I don't own My Hero Academia!


Even knowing it was coming, Draven finds it hard to work up the energy to really feel any concerning the fact that a good nineteen of Players switching allegiance, willingly, to Ultimate Doom's 'side'. Yesterday's news weights heavily upon him, so much so that he finds it hard to raise out of his bed. Staring up at the cloth canopy of his bed, the Devil Player muses about the pass three months since the arrival of Nuala and two months since her departure...

Messages had been gathered up by Wonderment Company from the Players to be passed along to their respective families for Nuala to carry along when she exited out of the game. He hadn't known what kind of message to pass along to his mother and, in the end, he only passed along a simple enough message of he's well and misses her, which, well, is true enough. He's pretty sure that if his emotions from Izuku weren't numbed, he'd likely be thinking of her more but it's also likely... he'd be suffering from a heck of a lot of emotional baggage and likely be tearing into himself over his lack of control of events. From reviewing his memories of being Izuku, that's the conclusion he reached.

Draven Ose on the other hand... Well, as Draven, he knows that there's more things going on that he isn't aware of and thus, couldn't do more then be ready to adapt to any given situation while doing his best to have what he can on hand for any situation. The world doesn't revolve around the teenage Pillar Devil, after all, and had been treated as just another potential heir of the House's Title, which he fines to be a relief compared to the hyper focus that as Izuku seemed to be viewed with simply because of a lack of a Quirk, that somehow made the past him regarded as some kind of danger or an object of scorn, the very source of everything wrong in his mother's life beginning from the moment he was born to present and, most likely, in the future.

So, yes, because of his memories of Izuku's life does Draven know why the other Boss 'Monsters' are so keen on causing suffering among the Player base and also knows that unlike those other Quirkless Players, Izuku's anger and hatred likely never was pointed out at other people but focus inwards, at himself. A price for being so empathic, I think. He muses to himself. The Devil Player knew that he hadn't been overly passionate when it came to dealing with the Order, he'd been far more interested about the return of Adventurers and Laborers then the decaying Order.

Pushing such train of thought from his mind, he finally rolls to the edge of his bed and sits up. Looking down at his hands, he turns them to look at the back of them, studying them. Try as he might, he finds it hard to imagine his hands being any other color and only sporting faint scars along with burn marks. With his twin tips of his tongue, he runs them over the teeth while lifting his head. A few seconds later, he just moves the two 'fork' tips of his tongue about within his mouth, it's both a familiar and natural action yet knows that it will one day be considered a surreal feeling.

Finish focusing on his tongue, he does some stretches before pushing himself up out of the bed. Allowing himself to be lazy, his pose is much more relaxed while pushing strands of hair from his face. It's not long before he's done having a shower plus use of the toilet. Standing before the polish metal that serves as a mirror, Draven takes his time studying his face, first on his eyes then on his skin along with markings, and opening his mouth, he takes in the state of his teeth. He makes a few faces and finds himself snorting every so slightly, even doing a mild, not really chuckle.

His hair is rather straight, plus long, and is far silkier then his hair as Izuku. Should I try to do something with it? He wonders to himself. Generally, he leaves it to its natural state with it going down his back. There have been a few times where he's had someone help him style it but those times had more to do with his obligations concerning his House. It hasn't really grown much pass a certain point and it's not like it feels odd, having it as long as it is nor just leaving it to fall on his back.

I wonder what White-Out's natural hair color is? He'd yet to inform X-Rei about his situation and isn't sure he wants to either. His relationship with most of those already in the know is... weird at times, particularly in regards to ErasingError and RetroInenium. The suspected Pro Hero that is ErasingError has this odd habit of treating him like teen in regards to the most random of things and at the strangest of times. It's only started when Wonderment Company fully settled in their Compound, which means that being within 'reach' might have something to do with it. It's been a while since that whole accusation concerning some kind of 'relationship' going on between X-Rei and him, they both had found the apologizing to one another to be awkward.

Do they even know about the fact that it's a little too late to try and put a stop to that kind of relations? Players might not be doing that with one another but they sure are doing so with NPCs... Draven muses to himself. Yes, he knows about White-Out's relationship with one of his staff and accepts that as long as both consent to it, it's none of his business, after all, it's unlikely his friend is using his position to force anything with her.

"Which makes me wonder... Why did he think that of me?" He wonders loud as he regards his face in the polish metal mirror, a look of puzzlement is being reflected back.

