tis as I thought, we are in Dragon's Run. Very close to Camelot." The guide announces just as you are about to bed down.

Hm, the map had 'here be dragons'. Maybe you can hunt them! Or maybe you should go back to Camelot... You still have questions about the Lady of the Lake... oh and that stupid lesbian Gawain. There were "Knights of the Round Table" and Merlin and Arthur....

You drift off to sleep.

>You jolt awake to the sound of roars!...
>Your cellphone starts ringing....
>You have a weird dream...
>You are shaken awake by the guide...
>You wake up in the morning to the sound of drums...

>>5921104
>>You have a weird dream...

>>5921104
>You have a weird dream...

>>5921104
>>You have a weird dream...

>>5921104
>>You wake up in the morning to the sound of drums...

>>5921104
>>You have a weird dream...

>>5921104
>You wake up in the morning to the sound of drums...

Drums! Drums in the deep!...

>>5921150
>>5921240
>>5921274
>>5921308
>>5921624
>>5921814
Weird dream it is.

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The sand is a much better bed to lie on than the cold, stony ground near Camelot. The guide had taken care to hide your camp in a small depression to disguise your fire and presence. You aren't getting used to sleeping outside all that much though.

So you know you're dreaming again.

Last time, Nagumo Kyouya completely demolishing you in shogi and letting you discover how much you love to lord over your victory over losers. You are aware it's a failing of yours, but, damn it, it feels so great!

This time, you are dreaming about your cat sitting on the living room table back at your home and looking very comfy. A calico female cat. When you named her Kizaemon, you were unaware that calico cats are mostly female and gave her an aggressively manly name. Your older brother, Touma, made fun of you over that. You eventually took revenge by training the cat to wake him up early every morning to be fed.

Kizaemon looks unusually satisfied and cute laying there. The room is an exact copy of the living room of your house.

This dream might just be ordinary.

"Ordinary? My honored presence appears in thy dreams, and you consider it a sign of commonplace ordinariness?!" Kizaemon hisses at the very thought and displays her sharp claws at you. "Mayhap I should teach thee the proper respect and deference due to the true Dame of the Kuroda clan."

Your cute cat sounds like an overwrought actress from a bad samurai drama show. It's probably a consequence of leaving the television on with those types of shows as background noise. You don't know what to say to placate your cat as she rises up from her resting position on the table and approaches you. She's usually such a loving, placid kitty.

"Whoa there, Ki-chan, I---" You can't finish your sentence because the fur on her back gets up, offended by your casualness, and she interrupts you.

"Ki-chan!? Only trusted servants may address me as that. Stranger, you dare to offend me with thy unwashed presence and then insult me? This is my shima, my imperial demesne and I will not have it violated."

So not even your own pet cat remembers you in your dreams... Actually, you have bigger problems to worry about. The cat is growing larger. Earlier, she had been the size of a housecat; now she's about the size of a large dog and growing bigger.

There's the sound of many light feet, and through the paper, you see the shadows cast dramatically. Then the paper shoji dividers slam open theatrically and reveal a sight. Cats. Typically, seeing so many of them would leave you cooing with delight, but the mood of these felines fills you with dread instead.

It's an army of cats...

A very large and angry army of cats.

Their eyes glow, their ears flat, and their tails are spikey and quivering. You know they await the order of the now gigantic Kizaemon to launch their attack.

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>>5922227
"Peace, I am but a poor girl inferior to your obvious feline superiority. I surrender." It is a good thing you're very good at talking. But most importantly, it's hard to feel angry at your pet forcing you to praise and flatter her. It's probably because she's so damn cute and you always heap praise upon her for the most normal things.

"Hmph, better. But what would be best stranger, is if you leave!" Kizaemon hisses and takes a step closer. As if on cue, the army of cats behind her also takes a step forward. You take a step backward as a result and discover there's no floor to receive your retreating feet. You start falling backwards into a darkness while above the shining living room of your home gets smaller and smaller.

Your eyes open. The sun has barely peeked over the horizon to reveal it is morning. The guide is using flint and steel to start another fire.

"Good mornin' Your Majesty!" The guide sounds very cheerful and serves up some bread and cheese for breakfast.

What a weird dream.

"Ah, guide, I've got more questions." You take a great big bite out of the bread and chew slowly.

The Lady of the Lake is your first one. The guide can only give the vaguest descriptions of what exactly she is and has no idea where she might be. The guide speculates that she is a servant of Avalon. Though the religious nutters of the Rightful King Society believe that she is Avalon and Avalon is her. So some sort of avatar enacting the will of this world?

"I only know she exists and can speak of various secrets of this world. Talking to her will reveal your Geas. Meep. Hm, how do I describe a Geas? A fate? A vow? A prohibition? A restriction? A destiny? No, no, that doesn't quite work. But be careful, Your Majesty; breaching your Geas even in ignorance has terrible consequences." The guide has packed everything up and is ready to go. He sits on a log and kicks his goaty hoofs.

"Wait, I have some sort of weird thing I have to not violate or fulfill, but I have no idea what it is? That's ridiculous!"

Ridiculous or not, the guide firmly declares this is the way of Avalon. As for Gawain and the other members of the "Knights of the Round Table" such as Merlin and Arthur...

"What do you mean, you don't know if they're who they claim they are?" You were surprised by the guide's claim after recalling that he was lucky to survive the battles between the group against Rodomonte and Mordred. The magical girls are monstrously powerful combat nuts, and there are five of them to contend with.

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>>5922228

"Your Majesty, I can only report what I personally witnessed. Meep. They have never been called by Avalon. They belong to the World, never having been a Lost Child. They're a complete mystery to me. It should not be possible to be blessed and fight as a Wizard, King or Knight. They are supposedly 'Gawain', 'Gareth', 'Lancelot', 'Merlin', and 'Arthur' but, by the pricking of my horns, I don't believe they are who they claim they are. They think they are. I think they're imposters. Meep. Egads, don't mention that to the Society. They'll skin me alive if they hear what I just said!" The Baphomet sweats at the terrible consequences at the hands of his fellows.

"And why would they do that?"

"Because I am claiming 'Arthur' is not King Arthur. Dread Argeste offers Camelot to anyone who will fight to keep the city. Just because he offered it to someone claiming to be 'Arthur' doesn't actually mean she is King Arthur." The guide looks incredibly stressed and nervous as he explains to you, his sovereign and King, his thoughts on the matter. It is clearly something he does not want shared with his fellow Baphomets.

You need to convince this little goat that he's not going to be betrayed. "Be assured, this will be something I will keep in confidence between myself and you. Not even Hanbei will know of your suspicions. Though I wonder if Hanbei suspects it too."

"I doubt mightily that any of my comrades has dared to consider the very idea of it, Seneschal Hanbei included. I have been betwixt the World and Avalon dozens of times now. Islands to the east, the edge of the world, Florida, and..."

"Huh, Florida? Wait, you mean, the USA? Are you saying I can go anywhere in the World? Like Hawaii?"

For a moment, you dream of the warm sands of Hawaii. You always wanted to go overseas.

"I do not know of this Hawaii you speak of. But if you have visited this Hawaii before and are willing to pay the price of mana, I can find a gate to take you there. But please, for the love of the Lady, not Florida. Florida was terrible. Rodomonte had been to that dangerous land once before becoming a Lost Child and wished to rob an old guestfriend of his Relics. The man did not appreciate the attempted theft. What did he say again? 'Broke into the wrong god damn 'wreck room', didnae ye, ya bastard?' and unleashed something unholy from his thunder metal. The attack was called the 'Second Amendment', apparently all monsters called Americans possess it."

"Americans are humans. They have these things called guns and.... Damn, I guess Hawaii is out then. I've never been there before."

"The further away you wish to go, the higher the price in Mana. But if ye have never been to the land before, it will be very expensive and potentially very dangerous."

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>>5922229
It is time to make a decision on what you want to do today. There's enough food with the guide for one more day but after you'll be forced to return to Camelot for resupply.

>Let's hunt some dragons!...
>Let's go to another island in Avalon...
>Let's try stealing a Relic from Japan...
>Let's grab a person and harvest some Mana...
>Let's go back to Tokyo in Japan, you want to see your family...
>Let's try to explore Dragon's Run a bit more...

>>5922231
>>Let's grab a person and harvest some Mana...
just some office workers

>>5922231
>>Let's grab a person and harvest some Mana...

