"Cheers!" The Tea Party members clinked their canteens together as they celebrated their victories. Nyanta and Taigamaru had prepared a feast, as Nazuna had said they would, and Kanami and Naotsugu were in the middle of an eating contest with Aihye as the referee, judge, and commentator.
"Oh! Kanami takes another plate! Naotsugu doesn't fall behind, he's immediately grabbed another one and is wolfing through it!"
From a fair distance away, Shiroe laughed awkwardly, doing his best to maintain distance from the raucous group surrounding the two competitors. Really, though, was Kanami serious when she said that they had saved all that food for me? Do I look like I can eat that much? He fidgeted on the rock which he was seated on, overlooking the main group. As hard as he tried, joining large, noisy groups just wasn't his thing. He always felt anxious when he was at large gatherings; simply remembering some of the Academy's banquets made his palms sweaty.
Nyanta watched the group as he stood behind Shiroe, also hesitant to join in. From some of the comments he had made, Shiroe inferred that he never did quite adjust to the amount of food some of their members ate.
"Wow, such a loud party - ah? You're …"
Shiroe and Nyanta turned around and saw a red-haired Wolf Fang with some other Adventurers around Shiroe's age.
"Eh? You're - Ragoumaru, right?"
The Wolf Fang's ears perked up in excitement. "Haha! Yeah, you're Shiroe! What a coincidence, you guys must've cleared a raid, huh?"
As Ragoumaru sat next to Shiroe, Ragoumaru's friends simply smiled at Nyanta awkwardly. "Ah ah, Maru, isn't it rude not to introduce friends?" A tall, white-haired Guardian asked as a blonde-haired Sorcerer tugged on Ran's ponytail.
"Stop that, Prome," he snarled, although the boy named Prometheus (according to the status screen) only laughed in response. Turning to the Guardian, he jabbed his thumb at Shiroe. "I met Shiroe in Yokohama. He just graduated from the Academy of Urumiya."
"Ah, isn't that when Piani wanted that cloak?" Shiroe glanced at the Guardian's status screen. His name was Dinkuron. Ragoumaru scowled and rolled his eyes in response.
"Speaking of which, where is she?" Shiroe didn't notice the young Elf girl anywhere.
"Hm? Oh, she's too young to participate in raids, so she's probably bothering William right now," the Wolf Fang replied, waving his hand as if to dismiss the subject.
A bespeckled Elf boy with short brown hair ("What's with all these Elves?" Shiroe thought) stood next to Prometheus. "You're so cold, Ran. You dote on her all the time at home."
Ragoumaru flushed in embarrassment and looked away. "I-I'm taking care of her because Mother told me to! Besides, Nia just treats me like a -"
"WAAAH~! You're like a giant puppy!" Kanami had dashed up the hill, having noticed the other party in the area. She immediately beelined over to Ragoumaru and started touching his ears.
"W-what are you doing?!"
"Nooo~~! Don't run away, your ears are fluffy~!"
"By the gods, no! She's like an older Nia! AUGGH!" Ragoumaru tried shaking off the amused Swashbuckler girl to no avail as Shiroe looked away in embarrassment.
A good while later, things had settled down at the camp, although Ragoumaru was still muttering to himself about the "crazy girl" as his companions snickered at his previous misfortune.
"-So Zo-muk has a new skill, that's what you're saying?" The brown-haired Elf named Touko reaffirmed the information he had received from the Tea Party.
"Yes, that's correct," Indicus replied, smiling sweetly at him. In spite of that, Shiroe could feel her glaring daggers at him when nobody else was looking. Um … did she want that information to be kept a secret?
"Where're you gonna go after this?" Ragoumaru asked, leaning back against the tree he was sitting next to. "If you're gonna head towards Tsukuba, then there's the Annual Festival over at Warabi Village you guys should see."
"A festival? Count me in!" Kanami bounced out of her seat, tugging on Shiroe's sleeve. "C'mon Shiro! Where is it?! Where's the village?!" Without even waiting to hear his response, she bounded out into the forest, away from the dungeon.
"A-ah, Kanami!" A moment of pause. "Well, there's never any use in asking her to stop, so-" Shiroe adjusted his glasses as he turned back to the others, "-I guess we'll be parting ways now."
"All right, then! Have fun!" Ragoumaru waved them off as the rest of the Tea Party hastily gathered their belongings.
"Guuuys~! C'mon, c'mon~!" Kanami's faint shout could be heard, with her figure barely within sight.
Shiroe sighed as they trudged over to their leader. "Well," Naotsugu piped up, "so much for getting to Tsukuba quickly."