Sighing, he gives up trying to figure that one out, it's likely due to him just plain missing the right piece of the puzzle that would make all the pieces make sense. Standing up a touch straighter, he pushes his hair behind his back before heading out of the bathroom. A glance towards the door, he begins picking out what he wants to wear for the day, which ends up being a Black Silk Undershirt, a Snow Sheep Wool Jacket that had been dyed blue, Cotton Pants dyed a matching blue, he is sure to put on woolen socks before the pants, and finally, black leather boots. Draven hums to himself as he leaves his room, his pose and face schooling themselves to be a proper fit for a Devil of his status and position.

= - / o ^ + ^ o \ - =

It's kind of hard to swallow the news of what happened concerning those nineteen Players. Being on the Tyrant Terra Plane kind of gives him an excuse of working through his anger concerning those Players. Hitoshi finds himself breathing rather heavily as he stares at the body of a Screeching Glider, which is pretty much a four foot long sugar glider with dark brown coat sporting lighter brown stripes on the back plus a creamy brown belly and throat. The dead Monster sporting three of his Enchanted Thrown Daggers and five of his Poison Dart Ammo from the firing Gauntlet that X-Rei created and is Equipped on his left arm with one left in the round.

This is the third Screeching Glider he's killed this morning. He encountered and killed four Dart Hares, six Fallen Leaf Vipers, and a pair of Bi-Horn Aurochs Bulls; this breed of Monster sports four horns in total. Pulling himself up, standing straighter now, he closes his mouth and marches forward. It's not long before he's Looted the body and as he is about to advance further, he gets a Message from X-Rei.

Reading it, he sighs before turning around and heading back for camp at a jogging pace. Damn it! How could I forget? I'm not the only one here! That I'm not the only one who's going to be affected by this news?! He thinks to himself as he picks up his speed.

Robo-Kun is heading for the Planar Gate. X-Rei's message read. Which left his friend, who's a Laborer, alone at the camp site.

"Did you Message the Company?" He asks once he's arrived to find X-Rei packing up the site. "Yea, not sure that it'll change Robo-kun's mind though. You know how narrow his vision is when it comes to viewing the world."

Sadly... The Elf Player mentally admits. "StringsJAM really should have pulled him from coming with us due to the Glacier Radiance Incident." He states as he moves to help with the packing.

"Still can't get over that name for that Plane... Permafrost Province..." The pink haired Human Player snickers and he feels a smile tug at his lips, he's in total agreement that the names of the various Planes can be so ridiculous.

It's not long before the two of them sober up. "I think I'm going to inform Draven of this too." He admits and feels his friend's eyes on him but doesn't remark about it. He does his best to focus on breaking camp, which should be a three person job but they manage.

Once done, he does indeed write out on a sheet of paper a message for the Devil Player. Rolling it up, he casts the Spell he'd been taught, it doesn't take the shape of a spectral leopard but that of a spectral eagle, which absorbs the rolled up message. The eyes light up and within seconds, the eagle vanishes from sight, crossing the void between Planes without the need of a portal of any sort, but then, the eagle wasn't a living being but a construct of magic.

There's a metallic rumbling and he turns to find that X-Rei in the driver seat of an almost motorcycle, it's kind of one only it's got twin wheels at the front while the body is more akin to a triangle with a set of wheels on either side of the widest part. "Are you sure you can drive that?" He inquires and his friend merely laughs, likely would be waving his concerns away with a hand if not for the fact that would mean letting go of the handle gears.

"To be fair, I doubt you can too!" Point. So he climbs onto the back area and takes hold of the hand holds provided. "Ready?"

"As I ever will be." Is his reply and with a slightly nervous chuckle, X-Rei does something and the machine jerks forward twice before finally speeding forward without a stop. The ride is terrifying in that she miss judged the space needed for the back end but she doesn't drive them right into a tree either. The few times they encounter a Monster, he's quick enough to cast a Shield Spell, so they didn't end up needing to deal with any incoming attacks or hitting said Monster with the vehicle.

Then they almost drive by RetroInenium fighting off a swarm of Corpse Makers; a single Monster is the size of a grown man's fist, bright yellow and orange in color, they also sport two sets of transparent wings, and come across as a hornet or wasp crossed with a mosquito, only instead of a stinger it's the needle meant to drain blood from the things it sticks with it. Swarms on average number thirty but it seems that their fellow Player found one that numbers over that, but then, there is a dead Bi-Horn Auroch not that far from where the Dracoform Player likely entered this part of the forest.