>>5922231
>Let's go back to Tokyo in Japan, you want to see your family...

>>5922231
>Let's grab a person and harvest some Mana...

Plenty of terrible people to steal Mana from if we want to lessen the moral burden.

And we should visit the Lady of the Lake asap to know what our Geas is.

>>5922290
>>5922310
>>5922332
>>5922364
Time to victimize completely unsuspecting people

will post tomorrow. Ran out of time, and tired.

>>5922843
Karma comes in mysterious ways, this time it's a mythological figure overlaid on a highschool girl and a goat muppet with a sickle.

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So the most reliable method of finding Mana is draining people. If you're careful and don't drain them dry, it shouldn't harm them at all. More importantly, it reassures you of something.

"When I first arrived in Avalon, the train conductor was attacked by a gigantic creepy bug. It had a face on its back. Does that mean he got drained of Mana but is still alive?!" You shudder, recalling the first day you arrived in this world. The ungodly screams of the conductor were the stuff of nightmares.

"Eh, a Janus Bleeder? Well, if that human was completely drained of Mana and it's the first time, then they should be alive. It would take a few days to recover from the attack, but no more than that." The guide reassures you and confirms your supposition.

You feel an intense relief and burst of happiness. All this time, you thought he died right in front of you.

"Good to know. Now, with that out of the way, I propose to try and drain someone of Mana. But not completely drain, you hear. Partial drain, so we don't hurt them. Who is the best source of Mana?"

There is a long pause from the guide, who squirms at your question.

"The best sources of Mana are children under the age of 10," your guide quietly informs you. He's so quiet, you almost didn't hear what he said.

It is remarkably hard to keep calm.

"And how did you figure that little fact out?" You keep your voice level and soft.

"Ser Rodomonte did. He preferred little girls since they tend to be very docile and meek compared to little boys. He----" The guide has more to say about the matter, but you lose your cool.

"AND YOU LET THAT HAPPEN!?" You shout at your guide.

"Meep. Your Majesty, Baphomets are loyal servants to the King of Camelot. Meep. Our very nature, nay, our existence, is loyalty to the King. Meep. It takes a lot to go against our Geas and disobey. Meep. The Anarcho-Syndicalist faction are Baphomets who somehow survived the backlash of breaking that. In fact, you could say those rebels are not Baphomets but something new. Meep. A disloyal Baphomet should not be possible; Avalon unmakes them. Meep. Tis why the Longship Meeps and the Society are still compelled to obey thee!"

A loyalty born of compulsion is no loyalty at all.

Also.... Dear god, what kind of asshole goes after little kids? Specifically, little girls?

"Guide, tell me what you know of Rodomonte." You need more details.

>>5923728
King Rodomonte of Sarza and Algiers is a truly powerful King. Able to fight against all five members of the 'Knights of the Round Table' to a standstill. A boy of age 17 who had been wandering the dangerous seas on a raft and going island to island until he arrived in Camelot. He had been trapped in Avalon for half a year all alone, and it clearly had not been a kind journey. It made the boy vengeful and ruthless as well as a touch insane. The harshness of his time in Avalon had honed his fighting ability to a level of competency far beyond your present reach. Obsessed with gaining more power to improve himself, he ruthlessly went on Quests whenever he could. The only reason he didn't slaughter all the Baphomets was because it was more efficient to use them to travel back and forth between Avalon and the World. Also, he enjoyed the luxury of having someone tend to his needs, like food and clean clothing.

He is one of the bigger reasons why the Knights of the Round Table attack anyone who comes from Avalon. Eventually, he hit on the idea of attacking the same group of vulnerable children at an orphanage over and over and over. It helped him avoid attention from his enemies. It's how the guide knows that draining the same human of all their Mana repeatedly over the course of time can potentially kill someone. Since the children were orphans, barely anyone cared if they got sick at all, died, or mysteriously disappeared. It was a stroke of pure luck that he was exiled from Camelot to somewhere else by the mysterious Damsel.

The last time he had been seen was nearly four months ago. Mordred had disappeared from Camelot two months ago. So there's a good chance that the two have gotten more powerful and gained new powers since they last been seen.

You learned all of Rodomonte's traits up until his exile from Camelot!

Nimrod's Descendant, Bridge Tribute, Furiosa, Boasting and Bragging, Endurance, Canto of Legends, Punish the Apostate, Cavaliere, Let the Bells Ring, etc etc etc

WHAT SORT OF BULLSHIT POWERGAMER IS THIS GUY?!

Mordred must be one hell of a warrior too! She managed to defeat this guy repeatedly! Also, the 'Damsel' who defeated Rodomonte must be all powerful too, because, holy crap!!!

"I have suspicions that the mysterious Damsel had the assistance of certain Baphomets within Camelot. Meep. Rodomonte found his name somehow; I know not how he managed that. But he was trying to find the Lady of the Lake to know what his Geas was. I was not his guide during those journeys. The guide during those Quests is the leader of the Anarcho-Syndicalists."

Ah, the Chairman is pretty damn justified in becoming a communist then. Anyway, enemy number one is likely not the magical girls who make up the KORT. It's Rodomonte.

You sigh and rub your face in frustration. "Hey guide.... You know what? I'm going to give you a name too. It'll be Yatagarasu."

>>5923730

Yatagarasu prostates before you like a samurai warrior and then raises his head off the ground with tears in his eyes.

"I'm so honored to be deemed worthy of a name! I, Yatagarasu, shall serve thee unto death."

You need to select a victim...

>write in...

>>5923731
>write in...
You have a specific list of assholes you had to smile and make pretty to in your normal life... now that same list just found a second use.

Also Rodomonte is a blackguard amongst blackguards holy shit.

>>5923731
>A corrupt japanese CEO responsible for taking advantage of workers and promoting the hostile work environments that drive so many to suicide.
Personal vengeance is good and all, but what if we could actually make a difference? Work through the list of top tier scumbags that make Japan actively worse. The people who sign off on pollution, who lay off hundreds of employees right before the holidays, who demand extreme overtime, etcetera.
They're going to be harder targets. But their importance to society might beget them greater amounts of Mana than normal.

>>5923778
So you suggest directly going death note on a national scale then, not bad...
But i'm not sure our protagonist is sociopathic enough for such a thing, though as teenagers do she might just try to be edgy.

>>5923731
street thug/petty criminal

Wow fuck Rodomonte. Literally the worst.

>>5923731
I support this Anon >>5923736. It is called Mahou Shoujo Villainess Quest, after all.

That said, once we have a better grasp on harvests and capacities we might go for higher level targets. While bound to attract more attention, I imagine that making a name for ourselves in the World might give us titles, which seems a way to get power-ups if the whole medieval fantasy shtick is anything to go by.

>>5923731
>>5923778
this one
we should start keeping notes of what type of person yields what type and amount of mana

>>5923731
The boy we had a crush on

>>5924459
>>5924252
>>5924094
>>5923983
>>5923778
>>5923736
Our girl can do petty but death note style reaping is probably a bit too much for her to take.
Hell, she's going to have a hard time with just going down the list of people she don't like for good reason because attacking and hurting people is hard to do unless you have a lack of empathy and compassion.

Hopefully, I can post tonight, I got home late after work.

>>5924459
You genius, we can literally do a confession or maybe steal his first kiss and then reap his magic and memories.

...we could do it to any pretty boy we see!

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You have a list, and you're checking it twice, like a Santa about to deliver some coal to some bad people. When you go down your mental list of people who deserve bad things to happen to them, you come to an unwelcome conclusion.

Damn.

Your mother is right.

You do hold grudges for a really long time... But at least it's against people who deserve it!

Like your aunt's former husband, who beat the shit out of her for daring to leave him and somehow getting away with it. Or that one asshole kid who decided it was a great idea to bully your little cousin. Or the NHK fee collector guy who keeps bugging your family all the damn time. Or that punk playing his annoying rock music at full blast and annoying everyone in the neighborhood. Or the group of mean girls who pranked you into believing the most popular guy in school wanted to go out with you....

Nagumo Kyouya for being a jerk and constantly undermining your authority, but she did try to get those stupid fucking magical girls to realize you weren't on the train and rescue you! And she even inadvertently helped by causing Gawain to depower a little. Hm, she's an edge case. You'll put her off the list... for now.

You have a range of people in various occupations, ages, and genders to try and harvest Mana from without feeling too guilty about it.