A girl strummed the last note of a song she was playing. As her music faded away, it was replaced by thunderous applause and raucous cheers, some of it from other young-looking kids off to the side of the small stage. Her troupe was small, and thus only had a small stage in a niche corner of the festival, but it was nice like that, too.
"What a marvelous performance, young miss!"
The girl turned to her left. A blonde, wavy-haired man in impressive-looking gear clapped louder than anyone else in the crowd.
"Encore, encore! Young miss, your lute's music is beautiful!"
She giggled slightly as she replied. "My name isn't 'young miss,' it's Isuzu."
The man's eyes looked almost wistful for a second, but it disappeared, so she shook off the feeling. "Well then, Miss Isuzu, will you play another song?"
Isuzu shook her head. "It's time for the next musicians," she noted, as Milky finished collecting gold from the crowd. "But I'll be performing at the tavern tonight, and I'll be back here tomorrow!"
"That sounds wonderful! I would be most delighted to hear your wonderous music again."
Isuzu stared at one of the man's gauntlets. If she looked closely, it almost seemed as though faint music notes were dancing around it. "What is that?"
"Oh, this?" He lifted the gauntlet slightly. "It's a magic gauntlet, imbued with the power of a great musician."
"Is that why you like music so much?"
Just as he was about to respond, the maestro barked, "Isuzu! Stop slacking off!"
"Ah! Sorry, maestro! I'm sorry, sir, I have to go practice now!" she informed the man as she picked up her stuff. "I'll see you tonight, maybe!" Without waiting for his response, she dashed off after her friends.
"Tonight, huh? I'd love to make it, but now that I'm finally back, I doubt the others will let me run off to hear a performance. Isuzu, wasn't it …?" The man turned around and left as the next performance began.
Rayneshia stopped pacing for what was probably the tenth time now, straightening out her skirt and fixing her hair so that she wouldn't look so frazzled if someone happened to walk in on her.
"This is … this is ridiculous …" she muttered to herself. Kinjo, gone! And at such an important time, too! She paced the powder room twice more, trying to decide her next course of action. She stared out the window at the bustling streets below. For a couple of years after the Mass Disappearance, almost the entire continent had come to a standstill as those who remained tried to grasp the situation; Akiba was left a barren shell, devoid of its large Adventurer population. However, things had returned to how it had been prior to that event - but she couldn't tell for how long.
A sharp rap on the door interrupted her thoughts. Before Rayneshia could respond, the door opened, and Misa stepped in.
"Pardon my intrusion, princess. Is everything alright?"
Rayneshia realized that she must've been in the powder room for at least thirty minutes now. Hastily, she came up with an excuse to be alone, and while Misa did not look completely reassured, she had no choice but to oblige, and left Rayneshia alone once more.
After calming her nerves down, Rayneshia drew out a small communication medallion from her hidden pocket. It was wrapped in the slip of paper Coppelia had given her earlier. Rayneshia stared at the words written on the paper. Even if she could understand its meaning, she couldn't truly bring herself to believe it … and yet, that was the point all along. To weaken her mind … no, not just hers. Who knows who had fallen for that trick by now.
Before she could think about how to deal with the issue at hand, though, she suddenly felt a jolt course through her body. It wasn't painful, but it felt as though she was using magic, which she definitely wasn't.
"Could it be …?" Rayneshia resolved in her heart not to run away from the situation. She could do it. She would. Grasping her medallion, she contacted Coppelia. "Coppelia, I just felt a large surge of magic. Trace it back for me. I must find out its source."
No matter where the Tea Party seemed to go, trouble always seemed to follow.
Shiroe's mind was racing in what felt like a thousand different directions. Trapped, no means of escape. A mysterious man in front of them, with a Raid Boss behind him. And not just any Raid Boss, a level 97 one; it seemed to be a reskin of the notorious monster Uru of Ninth Prison.
Looking at the man's stats, it was obvious from the lack of detail that he was a Lander. Kinjo, a level 63 Half-Alv Successor. Compared to an Adventurer, he was theoretically weak. However, they were being trapped within a vortex of what seemed to be purple rose petals, and Aihye had carelessly confirmed for them that they would take substantial damage upon contact with them.
"What do you want, dress-man?!"
Of course, Kanami wasn't one to show fear in the face of overwhelming odds.
"... I want you to turn back from Tsukuba."
Shiroe furrowed his brows in an attempt to rationalize what Kinjo was saying. How could he have known where they were headed? They had barely even attempted to go near the city, thanks to Kanami's lack of a sense of direction.
"And why should we listen to you?!"
"... This is for the fate of Yamato. No, possibly the entirety of Theldesia. If the 'Pioneers' become as powerful as they were before, then the 'Genius' might return again. And if they return, who knows how many lives will be lost?"