They come to a stop some feet from the battle site and he's already pulling out a Greater Fire Breath Potion from his Inventory. He throws it at the dense area of the swarm and using a minor Fire Spell to activate the potion in the air. The resulting fire ball is a decent size, which is to be expected as the potion usually has only one focus path to take out of the one who consumed the potion. The transparent wings burn up and he's already firing basic Dart Ammo into the thinned numbers.

"Stop helping!" Snaps RetroInenium. "If I died, I'd revive on the Expanse!" Which is where he was headed anyway.

"Yea, no. You're not getting off that easy, Robo-kun!" Growls X-Rei, who's using her own Firing Gauntlet during his own weapon cool down phase, where it activates summons more Dart Ammo from his Inventory and prepares to fire once more by taking from his magic reserve.

"Agreed." Hitoshi states. "You are not returning to the Expanse by dying, you idiot!"

"Yea?" And with that, he gives in and uses his Quirk. "I order you to fight until all of these Corpse Makers are dead!" There's a second but the command takes hold and there's a marked difference in RetroInenium's fighting style, there's no waste in movement, no over reaching. There's just this calm, almost emotionless, look and position.

In the next few minutes, the swarm is dead and his command fades, leaving his fellow Adventurer to jerk before turning to look at him. There had been no need to keep hold of RetroInenium's mind, given the nature of the command given. "You... you..."

"Yes, I did do it." Hitoshi states as he does his best to force his pose into a calm and collected one. "I finally used it on you." The Elf Player confirms once he's standing before RetroInenium.

Jaws snap shut as RetroInenium tries to figure out what to feel about this turn of events. "You. Are. Not. To. Blame." He states. "Those Players made their choice, they decided to betray us."

"They only did so because of what happened with Lord_Murder|Exploder! They don't know the truth of what happened with him!" There's clear accusation in the other's eyes.

"What I allowed to happen? Or the position that Draven found himself thrust into?" He muses with a icy tone. "Having to pick between who to sacrifice in regards to Ultimate Doom?"

It's clear that RetroInenium is angry, the off hand's hand balls into a fist while the other balls around the hilt of the sword tighter. There's slight shaking going on with RetroInenium's body and arms. "There's no good answer, in the end. Eight hostages still in enemy hands and the ninth isn't out of danger." The Elf Adventurer states in a matter of fact tone as he stares into the Dracoform Adventurer's eyes.

"There's a chain of command for a reason! There's laws for a reason!" Snaps the silver scaled Dracoform.

"The world is not so simple, RetroInenium." He states in a calm and cool tone. "Even now, there's no real governing body within here, even with the Guilds and the Company, the Players have the option of ignoring whatever decisions the collection makes. It's the same in real life, actually, only difference is, there's people capable of enforcing those decisions are those we call laws and death is far more permanent."

And we call those that break the laws Villains. Hitoshi thinks to himself. "Ah... Should you two be talking about this? Here?"

He's quick to glance at X-Rei, having forgotten she was here and capable of listening in. "How much of that did you hear?!" Demands RetroInenium and he palms his face with his right hand, feeling embarrassment on his fellow Adventurer's behalf over such a stupid question.

"All of it." States the Human Laborer and he sighs while the sound of RetroInenium's sword falls onto the ground, it's pretty clear that his fellow Adventurer has something new and more pressing to despair about. "And I rather not like the way it sounds like White-kun could have ended up as Ultimate Doom's pet monstrosity." The so called smile on her face, it's more akin to a snarl even thought the tone seems airy, light even.

"But in some regards, you did answer about whether or not Neko-kun was one of those Bosses serving Ultimate Villain." X-Rei muses. "He picked to save White-kun when Ultimate Villain had his sights on White-kun instead of deciding to go along with Ultimate Villain." And now Draven has his own nickname.

"To be fair, his choice was a selfish one." He admits to X-Rei. "Still, he made a decision and saved you regardless." The Human Player states.

"You just?!" RetroInenium clearly doesn't know how to respond to that. "Secrets!"

"Most of which spoken involve myself and Draven." Along with Lord_Murder|Exploder. He admits.

"Now, are you done running? You aren't the only one feeling the weight of secrets and the price of lies." Hitoshi asks RetroInenium, having turning back to face the Dracoform Player.