When you're in Japan, you can't go around using your powers too much. That causes some weird, painful backlash, according to Yatagarasu. The World tries to right itself and rejects what belongs to Avalon. So if you go about pulling flashy antics or stay in Japan too long, then things get very interesting.

"Rodomonte literally burst into flames because he stayed in Japan too long? That didn't kill the bastard?" You want to make sure you heard that right.

"Yes, Your Majesty! Staying in the World for over three days is risking death, just as gaining its attention is bad. The more the World must right itself, the greater the punishment. Once the maws of the World are done chewing you up, you'll be pitched back into Avalon somewhere. There's no telling where you'll end up," Yatagarasu is ready to go, and he has his walking stick out.

"Let's start slow and easy. One target at a time. And good news: they're all in Tokyo, so we don't have to open up a bunch of Gates. My main question is how we're going to disguise you. People are going to comment if they see a little goat guy walking around one of the biggest cities on Earth."

That's when Yatagarasu brings out a reusable shopping bag. The kind you see when people go to the supermarket and use it when bagging up their groceries.

"Already ahead of you, I was carried around in this bag. I pretend to be a doll or miniature pet goat while you carry me about."

"Good idea; whoever came up with that is smart."

There is a pause.

"... It was Ser Rodomonte... Children think Baphomets carried around in a bag are cute..."

Dear fucking god! You feel so unclean now.

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>>5925602
The Gate is drawn in sand with Yatagarasu's walking stick, and you bag up your guide before jumping in. The strange sensation of traveling from Avalon to Japan is brief. A sharp pain announces your arrival in an alleyway. It reminds you of a prick from a needle, but hundreds of them at the same time, and then it goes away very quickly. Apparently, when arriving in places with cameras or lots of people, Rodomonte and Mordred often felt this pain because the World was attempting to make your arrival seem natural. Places with no cameras or witnesses don't show this particular phenomenon, which explains the lack of pain you felt in that hotel in Asahikawa.

It's morning. The sound of a city coming alive with the morning commute of millions of Tokyoites greets your ear. The familiar sound of home, where you can never live again until you take back from Avalon what belongs to you.

The first target is your scumbag former 'uncle in law', the wife beater. Even if you can't use your spear or throw around a lot of ice, you still have access to your greater strength and endurance. His apartment is close by, and as a 'writer', he tends to stay at home while everyone else is scrambling to go to work. He lives alone, and his neighbors should all be out. According to Yatagarasu, fewer witnesses means that you have some wiggle room to use your ice powers if things go wrong and not cause a 'backlash'. The more witnesses, the faster the backlash builds.

When you arrive at the front door of the place, you realize that you don't have much of a plan at all. In your imagination, you just open the door, walk in, punch him in the face, and then drain. But Yatagarasu notes that if your victim makes too much of a fuss, it might attract the attention of others, thus forcing a transfer of the victim to Avalon or the Tourney Grounds to drain. Also, knocking people out with force isn't as easy as it sounds.

But the worst of this situation... is your nervousness. You are about to attack a human being and hurt them. You've never trained yourself in martial arts or any fighting skills, nor are you the sort to go about physically harming people. You've always used words or social jujitsu to get what you wanted out of people or put them down. Psychologically, you're unprepared, even though you need Mana for your survival.

Mana fuels your servants and travels. Mana can restore parts of Camelot and expand your powers. Mana is critical! And getting Mana on a reliable, regular basis is best done by attacking people. Relics can give a huge bonanza, but it's unreliable.

Yatagarasu notices your hesitation. You've been standing outside the apartment for the last minute with your hand on the doorknob.

>>5925603
"Steady, Your Majesty. It's your first attempt, but remember that reaping Mana once will not kill your victim. They will not remember the attack or the distress caused by it. Moreover, you ordered that I not reap all the Mana in them. You just need to keep them tied up or unable to escape while I show you the steps in the process."

Easy for the goat to say, he's an old hand at this!

You try the doorknob and see that the door is locked. But you can easily kick down the door or use your ice power to freeze the lock until it's brittle or just knock on it.

-1 dice to roll, a nervous greenhorn on her first mission.

What will you do?

>Select another victim? There are others out there you could reap Mana from!...
>Knock on the door, he'll come out to see who it is and then you'll attack him in the hallway.... roll 5d6
>Freeze the lock until it breaks and walk in quietly, hopefully he won't notice you're in until it's too late... roll 5d6
>Kick down the door with your new strength and charge in quickly to get it done fast, that way you won't have time to regret things... roll 5d6
>Don't use the front door, go around to the back of the building and get up to the balcony... roll 5d6
>Knock on the door, pretend you're from his publisher. Fool him to invite you in... roll 7d6 but it's going to be difficult


also
>Do you want to use Let No Insult Pass?

>>5925604
>Knock on the door, pretend to be a schoolgirl that's being stalked by some creep and needs to call her parents to come pick her up.
We're too young to pass for a publisher, I'd say. And this is the kind of thing that any reasonable person would allow, even if just letting a girl in to use the phone for a minute - and since it's a wife-beating uncle, he probably would think he has physical superiority so he wouldn't feel threatened. Bonus points if he's at all a pervert, since he might try to take advantage of the situation and would be especially willing to let us inside.

>Don't use it.

>>5925604
>>Knock on the door, he'll come out to see who it is and then you'll attack him in the hallway.... roll 5d6
>no

>>5925604
>>5925865
+1 to this vote
We weren't hesitating we were just devising a devious plan of attack, ...for sure.

>>5925865
Supporting

Rolled 1, 4, 2, 1, 5 = 13 (5d6)

>>5925604
>>5925865
I'll support this

and we haven't been insulted to even trigger that, or how do these things work?
and if dice are already in the option, should we immediately throw them?

>>5926005
Basically our character is touchy and prideful, and can easily take anything as an insult. She's aware it's a flaw and she needs to work on it, and in normal circumstances can work through it and calm down without anything bad happening.

Example one is her annoyance with her rival/sort of friend Kyouya. Even though all the other girl is doing is mildly bucking Haruka's authority and being a little disobedient, our teen girl villainess takes offense to it despite knowing that it's a pretty minor thing over all.

But 'Let No Insult Pass' is a magical power that basically is triggered by her emotional state and how she feels about a situation or person.
She regards her 'uncle in law's very existence as an offense because he beat his wife black and blue. Worse, as a kid, she saw the end results of the beating of her aunt and the fact that no one did anything to punish the man.

It works against Rodomonte too despite never meeting the guy. Just hearing about his antics targeting kids has slotted him into the reach of this ability because Haruka thinks he's a disgusting edgelord blackguard and an insult to humanity.

Our girl has a huge problem with wrath and pride, fitting for someone designated as 'King Lot'.

The dice by the choices are to show people what you get to roll in the future. It's basically a way for players to assess their chances on a choice.

>>5926010
I'm disconcerningly baffled by your quick and lengthly reply
thank you

>>5925865
>>5925880
>>5925960
>>5925985
>>5926005


>Knock on the door, pretend to be a schoolgirl that's being stalked by some creep and needs to call her parents to come pick her up.

Guess we're going to be devious.
Enough so that Crafty attacker: When making artful gambits and trickery in a fight, gain +2 dice to attack! It's not cheating, it's stratagem damn it! would get triggered.
Unforunately, I don't think I'll be able to post tonight, let's see how it goes.

Sorry, no post tonight.
My prior injuries from falling down stairs and twisting my ankle from being stupidly careless has caught up with me. Hopefully I will be able to make one last post and then a small break for a few days to do some rehab.

>You've never trained yourself in martial arts or any fighting skills
ancestor cry

Bashing down the door would be an easy and simple plan to get inside the apartment. Yet, it calls for such inelegant force and unnecessary effort; you'd rather keep the blunt force trauma exclusively focused on the wifebeater within.

Besides, there's a much easier way to get the door open.

You give the door a series of rapid, panicked knocks. It was time to put into action the plan.

A simple scenario, you're a poor girl being stalked by some creep and needs to call her parents to come pick her up. To give it an extra twist, you'll pretend you're a runaway way in over her head. It helps you look the part in the oversized clothing and backpack. That should tickle the fancy of the bastard—a vulnerable young girl potentially in his grasp. Once he lets you in and turns his back, then it's time to beat the shit out of him. Actually, maybe use some ice powers to seal his mouth shut while you tie him up and gag him.... then beat the shit out of him!