"I don't know what you're babbling about, but I don't care! We're going to Tsukuba, and you're not going to stop us!"
"My lady, please, calm yourself!" Indicus placed her hands on Kanami's shoulder, attempting to drag the other girl away from Kinjo, who simply stared at her stoically.
"No, you don't, and perhaps that is for the best. Even if the other Ancients believe that you Pioneers will save us, who knows? Maybe you'll only lead us to further ruination, just like with the Mass Disappearance."
"The … Mass Disappearance? Are you saying," Shiroe asked with incredulity, "that the Pioneers caused it?"
"Oh, so you're the 'new' Shiroe that Rayneshia mentioned."
"Wh-what …?"
Kinjo's eyes seemed to become even colder than they had been before, boring into Shiroe's eyes, as if searching into the depths of his soul. "It's because of the 'Shiroe' then, and his miscalculation, that things could not go as planned. Well, it's no matter. You can't understand, anyways."
"Let us go!" Kanami attempted to throw herself at Kinjo, but Suikazura and Naotsugu helped Indicus hold her back this time. "I might not understand what you're going on about, but isn't it worse to make sure that we won't get it?! Roe-Roe is who he is, not that Roe-Roe of the past!"
He shook his head. "It doesn't work that way, it seems. You can't understand because you haven't observed this world like we have. All of these disturbances throughout the world have been occurring ever since your group has reappeared. These disturbances growing in severity after the 'Shiroe' of now has appeared cannot be a mere coincidence. Nakasu was razed to the ground because of the 'Shiroe' of 500 years ago. Even now, it remains a barren wasteland. I cannot allow that to happen again. Please, stand down. Go elsewhere. Just don't go to Tsukuba."
"No, I won't listen!" Kanami persisted, still struggling against her binds. "We're getting to Tsukuba, especially now that you've told us not to go! I don't know what happened with the old Roe-Roe, but this one isn't like that! He'll never do something like that!"
"This is my duty. I cannot allow any possible element to go unchecked."
"What is he, an object, now?!"
"... If you will not desist, then I may have to take some more … extreme measures. This Raid Boss behind me … did you think he was the only one I could control?"
"If you bring out more, I don't care! I'll-"
"Warabi Village might be popular, but it is still small, and has little defense of its own. One or two high-leveled raid bosses might be too much for it to handle."
"No …" Nazuna uttered, her eyes wide in shock. "Is he … is he really taking an entire village hostage?!"
"You coward!" Naotsugu roared, even while holding back the enraged Kanami.
"I won't say anything like 'I didn't want to do this'. While that may be true, it's your own stubbornness. Under any circumstances, allowing you to travel to Tsukuba will only be worse for everyone."
"You-!" Before Kanami could finish, the vortex of rose petals suddenly increased in speed even more. Although his facial expression remained the same, the slight tilt of his head was enough for them to tell that this wasn't his doing.
The rose petals shed their purple color, turning into a light pink for a brief moment before suddenly converging between the Tea Party and Kinjo. Shiroe shielded his eyes, in case any of them suddenly tore into him.
"Kinjo! What is the meaning of this?"
When he lifted his eyes, there stood a woman with long, silvery hair. She looked like … the mysterious woman he had met not far from Urumiya Academy. Some of the remaining rose petals still danced around them, but were much less threatening than they were before.
"You're …?"
"Princess Rayneshia. I should have known that you would intervene."
"These kids will be going to Tsukuba. I will make sure of it. If you wish to stop them, you'll have us Ancients to deal with."
Author's Note: I'm terribly sorry about the hiatus! Slogging through chapters 8 and 9 killed my inspiration for the story, and then I was too busy with work and didn't have the time to work on this. This chapter doesn't inspire much from me, either, which is why the title doesn't fit the chapter at all; I was going to involve more Isuzu, with the Tea Party having left Warabi Village when they're waylaid by Kinjo, but then decided against it. Hopefully chapter 11, which is a chapter I've been looking forward to for quite a while, will pick up the pace again, both in-story and out.
Some notes for the future, since I'm too lazy to go back into the previous chapters and change them (for now):
Log Horizon 9: Kanami, Go! East! revealed some information about the Tea Party members, including bits and pieces of their relationships with each other. As it turns out, the character Anba, who was in some previous chapters in LGAO, is completely different from the old translation I used. Not only is Anba male, not female, the proper name is actually "Kurama". So from now on, Anba will be changed to fit the canon description.
Also, since my ideas for this story were written up prior to volume 10's publication (covered in the last four/five episodes of season 2), I think LGAO's backstory will diverge from canon around that point. There are some explanations I devised that simply will not work with what volume 10 tells us, unless I rewrite those (which I may very well do, given how long it's been since I've written a chapter for this story).