"Or we'll drug you up to the gills!" Chirps his friend.

! = - ^ o ^ - = !

"So..." His friend trails off and he sighs. "Neko-kun's Quirkless and was forced to forget his status as a Player, Gentleman Draven Ose is the name of the crafted persona that was slipped onto him."

X-Rei moves to side to his left, they did end up having to drug RetroInenium as the Dracoform Adventurer regained his 'resolve' to hunt down those nineteen Players to bring them to 'justice'. "So, his interface situation is similar to Nuala's?" He snorts a bit before correcting that, "It's likely more like, her interface is mimicking Draven and the other eight's interface."

"He's aware?" She asks after a minute of silence. He glances at her, turning his head just enough before sighing.

"Why don't I just start at the beginning? It'll answer most of your questions and give you an idea of why it's a secret." Hitoshi offers.

"Shouldn't Neko-kun be around for this?" She inquires and he couldn't keep himself from sporting a likely bitter expression. "He lives with the reminder every day... Besides, I did send a Message and another spectral eagle to inform them about your learning of this."

"Geeze, I'm not sure if it's worth knowing more if it's such a big deal." Complains the Laborer, who's using her hands to lean back on the log. Looking across the fire, he wonders about their options when it comes to RetroInenium, at this point, it's clear that Knowing is eating the other Player up from the inside.

He hates that he ended up using his Quirk to get the other Adventurer, sure, he had threatened the Dracoform Player with it at the end of the Glacier Radiance Incident, but never wanted to follow through with it! "What's with that face?" The Elf Player blinks and realizes that he's thoughts were on display.

"I might have threatened him with my Quirk but I never wanted to follow through with the threat." Hitoshi admits with a heartfelt sigh. "Today... Today I used it, sure, it was a simple order, one that he'd likely already been willing to follow but..."

"He wasn't thinking clearly." Remarks X-Rei and he snorts, feeling his eyes begin to roll before he knows it. "That's hardly the point! I... I just... it was just so simple, it was a cheat... He couldn't defend himself! I hadn't even given him a simple warning about what I was ready to do!"

"To be honest, even I don't know how your Quirk works, besides the stories of you being able to give people commands and they have to follow them. I doubt he knows a lot about it either, so giving a warning wouldn't have done anything besides give him a chance to, you know, kill himself with his own sword before you did anything." X-Rei informs him and he blinks before realizing that few people knew how he activated his Quirk. Draven knows... The Company leadership might suspect the trigger...

"Ok, point." He admits. "It triggers when someone gives me a response, preferably verbal one. It's called Brainwashing."

"Huh, interesting." X-Rei muses and he sneaks a glance towards her. "My Quirk isn't like that, it's called Zoom and allows me to see people or objects from far away."

"You know, this is a strange topic of discussion, I mean, yea, it's usually one that people find themselves talking about not long after getting introduced but something about... It just doesn't seem to..." His friend gestures about and it takes him a few seconds to realize how strange such a normal conversion topic is when, well, most Players don't have Quirks in the game.

"It doesn't seem to be a normal topic to talk about, does it? After all this in game time..." He muses and X-Rei nods her head, he sees her hair moving.

"Likely why it's become almost a taboo topic along with our real names and live outside of the game." She remarks and Hitoshi turns to look up at the sky as he considers that. "Imagine, once upon a time, people actually never had Quirks to break the ice with. Kind of a strange experience, almost historical in nature." He remarks after a while once he lowers his head and turns to look at X-Rei.

"Or a lesson of how Quirks have really come to shape our society in more ways then the obvious ones." His friend remarks as she gives him a smirk. They both remain silent after that, breaking it in order to inject RetroInenium with more sleeping drug and turning in for the night, secure that the Ward Spells will keep them safe enough or alert them to any danger.

= - / o ^ + ^ o \ - =

"How long?" Shouta asks Tensei, after all, it's clear that his friend's younger brother is beginning to find the weight of the secrets concerning Draven and Lord_Murder|Exploder hard to carry around. It's also more then likely that it's been signs of the toll before X-Rei's Message and White-Out's assurance that they have Tenya in their care and is sleeping, only mention of White-Out's Quirk being used in regards to keeping the Dracoform Player from committing suicide viva Monster.