"Hello, can I help you?" A handsome man in his thirties opens the door. It's him. You can recognize his 'nice guy' handsome features anywhere. It astounds you how this asshole managed to hide his true nature for a year while your aunt dated him. Tamura Keisuke, 'writer', abusive dick and soon to be victim.

When you think about it, there were subtle hints that something was off about him. You remember that one time he commented unprompted about how he couldn't understand men who beat their own wives. Saying that 'hitting your own wife is like keying your own car'. The comment was off-putting. How can someone compare a loved one with a possession?

"Please, mister, you got to help me. I didn't know where to turn. Someone's after me." You remember to give your voice an edge of panic and fear. Before he can do anything, you take a step inside the apartment. You need to keep his attention on you. You try to make yourself look vulnerable and weak.

It works like a charm.

It's hard to describe the shift that comes over the abusive bastard. There's a certain light that flickers on in Keisuke's eyes as he quickly checks you out. You're a pretty girl, proud of your looks. More than a few boys commented on how they'd like to date you at school. However, a thirty-year-old dude openly checking you out so blatantly like this is creepy. It takes a significant effort to not look disgusted.

"Come in, I'll lock the door so no one can get you."

Oh wow, that sure doesn't sound ominous. The lock slides into place with a loud clack, a finality that there's no turning back.

"There. Come in and take a seat. Why don't I make you a drink, and then you can start telling me what's wrong. We can call your parents," the soothing, comforting voice of Keisuke and his brotherly smile doesn't fool you for a second.

>>5928197
"That's a good idea, mister; I'll go and do that." You don't even have to pretend to be reluctant. You're afraid of calling your mother and father and confirming that they remember nothing about you knowing who you are. You've been shying away from calling them through your cellphone.

It's here that your target turns his back on you. He's heading to the kitchen to make a drink.

"Tis now, Your Majesty." Yatagarasu whispers, the guide has been phenomenally patient and still in the shopping bag.


7d6

3 anons! One roll 3d6, the others 2d6!

In other news, I will be taking the next 4 days off to do some much needed physical exercise and take a break from writing. We'll be back on Tuesday, Feb 20!

Rolled 6, 3, 4 = 13 (3d6)

>>5928198

Rolled 6, 4 = 10 (2d6)

>>5928198

Rolled 1, 1 = 2 (2d6)

>>5928198

>>5928330
SHAMEFUR DISPRAY

>>5928330
Disgraceful

>>5928301
>>5928323
>>5928330
Just checking in, so we have 2 successes. Hm, this'll be a struggle.

>>5930454
yup

If your servant is suggesting attacking now while the target's back is turned, then you're going to assume it's the best course of action and do it.

You charge forward with the intent of knocking down Keisuke and then kicking him while he's defenseless on the ground.

It's a simple plan. However, you should know better than to expect things to be easy. No plan ever survives contact with the enemy, as they say.

The bastard turned around at exactly the wrong moment.

"Say, what would you like to drin----" He had a winning smile on his face when he turned to look back at you. That smile disappears in an instant as he sees you charging straight at him, and it transforms into disgust.

"You fucking bitch!" He shouts as he uses his greater reach and height to counter your charge. He takes a swing with his fist, and it smashes into your cheek. You can taste blood in your mouth, but the damage from the blow is minimal, and it only slows down your charge a little. In fact, you're surprised by how little pain you feel. Your head must be as hard as iron because, after the blow, Keisuke curses in pain from punching you.

Your charge to knock him down isn't enough. Even though you knock the wind out of him, he's still standing. Instantly, he starts grappling with you to take you down. Damn, he's loud! A series of curses erupt out of the man as you start punching him, and he realizes just how strong you are. This is not ideal; with the element of surprise gone, you are not dealing enough damage to overpower him.

"Your Majesty!" Yatagarasu shouts as he brandishes his sickle and awaits an opening to start slashing Keisuke, but the two of you are in a chaotic struggle, preventing any assistance. With a mighty shove, you are knocked back a bit, giving your opponent space.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Keisuke roars as he grabs a chair and chucks it at you. The chair smashes into the wall as you dodge the flying chair. Your target barely believes his eyes as he keeps careful watch on Yatagarasu and you.

Backlash is building...

This situation has gone downhill. If there are people around, they can definitely hear the fighting. You need to take control of the situation. You don't know when the dam will break and the World will punish your otherworldly presence, but it will happen the longer Keisuke bears witness to Yatagarasu's unnatural existence in the World.

>Summon your spear Frostbind and threaten Keisuke into silence... 7d6, but builds up significant backlash...
>Order Yatagarasu to do something, actually ANYTHING!... Will create the Tourney Grounds, no more victims can be reaped today...
>Last ditch attack to shut him up! Physically attack... 5d6, won't build backlash...
>Use ice magic Beira dramatically and intimidate Keisuke to surrender... 7d6, but builds up significant backlash...
>You have an idea! Try to secretly use ice magic Beira... 6d6, but builds up some backlash...

>>5931638
>Use ice magic to make the ground under him slippery
>Physically attack

>>5931638
>>You have an idea! Try to secretly use ice magic Beira... 6d6, but builds up some backlash...

>>5931638
>You have an idea! Try to secretly use ice magic Beira... 6d6, but builds up some backlash...

>>5931638
>>Last ditch attack to shut him up! Physically attack... 5d6, won't build backlash...

>>5931638

>You have an idea! Try to secretly use ice magic Beira... 6d6, but builds up some backlash...

Ice punch him in the arm, the shock will open him up for a good pounding.

>>5931638
>You have an idea! Try to secretly use ice magic Beira... 6d6, but builds up some backlash...

>>5932213
>>5932071
>>5932043
>>5931929
>>5931855
>>5931816
Seems we're going to try an interesting idea

When Yatagarasu went over his explanation of backlash, how it builds, and how the World reacts to such anomalous actions done by denizens of Avalon... There was something that caught your attention.

It was the fact that he constantly went on how being 'witnessed' builds the backlash very quickly. It's why the other Kings went through so much trouble trying to hide their presence and powers while in Japan. For Rodomonte, he went after high Mana bearing, vulnerable, and neglected children with no one watching out for them. For Mordred, it was poorly protected Relics with highly variable Mana accumulation.

Your brain wrestled over Yatagarasu's explanation until you hit upon an analogy.

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

The answer is yes; it makes a sound. But there's no one to hear it, so that sound mind as well never existed.

So if you were to fire off your ice power and start hacking away at a tree with Frostbind, and there was no one to see it... Then the amount of backlash accumulating is much lower. You're using supernatural powers not of this 'World', so you still get dinged for it, but not a whole lot.

It's the moment you get someone watching or recording what you're doing that the backlash rapidly starts increasing.

You realize there's a way to use your power without your target witnessing it's usage.

"You fuckin' bitch, I am going to fuck you up so badly, you'll regret the day you were born. After I'm done beating the shit out of you, I'll throw your fucking ass to the cops and let them deal with you. As for your fucking goat friend----" Keisuke blathers on and on. His mouth is literally open all the time as he shouts and curses at you.

You're going to summon a large chunk of ice inside his mouth to shut him up. He'll have no idea what's going on other than somehow he's choking on it!

2 anons, roll 3d6 each!

Also, do you want to use Let No Insult Pass?
>Yes
>No

Rolled 6, 2, 5 = 13 (3d6)

>>5932580
>Yes

Rolled 6, 2, 1 = 9 (3d6)

>>5932580
>Yes

>>5932666
Never mind. It wouldn't do a thing lol.

>>5932580
>>No

>>5932580
>No

>>5932580
>No

>>5932993
>>5932802
>>5932704
>>5932672
>>5932670
>>5932666
3 successes... also, I realized I should have put the question about the ability in the past earlier.
It's pretty obvious that you would have said yes and it would then be wasted due to a lack of 4s in the rolls.

post will be tomorrow.
I did a secret roll and, uh, it was not what I expected.

File: vines.jpg (86 KB, 819x387)

86 KB JPG

It's a brilliant plan. You mentally pat yourself on the back for coming up with it.

You give the cursing man a toothy smile. The sort that chills the hearts of braver and nobler men than this trash insulting you. This smile doesn't escape Keisuke's attention.

"Oh Beira, dread Queen of the dead season. Come down from thy mountain throne and aid a supplicant King."

"What the fuck are you----URK!"

Ah.... the sweet sound of success. The moment the asshole opened his mouth wide enough, you worked your magic to place a small, round ball of ice within it. When the wifebeating jerk realized there was a cold and hard marble sized ice ball in his mouth, it was already too late.

Keisuke gags and futilely scratches at the expanding ball of ice in his mouth. He can no longer close his jaw to speak, the ice grows to the size of a tennis ball. That was easier than you expected, and growing the little seed of frozen water to a bigger size is a snap.

The moment you thought 'snap', you hear a snap, and it turns triumph into dismay.

RIIIP!
CRACK!

A wet, squelchy rip. A dry, loud snap. You instantly feel yourself freeze up and stare at what you just did. The victim paused in his gagging and struggling for a few seconds. It seems as though he cannot quite believe what is happening to him. The flesh at the sides of his mouth has torn wide, and blood is dribbling down. When the red blood and flesh are exposed to air, they pulse. Then there's the jaw... His unnaturally distended jaw is even wider than ever; it actually sways a little back and forth on what unbroken strand of muscles remains.

A chilling realization dawns on the both of you.

The ice ball had kept growing until it broke the jawbone and tore the flesh around it. And the only thing keeping the jaw from falling to the floor is the remaining muscle and skin that remain around Keisuke's mouth.

A muffled scream of pain erupts from the victim as he falls onto his knees. Hands on the bloody wounds of his mouth, trying vainly to stem the bleeding and keep the lower jaw from being ripped off. Panic overtakes you as you wrestle with your ice magic to stop growing.

"Meep! Not bad, Your Majesty! I shall do the binding." Yatagarasu cheerfully praises you as he goes about weaving some sort of blindfold around the eyes of the keening Keisuke before throwing what looks like thin strands of rope to bind him. Keisuke tries thrashing his way out, but the overwhelming pain from his shattered jaw stymies his attempts.

He settles for muffled screaming when the last rope ties him down. The huge ball of ice crammed in his overextended mouth does an excellent job keeping the screams quiet. No one outside the apartment, despite its thin walls, could possibly hear it.

"Uuugh...wwwwwaaaaa... eeeeeh.... uuurgh....." The sound of pained abortive screams from Keisuke is nightmarish.

And he never stops screaming.

>>5934402


You feel faint, and your stomach is protesting against this entire situation.

"Done and done! Meep! Let's start reaping the Mana! I'll demonstrate... um.... Your Majesty? You look rather pale." Yatagarasu is clearly far more hardened to the sight of bleeding and screaming victims than you.

"Give me a minute," you gasp between dry heaves. When you decided to go after Keisuke to do a little payback on behalf of your aunt, you figured you would beat him up a little and steal some of his things. Enjoy paying back some pain to the bastard. Maybe post some humiliating pictures of his beating on the internet, then call it a day. It seemed so easy and clean.

Your imagination never took into account seriously hurting the asshole to the point where his lower jaw gets partially ripped off. Can modern medicine sew things up and heal that sort of injury?

"Meep. Ah, you suffer from a 'Knight's heart'. I'll reap quickly, so we may leave." Yatagarasu quickly gets to work with his sickle while you stand about shocked.

The blade on the sickle held by the guide turns translucent, and without warning, the Baphomet pulls it across Keisuke's throat. Keisuke is very quiet now; he's no longer screaming. It reminds you of how people cut the throats of animals to drain the blood. But there is no wound, and instead of blood gushing out, some green misty tendrils rise up.

They look like green vines.

"Ack, not a rich harvest. Not a single flower, fruit, or seed." Yatagarasu mutters as he starts reaping most of the vines but leaves a small bunch alone.

The smell of blood is getting to you. With the work complete, the little Baphomet takes you by the hand and leads you away from the scene to another room. The ropes and blindfold tying down the unconscious Keisuke fade away into nothingness. A small pool of blood grows around the man and soaks his clothing.

"Twas a hard first harvest for you. Meep. Fear not; thy Kingly heart shall learn to bear it the more you do it. And it is not always as bloody as this." Yatagarasu speaks to you softly.

Beira, the Cailleach; your ice ability grows stronger and with better control.

You take a few seconds to take a few deep breath and calm yourself.

"That was fucked up." You declare.

You....

>Try to find the stupid bastard's cellphone to call an ambulance and leave...
>Start looting the apartment and leave...
>Try to find the stupid bastard's cellphone to call an ambulance and stay until it arrives...
>Try to find the stupid bastard's cellphone to call an ambulance, do some looting and leave...
>Try to find the stupid bastard's cellphone to call an ambulance, do some looting and stay until it arrives...
>write in

>>5934403
>Try to find the stupid bastard's cellphone to call an ambulance and stay until it arrives...

>>5934403
>>Try to find the stupid bastard's cellphone to call an ambulance and leave...

>>5934403
>>Try to find the stupid bastard's cellphone to call an ambulance, do some looting and leave...

>>5934403
>Try to find the stupid bastard's cellphone to call an ambulance and leave...

>>5934483
>>5934498
>>5934585
>>5934702
Call an ambulance and leave!

Sorry for being late, I was reading up on some translated Japanese diaries for research purposes.

>>5935263
Definitely shouldn't have let my time run out on me for an update. Will do so tomorrow.

You know that any of your victims will forget about your existence and what you did to them because the World 'corrects' to explain away what they have undergone. Evidence of your presence in the apartment, like fingerprints and hair, simply evaporates. The victims will remember some other reason why they are in pain. It's a convenient feature... But the 'correction' doesn't heal your victims if they get injured or bring them back to life if they die.

You don't like Tamura Keisuke, but you don't hate him enough to let him bleed to death.

Also, it's hard to feel proud about defeating someone so weak and pathetic.

A King should only feel proud when victorious against the strong and noble. Aye, the weak and unworthy shall not weigh on your conscience, nor will you take pride....

Dignity - Greater Mana reaped from targets able to pose a challenge to you.

That being said, there's a weak unworthy bleeding out in the kitchen. You should find that stupid bastard's cellphone and call an ambulance for him.

You search around and easily find Keisuke's cellphone on his nightstand. A quick 119, and the ambulance is on its way. There's no point in sticking around, even though you could steal something from the apartment, like money. But you didn't come here to be a mere thief.

You wanted Mana... but more importantly, you amply avenged your aunt! Revenge is hers! If only it was a worthier battle like the great kataki-uchi stories you've heard about, like the Soga brothers or the Kagiya no Tsuji duel.

You leave the apartment quickly with Yatagarasu back in his bag. The guide explains the Mana harvesting procedure as you flee.

First, it's recommended to bind the target to keep them from struggling or fleeing. Otherwise, you'll end up them down chasing, wasting your time and energy. Also there's always a chance the victim will fight back and you end up wounding them or worse, killing them.

"So your saying I shouldn't use my abilities on them? Then how the hell am I supposed to do this without screwing up!?" You ask as you finally slow down. You're a good ways away from the site of your crime.

"Meep. You called on Beira as a supplicant King, so I am assuming that this Beira is a spirit or some such being who is the source of your ice. She favors you. Mayhap she thought that you wanted to kill the cur," Yatagarasu theorizes with wonder.

"So I called on a kami to help me out? My magical powers aren't mine to command completely? I have to pray to them or something?"

That makes no sense. You managed to summon chunks of ice before and create that patch of ice on command against Gawain yesterday. Your Baphomet guide can give no answer, and he goes on to explain how he reaps Mana.

>>5936434
His sickle is a special one. When he concentrates, the blade will turn translucent with magic, and he can then 'bleed' the victim. By sweeping it across the throat to 'slaughter' the victim, the Mana within should reveal itself by sprouting. He shows you the harvested vines taken from Keisuke. The leaves glow faintly and are so very green.

The wail of a siren is in the air. You realize there's a speeding ambulance heading directly to the apartment you fled from. You start walking down an alley to hide and look more closely at the vines.

The harvest was poor, apparently. The Baphomet explains that all humans have Mana within them, but some have a richer source than others. Tamura Keisuke unfortunately wasn't a 'Cornucopia' which is a victim richly endowed with Mana. The harvest reaped from a 'Cornucopia' will have an abundance of flowers, fruits, and seeds to reap.

There's no rhyme or reason to discern why someone has a richer source of Mana than others. Age might be a factor. Children under the age of 10 tend to have a higher chance of a good harvest. Yet there's no guarantee. Also, Ser Rodomonte once discovered an old man dying from cancer possessing a 'Cornucopia' of Mana, so just because someone is old doesn't mean they don't have a rich harvest.