"Shouta..." Trails off Hizashi while Nemuri gives Tensei a simple comforting hand upon a shoulder from her position of sitting to the Satyr Player's left. It's clear that this is hard on Tensei yet, he has to press on with the topic as it does relate to Tenya's mental well being.

"He's been feeling the weight of guilt from keeping his silence for sometime, hasn't he?" He muses and Tensei looks up at him, meets his eyes before nodding. "Yes, it got worse when we picked him to be White-Out's bodyguard. Being around him..."

So, he did his best to ignore it and to pretend it wasn't happening. The Dwarf Player deduces. "It's not like we can lock the kid up, Shouta!" Hizashi and he blinks as he looks over at his best friend.

"We don't need to lock him up, Hizashi." Nemuri states and he nods in agreement. "Tenya doesn't want to Know and with the right wording..."

"We'd have to get White-Out to go through with it though. And the kid doesn't like what his Quirk does." Pipes in Tensei.

"Getting Draven on our side would help with convincing him." Nemuri remarks simply and given the Problem Devil's history with said Quirk... He would be the best one to approach, as long as we word the command right.

"Given the events revolving around Draven and his previous requests when it came to the after math of said event, he might see the benefits of its use." He allows. "Although, he might try to see if Tenya could find it within him to make peace with the knowledge first." He admits with a sigh and Tensei's eyes brighten at the thought, clearly not thinking of it that way.

"Which would involve get an actual honest answer from Tenya." Hizashi points out. "Which likely means using the Quirk to get that answer in the first place."

"Either way, we'll need to wait until they return." He states. "It's going to be hard on White-Out one way or the other." He'll likely lean on Draven afterwards for moral support.

"How did that minor meeting with Draven go?" Hizashi asks, turning to look at Nemuri. She gets a thoughtful look on her face before speaking, "It went well, it was mostly about increasing the number of scout teams and suggestions of certain members being temporary hired for said mission, getting placed under White-Out's 'office' as it were."

Thinking that RetroInenium would need time to recover from this break and not suggesting that it's a larger issue. The Laborer muses as he considers the likely reason for such a suggestion. "Do we have enough information concerning Planar Travel?"

"We likely do, at this point. It's just a matter of actually using our modified Gate to travel to and from said another Plane." Tenya admits. "We have at least two different power sources for it now and the tests show that having two does help keep it stable when we didn't feed any codes to it. We have ideas for another two power sources if we need to increase the power needed for the Gate."

"How many Players are rearing to explore the other Planes?" Hizashi asks with a clear grin on his face and Tenya's previous mood gone. "A great many and we now have enough of those 'Illusion' Arrays prepared to keep our Members of our Company from being spotted or sensed as Walking Legends and Wonder Makers without any problem."

"That explains the complains concerning the number of Devils spotted near Order Territory." Hizashi remarks and it makes sense for the Company to assume the form of Devils as they know the most about said NPC race to pass themselves off as members of said race. Devils, both kinds, can be found everywhere among the Planes while the more hot headed Pillar Devils preferring the Expanse due to the presence of the Order, a group that they can raid to their hearts content as most of the elder Pillar Devils have long term interests outside of the Expanse.

He has used the Poly-morph Array that's modified to hold Illusion anchors to pass himself off as a Werewolf. Spent a good month in the Packland of Fenrir's Grave just to ensure that it could pass such scrutiny of a race known for keen senses. He'd pass himself off as a child as well, which gave him leeway in regards to his lack of knowledge and manners. A runt of a Werewolf child at that.

It's not long before the topic changes to vacation spots and over due vacations, which Hizashi makes certain he knows that he's got little say on the matter when it comes to taking time off for some R&R. Shouta merely keeps silent, he's tired and wouldn't mind slipping away to take a nap. Letting their discussion just sweep over him.

= - / o ^ + ^ o \ - =

"Why the long face?" Draven manages to control his startlement to look up and finds not just Nuala standing before his desk but another two Pillar Devils, only they appear to be under the age of twenty years of age. The way their eyes shimmer is a very big clue to their being under two decade years of age.

"Nuala." He greets the Fae Player, glancing at her once more. "Who's your friends?"

"Their names are floating above their heads." She points out and he glances at the two again, his eyes focusing on one Rosa Bathin. Dark green hair that's short and spiky with a skin color of a rich brown while her eyes are shimmering through the various shades of red. Like most Pillar Devils under the age of twenty, the body doesn't really hint at gender, making Rosa's appearance something akin to a handsome woman or a pretty man if not for the name.

House Bathin... Duke tier Pillar. The Devil Player muses while said Rosa Bathin seems to be focusing on the rest of the office after a few seconds of returning his stare.

"Pleasure to meet you, Draven Ose." He turns to regard the young Pillar Devil, trying not to cringe at reading the House name. "It seems that the game has a sense of humor." The voice is the same one that inquired as to his mood.

"Well, it is startling to encounter someone sporting the name of a House of one of the Kings, Sir Splinter Paimon." Draven admits, it's an odd choice for a first name. Splinter Paimon's eyes shimmer through the color spectrum of yellow while sporting bright, vibrant blue bangs and silver hair that's longer and thus not as spiky as Rosa's hair, and sports rusty orange almost red skin tone. There's clear markings upon Splinter's forehead that could almost be pass off as a crown, it's hard to see if there's an actual band connecting the prong spikes that seemingly sport a royal purple 'gem' with an outline of gold and silver. Each of the prongs sport different size 'gems' along with having the seemingly gold and silver creating a different design, well, the three that he can spy between the bangs at least.

There's a clear widening of the smile upon him revealing that bit of information, which means that whoever is now wearing the Devil 'skin' hadn't done much reading concerning the Pillar House system that Noble Devils fall under. "And what of House Bathin?" Inquires Splinter.

"Duke tier House." He explains and Nuala chuckles. "So, both out rank you." She concludes and he shrugs.

"Their ages are showing." He gets three questioning looks and he explains more, "The shimmering eye color? It means they are under twenty years of age, they are akin to kids under the age of ten." He's not sure if that's explains it very well but it's more to due with how impulsive kids tend to be under that age, really.

"Oh, so that's suppose to be natural..." There's clear relief and he isn't sure what to make of that. "You... didn't land on the Expanse, did you?" Draven muses.

"Nope! Ended up on the Plane Apocalyptic Eclipse as someone wanted to leveled up before arriving here." Her gaze and that of Rosa's is on Splinter, who merely shrugs in response, clearly not ashamed of that plan.

"So... What's new?" Nuala asks and he sighs. "That bad huh?"

"Are you sure you want me to give you the news? I'm sure that ErasingError or Night/s_Thorns would be happy to fill you three in." Draven isn't sure he really wants to talk about it, particularly given that it's only been four days since they ended up having to modify RetroInenium's memory concerning certain truths that the Player felt he could not continue to handle knowing, not permanently, just until the game ends.

White-Out is holding up pretty ok, but then, it wasn't really him that did the memory editing, ultimately, all White-Out did was provide RetroInenium the means to forget the information he wanted to forget. It might not be much but, well, it gave the Dracoform Player control over the issue. Even if StringsJAM was clearly crying over the whole ordeal.

"Oh?" Nuala muses while the two new Devil Players seem to be studying him with great interest. It's pretty clear that all three of them are interested to hear this news now.

"Nineteen Players recently defected to Ultimate Doom's side and a long standing issue in regards to a Player got addressed." He explains in simply terms. "Said Player couldn't find it within himself at this time to come to terms with certain secrets and so, he was given control over the ability to forget those secrets that he couldn't reconcile with until the time this game ends."

There's a hard glint in Splinter's currently dark yellow eyes while Nuala sighs and there's a look of sorrow upon Rosa's face and within her eyes. "How... interesting." Remarks Splinter, while lightly and airily said, it's clear that he's angry.

Very subtle but the eyes do little to hide their emotions at that age. Draven muses to himself. Yes, the childhood he recalls at that moment is technically 'false' but it's been programed into the world, into his House members and records, thus it might as well be 'true' regardless of the nature of this world.

"Should I pay... White-Out a visit... Paimon?" Rosa pipes in, it's the first time she has spoken. He wonders if the pauses had to do with real names and figures it's more then likely.

"That sounds splendid but I think we should pay... Erasing... Error a visit first." The eyes are no longer circling through the dark shades of yellow and it's clear there's humor coloring Splinter's tone. It's clear that Rosa finds the name funny as well.

"Think you can set up three rooms for us?" Nuala asks before leaving the office. He gives a nod and she gives him a wide smile while the other two seem rather puzzled as to the request.

Soon enough, he's alone in his office and he pours himself some wine, feeling his mood not being as heavy as it had before their arrival. Leaning back in his chair, he considers this development as he drinks his wine.

To be continued . . .