"So how do we use the Mana?" You ask as you turn the vines over in your hand and marvel over them. All that work, all that blood for this handful of Mana.

"Meep. You can eat it to strengthen yourself. Or you could craft something with it when we bring it back to Camelot. Or you could let your servants eat it to nourish them. Thy Baphomets need only a bit of Mana to maintain themselves. This poor harvest is still enough to keep them for a few weeks. Remember, Your Majesty, that Mana is critical to keep our forms. Without it, we turn back into shades. Should that happen, you will need to journey to the World, harvest Mana and return to Camelot all on your own to restore us!"

What do you want to do now...

>Eat the Mana for yourself, see what happens...
>Keep it in storage for now and go after your next victim. There's a certain bully you should target next...
>Feed the Mana to Yatagarasu...
>Keep it in storage for now and go after your next victim. There's a NHK fee collector you should target next...
>Keep it in storage for now and go after your next victim. There's a noisy punk you should target next...
>Keep it in storage for now and go after your next victim. There's a group of mean girls you should target next...
>Return to Camelot, you've done enough...

I've updated the character sheet.

Kuroda Haruka, 16 year old student of Kusatsu high school. Class President of 1-C. A genuine member of the Kuroda samurai clan.

Identity: King Lot of Lothian and Orkney

+1 Charisma dice

Trait:
A True Heart "Magokokoro", bonus in one on one interaction with a hostile opponent.
Crafty attacker: When making artful gambits and trickery in a fight, gain +2 dice to attack! It's not cheating, it's stratagem damn it!

Let No Insult Pass! - When attacking, 4s also count as successes in addition to 5s and 6s. Use 1 per day

Frostbind - Your weapon. A spear with ice powers. Finally able to summon it whenever you want.

Beira, the Cailleach; your ice ability grows stronger and with better control.

Dignity - Greater Mana reaped from targets able to pose a challenge to you.

Evolved Flaw:
Always Someone Better - You have a tendency of gloating and enjoying the sight of people you've defeated. But now, only over those who are superior to you in something. You don't indulge against the weak and unworthy.

>>5936435
>>Eat the Mana for yourself, see what happens...

>>5936435
>Feed half the Mana to Yatagarasu...
>Store half the Mana for Hanbei...
Rules of ruling, keep your supporters happy

>>5936435
>>Feed the Mana to Yatagarasu...

>>5936457
>>5936517
I'll support this but leave it to them if they want to consume it for themselves or share it around, besides we probably can pick another target and possibly try to discover the logic behind mana harvesting.

>>5936435
>Feed the Mana to Yatagarasu...
>Go after your next victim. There's a NHK fee collector you should target next...

>>5936511
>>5936517
>>5936660
>>5936888
>>5936897
Majority is to feed Yatagarsu the Mana

This humble looking vine is Mana.

And Mana is the lifeblood of your new kingdom.

Was it really yesterday that you imagined you could ditch Camelot and forget all about Avalon to go back to your family? That delusion was so sweet, and now you chew sand at the bitter reality before you. It's a stroke of luck that you held off declaring you were abandoning Camelot. If Argeste learned of it, he'd ban you from ever ruling the place and taking advantage of its resources.

You are now a freakin' daimyo.

Like it or not.

To take up arms to do battle, to lay down your life and honor for your kingdom, and to be general, judge and rewarder of all your retainers.

If you want to be a good ruler, you'll need to take care of your retainers. It's clear that this is something that Rodomonte failed at miserably. So miserably, he was betrayed by servants who technically shouldn't be able to betray him.
Your ancestor, Kuroda Kanbei, wrote of it in the Kuroda family precepts.

'If you are shunned by the retainers and the people, you will invariably lose the country, and no amount of prayer or apologies will stave off your chastisement.

As such, you must fear punishment by the retainers and the people more than by your lord or your god.'

"This first harvest is all thanks to you, Yatagarasu. Take it as your reward." You offer the entirety of the Mana to your guide.

He immediately prostrates himself before you. The sight is silly—that such a small goat would get on his hands and knees before you for such a little thing.

"Truly thou art a King amongst Kings! Meep. This is far too generous for this humble guide. I beg thee to forgive my reluctance to accept. Nay, let me nibble on three leaves and share the rest of the bounty with my fellows," Yatagarasu declares. His eyes shine with barely restrained greed; he salivates at the thought of having all the Mana to himself but remembers the rest of Baphomets it seems.

Plucking the three biggest and greenest leaves, he chews on them with such savor that you wonder when he will swallow. He shakes with temptation to eat the rest, but manfully... or rather goatfully, stores the rest in his pack. You aren't sure where the thing went; it seems to have disappeared. In fact, the little pack your guide has is too small to contain so much. You've seen him bring out an axe, knives, cooking utensils, food, a wineskin of water....

"How much can you carry in that backpack?" You stare at the guide shouldering his pack. The little goat man positively glows with happiness and wellbeing from feasting on Mana.

"I am able to store almost 10 stones of weight. As for dimensions, I can take in about 2 cubits by 1 cubit by 3 hands. I used some Mana to expand! Our most experienced guide is able to store about 50 stones in weight and a far greater dimension too." Yatagarasu boasts with great pride.

Except you have no idea what those measures are.

>>5937215
"What is a stone?!" You ask.

You learn that a stone is about 6 kilograms. So it's about 60 kilograms. Unfortunately, Yatagarsu is unable to inform you of the exact dimensions of a hand or cubit. 3 hands seem to be 1 shaku in length, so about 30 centimeters. One cubit is about 1.5 shaku, or 45 centimeters. So about the size of a fish tank.

It's mainly to store Relics to take back to Camelot.

Figuring out those lengths and weights took a lot longer than you expected. The sun is high in the sky, and the city is bustling with people going out for lunch. Yatagarasu offers you some bread and salted dried fish to chew on from his pocket-dimensional pack.

"Man, I would kill for some nikudon instead of bread and dried fish," you mutter as you chew on your lunch. You discovered that your cellphone doesn't have access to your bank account or pay apps. Even your credit card is worthless since the entity known as Kuroda Haruka doesn't exist in Japan. You have no cash. When was the last time you even touched physical money? You can't even buy something as simple as a drink from a vending machine.

"My apologies for the poor repast, Your Majesty. You can eat food from this World, but you are likely not able to carry it back to Avalon to eat it. Lord Mordred tried with all her favorite foods, and they were simply rejected by Avalon. We are only able to transfer Relics back for use."

Furniture such as beds, chairs, tables... Tools like chisels, power drills, axes... Books, fancy clothing, sugar, prepared food like curry... Most of it can't be taken to Avalon. Unless those items are Relics. Relics are an incredibly broad term; they're not just a source of Mana.

Relics can also mean stuff that Avalon won't reject. Like the crayons and paper Mordred used to make her map and notes.

You really need to hammer out the terminology of things with Hanbei. The Baphomets use of 'Relic' is ill-defined and overly broad.

All this means though is the items in your backpack are far more precious than you imagined. They have made the journey to Avalon and didn't disappear. That means even the clothing your wearing is technically a 'Relic'.

It's the afternoon, what do you want to do next? Yatagarasu suggests heading back to Camelot before dark as he has to find the right Gate to return.

>Write in

>>5937218
>Do as Yatagarasu suggests and head back to Camelot. While looking for the gate, ask him which Baphomet has the best memory, as you have an idea about bringing whichever one that is with you to a library so you can bring some modern knowledge back to your kingdom without having to find Relic Books.

>>5937218
Hunt for another victim

>>5937218
>Hunt for another victim

>>5937218
>Hunt for another victim
NHK collector guy

>>5937580
+1

>>5937262
>>5937372
>>5937385
>>5937580
>>5937826
We are on the hunt for the ever annoying NHK fee collector guy!
A triumph of pettiness.
Let's see if I can post tonight

>>5937972
I just read on it and yeah Nhk is bullshit, who even watches tv anymore?

Death penalty is too good for them, freeze their underwear into ice and turn their balls into ice cubes.

File: NHK FEES.jpg (73 KB, 1021x530)

73 KB JPG

It's too early to head back to Camelot. The first harvest of Mana is so pathetic, and you can't help but feel you are far behind in the arms race of gaining powers. You are surrounded by enemies who are more powerful and numerous. There's Rodomonte, Mordred, the Knights of the Round Table, and those unknown Kings somewhere in Avalon.

"No Yatagarasu. Let's try to make this Quest a rewarding one and do as much as possible. The first was, uh, not that great. I'm sure the second one will be much smoother," you declare with as much confidence as you can muster.

"By your command, Your Majesty. Meep. If ye are willing and able to Quest onwards, I shall follow." Yatagarasu bows with a hoof over his heart.

But first!

You should probably give a prayer of thanks to this Beira and maybe convince her not to do crazy, deadly attacks when you ask her for help. Man, what sort of kami is she? You did call her a dread Queen... Wait, how did you know that Beira was female in the first place?

ARGH!

More mysteries upon mysteries.

Maybe this is just a weird innate knowledge thing since a kami deigned to bless you. You bow twice, clap your hands twice, and do a final deep bow. You're not bowing to anything or in any direction in particular; it's simply a sign of respect for the gods.

"To thee, my benefactress Beira, I give thanks. But I beg to thee, let thy harsh, bitter ice lance my powerful enemies and not weak peons unable to endure thy strength.

Because, holy shit, you did not want to kill or brutalize the wifebeater so badly. Thinking of the blood and wounds is enough to turn your stomach. You should go after another target to reap more Mana but the memory of the first bloody attempt makes you very nervous.

-1 dice against the next target.

At least you have a target who you dislike severely and now have a better grasp on the steps to do a cleaner job this time.

Next on the list!

A NHK fee collector. The human-shaped cockroach that scurries about the urban landscape to extract money. Who even watches TV anymore? Can't Japan just legislate a different way to pay for the public broadcaster?

At this hour of the day, that relentless bugger should be readying a blitz of fee collection. They watch and wait to see where kids go home, and then knock on the door. After all, they know someone is in the house and maybe can intimidate a poor kid into coughing up money to get rid of the super persistent annoyance.

How do you know this? Because there's a particular NHK fee collector who used to target you every time you walked home after school. He would knock on the door of your house exactly fifteen times and then do his spiel.

>>5938262
“Miss Kuroda, I know you're home. It's time to pay up your family's NHK subscription fee. You know everyone has to pay it; it's the law. Not paying is the same as stealing. You can't have the proud name of the Kuroda family known as a bunch of thieves over something this petty, do you? I can't believe that your family would have any trouble paying the fee. I mean, having to shout this out to the world for everyone to hear must be so embarrassing."

There were other spiels too....

"Come on, Miss Kuroda. This is good old NHK knocking, and I know you're home. Don't pretend. I've done this job for years and years, so I know when someone is pretending not to be home. I know when someone is being stubborn and not opening up the door or answering me. All because you don't want to pay the NHK subscription fee."

And that other spiel...

"Pretty stubborn, aren't you, Miss Kuroda? Don't worry, I'll be back since I can't stand out here forever. I have a schedule to stick to. But I'll be back. I don't give up easily, and I don't like people who pretend they're out. I'll come back and knock on this door of yours. I'll keep knocking until the whole neighborhood hears it. I promise you that, to think that the Kuroda family is a bunch of shirkers, not paying their NHK subscription fee. Only 14000 yen a year! That's barely over 1000 yen a month."

THAT FUCKING NHK FEE COLLECTOR!!!

You actually joined an after-school club just to avoid going back to your empty home all throughout middle school because of that son of a bitch!!!

You were part of the...

>Tea Ceremony Club...
>Calligraphy Club...
>Ikebana Club...
>Origami Club...
>Japanese Musical Instrument Club...
>Japanese Pottery Club...
>Write in (nothing too outrageous and cultural related skill)...

>>5938265
>Debate Club

>>5938265
>Japanese Musical Instrument Club...

>>5938265
>Write in (nothing too outrageous and cultural related skill)...
Kimono Club

>>5938265
>>Tea Ceremony Club...

>>5938265
>Tea Ceremony Club...

>>5938265
>Calligraphy Club...

>>5938753
>>5938502
>>5938392
>>5938379
>>5938370
>>5938308
Guess we're a teaist. Same as Kuroda Kanbei was.

No post today. I have to start calculating how much I need to pay the government in taxes. So hopefully tomorrow.

I arrived home extremely late.
So delay in the post.

>>5939829
OK don't worry.

>>5939829
thanks for the update, and for real, don't worry, you have large updates each time

File: home.jpg (52 KB, 566x591)

52 KB JPG

You made the deadly error of joining the Tea Ceremony Club. In hindsight, given your family history, you really shouldn't have selected any sort of traditional Japanese cultural art, but at the time, you figured it would be okay.

It was a strategic error, one that haunted your middle school years.

You knew vaguely back then that Kuroda Kanbei changed his name to Josui and became a devotee of tea. It's only when you joined the Tea Ceremony club and started learning about Sado that you discovered your ancestor wrote a treatise on the tea ceremony and even wrote rules for it.

Your ancestor is famous for it.

Then your extended family members got interested in seeing that you succeeded in learning Sado properly. After all, the family has a reputation for this particular art. They bought various tea implements and added extracurricular tea ceremony training on top of your school's extracurricular tea ceremony training. Lectures on pottery, traditional sweets, aesthetics, and visits to various museums on the subject.

You just wanted to get away from the fucking NHK fee collector guy...

Knowledge of quality Tea Ceremony articles and expertise in Sado...

The grudge you have against that harassing son of a bitch isn't just because he tried to squeeze money out of you or scared the bejeezus out of you by banging on the door all the time.

"Come along, Yatagarasu. I have a target in mind and the perfect plan to take him out without any witnesses. Also, without having to hurt him overly much. So listen very carefully."

The hour is right about when kids head home to school and your target starts stalking likely prey. And there's no one at your house right now, and you still possess your house key.

To put it simply, you'll go home and wait for the target to start knocking. Unlike every other time, you'll let the man in after arguing about how there's no TV in the house. Yatagarasu will be hidden, waiting with his binding magic while you pin the target down.

Then you'll reap the Mana and escape back to Camelot!

It is the most efficient usage of time since the guide mentioned he needed to try and find a Gate back to Avalon before dark. Also, you got a better grasp on how to go about this business. And unless you are desperate, the ice gag trick is going to be an absolute last resort until you learn to better control your abilities.

You walk down the peaceful streets of Tokyo towards your home. A part of you wants to prove that nothing has changed; you haven't been erased from the World. Despite the lack of access to your social media account and apps on your cell phone, you still aren't convinced.

Surely there must be some trace of you left at home, at least?

>>5940950
It is a short trip, but it seems so long due to trepidation. Teenagers should be starting their journey home from school or going to their clubs at this hour. You see evidence of the growing tide of children. They seem incredibly carefree and goof off with friends. Loneliness settles as the house you call home gets closer and closer.

Is this such a good idea? What happens if you're wrong and your mother is there? Or, hell, your dad decided today was a good day to surprise everyone by coming early? Your older brother might skip practice? Or your little sister decided to play shogi at home rather than at her school?

Well, you're here. You dig into your pocket and feel the key to open the front door.

"I'm home..." You call out, and, as expected, there's no answer back. The genkan entrance is silent and empty.

Were you hoping that someone was home? Were you hoping to hear someone say 'welcome back' and 'how was your school trip?' and other such proofs that your family remembers you?

Yatagarasu scampers out of his shopping bag and on to the ground.

"I shall set up my bindings! Meep. I shall use that alcove to keep out of sight," the guide states and begins reeling out lines of rope to prepare.

You expect the NHK fee collector to arrive at the door within the next 30 minutes. You have some time to look around your home...

>Check your bedroom...
>Check the kitchen...
>Check the living room....
>Check your older brother's room...
>Check your parent's room...
>Check the library room...

>>5940951
>Check your bedroom...

>>5940951
>Check your bedroom...

>>5940951
>>Check your bedroom...

>>5940951
>>Check your parent's room...

>>5940951
>Check your older brother's room...

>>5940951
>Check your bedroom...

>>5940951
Wait... would that guy even bother coming since the world erased our presence?
Maybe it's best to lounge in the garden or outside and feign to retreat into the home if we see him coming, he won't resist chasing a fleeing target.

>>5941497
>>5941454
>>5941226
>>5941179
>>5941119
>>5941101
>>5940953
Time to check out our bedroom... Or where our bedroom used to be located.

Also, the NHK fee collector man will come because he lurks and observes who enters what houses. After noting that, he goes and knocks. Haruka didn't hide she entered her old house through the front door. She assumes he'll be coming to knock since that's what he used to always do.

>>5941934
"Meep. But they might have Mana in them; we could take them directly to Camelot and throw it into a Crucible to see what comes out!" Yatagarasu protests as you stomp your way over to the Baphomet.

"Tell me, was it the general policy of your previous Kings to steal anything that caught your eye?" You ask your guide.

"Yes indeed, Your Majesty! Anything and everything that might potentially possess Mana. Meep. By order of Ser Rodomonte and Lord Mordred." The guide doesn't sound contrite at all about his attempted burglary of your family.

You look at the various valuables and realize something immediately. In one of the boxes is a modern Oribe-yaki chawan tea bowl; you recognize it because you used it during your time at the Tea Ceremony Club. It was gifted to you specifically and is not a particularly good tea bowl. It's unusual shape made it difficult to whisk the tea, and cleaning it was even worse because of its strange contours.

You take the bowl into your hands and run your eyes over it. The strange bumps, deep green color, the glaze, weight, and feel of it....

Yes.

This is something that most definitely belongs to you. There would be no reason for your family to have this particular bowl since you aren't around. Wait, where is your cat? Kizaemon is also another that came to your family because you begged for a cat. Upstairs, in the family picture, your cat is there too. Where is she?!

"Yatagarasu, did you see a cat down here?" You ask your guide.

[/red]Backlash is growing[/red]

????

Wait. Is 'backlash' growing because you're finding things that didn't get fucking erased from the World?

"Aye, I saw her in the kitchen, then she hid in another room. Meep." Yatagarasu answers and points towards the living room.

*DING DONG*
*BANG BANG BANG*

The bell of the front door sounds and is followed by three loud theatrical knocks.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Kuroda! Is that you, little Sakura-chan? My word, you've grown up! Maybe it's time to be a little more adult by paying your NHY subscription fee. NHK provides an enriching series of cultural and educational programs for all of Japan. That's why it's important to support your public broadcaster!" A loud man's voice bellows out his speech on NHK. As a child, you found the strident voice to be very intimidating because the man outside the door loved his job. No, that's wrong; he loved the fact that his job allowed him to harass and embarrass people.

*BANG BANG BANG*

"Gotta, make sure you are listening, Ms. Kuroda! Come on now, I saw you walk in and----"

He's here early? You thought you had more time?

>Write in

>>5941935
>Grab something to use for strangulation, like a small amount of rope or a length of cloth. Hide it in your pocket. Tell Yatagarasu to be ready to reap as soon as he gets the chance.
>Let him in, claim to be a cousin visiting for the week. Gesture over to the living room for him to take a seat.
>Choke him from behind to subdue him once his back is to you and the door is closed.

>>5942057
>Let him in, claim to be a cousin visiting for the week. Gesture over to the living room for him to take a seat.

>>5941935
>>Let him in, claim to be a cousin visiting for the week. Gesture over to the living room for him to take a seat.
>>Choke him from behind to subdue him once his back is to you and the door is closed.

the first part of the update seems to haven been deleted.

interesting that some of our stuff still exists

First part of the update
You want to go to your bedroom. Technically, you share it with your little sister, Sakura. It's up on the second floor. With the time left, you want to see what evidence of your existence remains here.

You put down your backpack and head up the familiar stairs of your home. Everything seems the same as your memories downstairs. The same living room with the TV and zabuton cushions, the same kitchen with the dining table and cutlery cabinet, and the same washroom. The door to the library slash office is closed, but you aren't interested in checking out that room.

The surest proof that something has changed would be your bedroom.

You run up the stairs and open the door to where it should be....

It isn't your bedroom.

You stare into the room and see the familiar furnishings of your parent's bedroom instead of yours. You try not to sink to your knees in shock as you realize the rooms assigned have changed. This is the largest bedroom in the house; it was natural for your parents to designate it as a shared room between your sister and you. But if you no longer exist, then it would be just as natural to reassign the rooms.

Logically, the largest room for your parents... Then that would mean the second largest to your brother... then the smallest to your sister.

When you lived here, it was different. The largest was assigned to your sister and you... The second largest to your parents... And the smallest to your brother.

You shakily enter the room as though trapped in a nightmare. Nothing of yours is here. The bunk bed, the study desks, the bookshelves, and all that should be in here are gone.

It is staggering to take in. You lean on your parent's dresser and try not to panic. It is difficult to calm down, and you make the mistake of looking at the family photos nestled on the flat surface of the dresser. There's a bunch of pictures, but there's one that stands out in particular.

A family picture. It has your father, mother, older brother, little sister, and Kizaemon the cat.

You aren't in it.

You take the family photo and put it face-down. You can't bear to look at it any more.

You feel a strange sensation on your skin. It is a prickling feeling; it was most unpleasant.

[/red]Backlash is growing[/red]

????

Something is wrong.

"Your Majesty! RELICS!!!" A gleeful voice from downstairs breaches your melancholy and shock. Startled, you immediately run downstairs to see what your servant is up to.

The door to the library is open, and Yatagarasu is reveling in boxes and boxes of things. He has opened quite a few of them and laid out a variety of items like ceramics, scrolls, lacquer ware, and kimonos. Hell, he even has a menpo armor mask in his greedy little hands.

"Put that right back. Some of that is the patrimony of the Kuroda clan." You snap at your guide. The goat man droops a little and seems very reluctant to follow your orders.

>>5942057
Supporting

Oh wow! Weird
When I checked things out, both sides existed. I had no idea it disappeared.

>>5942278
The backlash built up must have caused the world to delete the post.

>>5942057
And i'll support the choking, loud bastard that he is would scream like a pig otherwise.
Remember to be reluctant and evasive, he's used to not be welcome if that changes he might be on guard.

As for the relics we know where they are and can access them at any time so there's no reason to take them now (and this is the excuse we can give to not melt down our family stuff)

>>5942298
>>5942135
>>5942100
>>5942057
It is reaping time.
Also I'm now paranoid my posts won't just delete for some odd reason. Hopefully it won't end up like that.

Early or not, the plan doesn't change. You close the library's door to hide the scattered boxes and articles as Yatagarasu scrambles into position to ready the ropes. This is yet another chance to reap Mana. So long as you don't use your powers and simply rely on your new strength, no one is likely to get hurt.

Well, you and Yatagarasu won't get hurt. That's the important bit.

You grab a length of rope off the ground and ask your guide to clip it short enough to stuff in your pocket. It's amazing how the rough hemp rope is cut with a simple snip of Yatagarasu's hand.

Everything is ready; you stuff the rope down your pocket and approach the door. It shakes under the knocking of the NHK fee collector's fist.

"Quit your knocking. I'm here," you call out and open the door.

Standing before you is a heavy-set older man. His face tanned from standing outside in the afternoon sun for many days, seeking to extract NHK fees. Surprise shows up on the face of the older man, and he actually pauses in his usual speech to take a good look at you.

"Well, I'll be; you aren't Sakura-chan. You look quite a bit like her, though. A relative? You live here now?" The older man is genuinely curious about your presence. With your disappearance, it's clear that your little sister was subject to his harassment since you couldn't warn her. There's a reason why Sakura joined the Shogi Club in middle school, after all. Also, his fishing for information is obvious; NHK fees can't be collected by non-residents of a household. A common way to get rid of them is to claim you are a guest staying over and not related to the owner of the house.

You are going to pretend to be a cousin. Heck, dress up the scenario a bit more. A bumpkin cousin from Hokkaido is visiting the big city and is guilelessly honest with everyone who comes knocking.

"Kuroda Haruka, I'm visiting my relatives here in Tokyo. I just came from Asahikawa, so I'm settling in." You mix lies with truth.

The World notices a True Name and is watching.

Wait, oh shit.... Did you just fuck up by using your real name? In your conversations with Yatagarasu, the guide never mentioned any consequences of running around saying your name in the World. Then again, the other Kings probably never bothered telling people their names after rediscovering them. You feel the unnatural sensation of something observing you, as though you're an insect under the lens of a magnifying glass.

"Ah, so you're a new resident of the Kuroda household then? Well, I have the honor of reporting that this household is behind on their NHK subscription fee. Only 14,000 yen per year, and as a resident of this..."

You don't give this man a chance to continue.

"Don't you need a TV to be subject to that fee? I assure you that this house doesn't have one. I'm pretty sure everyone in Tokyo must watch stuff off the internet. Heck, I can't even remember the last time I watched NHK."