Yes, I did indeed manage to salvage a plot hook from the books. Even though the 'world' in Orario has changed, there is still a little I can work with. So, let's get a little dungeon back into the story.

Chapter 32

The first thing we did, mostly so Ryuu would be less likely to just 'vanish' and try and fix this herself, was plan. We had a lead already, though he was most likely sleeping. We had a way of communicating to about half the Familia in the city, all at once. And we also had a way to talk to the eighteenth floor, so long as we got an Occulus down there.

"I know you want to run after this guy." I said, "But, that would be very irresponsible."

"And I've already grounded you for suddenly going to another world without telling anyone." Astraea said, "Though, that will be after Mia lets you off dish duty."

"This is a personal problem." Ryuu said, though, I could tell she was trying to convince herself, not us.

"No. This is a city problem." I said, "We have a murderer on the loose in the dungeon. Yes, you failed to kill him the first time." I tried to sound as gentle as possible, "But now we get to try again, without having the rest of the city after you for causing a mess."

She looked only a tiny bit guilty, but she nodded.

"And thanks to Eina... bending the rules just a little, your name has been cleared." Astraea said with a tiny smile, "While I usually frown on such things, my 'return' to the city was only 'official' when the crisis happened, and as with all the other Familia who returned, my Familia members were pardoned of crimes."

Most everyone else raised an eyebrow at that, "Bell, make sure to treat Eina to dinner or something." I looked to Hestia, "You can go with him to say thank you, for being such an amazing friend."

"I think this is my favourite thing about her." Okakai said.

"Always hunting, even when talking." Fukawa nodded.

Haruhime giggled quietly, Aisha grinned, and just about everyone else looked at me. I could only shrug, so I continued, "To expand on people who we are in good standing with, Welf and I will make an Occulus pair for the tavern on the Eighteenth."

"Oh! It would be a good goal for tomorrow's trip." Bell nodded, "The two from Soma Familia are working really well with our team now."

"They're still green, but their new equipment is a perfect fit for them." Aisha nodded, "Okay, so we give the barkeep a stone. I suppose we'll have him keep watch for us?"

"That's right. Of course, we'll have to give him a little something for his time, much like we would to anyone for a little information." I nodded.

"Being down there, and needing to send word up for supplies must be slow." Maki said, "I think giving him a way to 'order' supplies is a big enough favour."

"That's true. But still, no point in souring a chance at a free favour later." I smiled.

"I see." Ryuu nodded, "From him, word will spread."

"Oh, not just that. Bell? Where's our Occulus for the Hub?"

"I've got it." Aisha said, "Bell has the one for the house." She undid the metal bracelet on her wrist and handed it to me.

It might have looked silver, but it was actually highly polished steel. Functional, but very pretty, just like the owner. "You see, where I'm from, every city had a network like this." I pulled a little leather cover away from the occulus stone, "Hub? This is Hestia Familia."

There was a moment of silence, and I caught a little motion in the small glass stone, "This is the hub, how may I assist your call?" It was difficult, but I could see that the operator was missing an eye and ear on the left side of their face.

"We are searching for a known murderer. Highly dangerous." I replied.

"Understood. Please describe them as best you can, and their last known location."

I handed the bracelet to Ryuu. After a moment, and a pat on the shoulder from Astraea, she spoke into it, "His name is Jura Halmer. Catfolk. 1.7 Zelch (metres) tall. Black hair. Left ear missing. Right arm missing." She paused, took a breath, then finished with, "Formerly of Rudra Familia. He is a high class monster tamer, and carries a red whip. At least level four."

She stopped, then handed the bracelet to Bell. As it changed hands the operator asked, "Understood. Last known location?"

Bell made sure to give Ryuu's hand a pat as he took the bracelet, trying to comfort her in that (for some, infuriatingly) innocent way of his, "We saw him last in the water basin, twenty-seventh floor."

There was a pause, then, "Is the Hestia Familia offering a bounty for his capture?"

I looked to Ryuu, who shook her head, and held out my hand for the bracelet. "No. We are willing to compensate for information on his location, but advise anyone seeing him not to engage. He is a monster tamer, and may have unseen allies in the dungeon."

Another pause, "Understood. We will relay the information presently. Will that be all?"

"Unrelated. Another Occulus stone will be delivered tomorrow, and be connected to the tavern on the eighteenth." I said.

"Understood, another booth will be made ready for it. Good luck, Hestia Familia. End communication."

I smiled and did a slow count in my head. At about thirty seconds, as I was handing the bracelet back to Aisha, it vibrated slightly (my little addition to the enchantment on the smaller occulus stones) and that same operator's voice said clearly, "This is the central Hub. Hestia Familia has reported a known murderer. Last seen on on the twenty-seventh floor, he is a 1.7 Zelch catfolk by the name of Jura Halmer. Left ear missing. Right arm missing. Armed with a red whip, he is suspected to be level four, and a monster tamer of high skill." A pause, "If sighted, do not engage. Anyone providing useful information on his whereabouts will be given reasonable compensation from the Hestia Familia." Another pause, "Please acknowledge."

I felt that little bit of pride I mentioned the other day to Takemikazuchi, while Aisha said, "Hestia Familia hears your message."

A different voice replied, "Understood."

"Now it's doubly important to deliver that occulus to the eighteenth." I said, "Well sister, think you can wait just a little longer?"

She didn't smile, or nod, or even shake her head, "I don't want anyone else to die because of him. The sooner we deal with him, the safer the dungeon will be." She said, standing up.

"This is how we dealt with criminals back home." Maki spoke up, "Spread the word, find them, then close the circle on them."

"Then hunt them down like animals." Okakai said.

"Civilized animals, but animals nonetheless." Fukawa nodded.

"And a cornered animal will make mistakes." I said, "Bell?"

"Ah, yes, I'll walk with you, Miss Ryuu."

Before finally getting to sleep that night, I made sure to give Haruhime a bit of personal care. While we didn't do anything that might've woken up the children, I did make sure to give her my best backrub. Something about taking care of her just made all the irritation outside this little haven of ours worth it.

After I was done, and she lay there in a near liquid state of relaxation, she gave me -that- look. Not quite guilty, not quite pleading.

"Did my love need a little more spoiling?" I asked very quietly, speaking next to her ear so I wouldn't wake the children.

She smiled just a little, and one of her tails tugged on my arm just a little. Obediently, I lowered my head a little more so she could mumble into my ear, "I'm a little chilly... Could you... ah..." She blushed, a sign that she was trying to say something potentially rude, "Change for me?" She asked after I gave her cheek a nuzzle with mine.

"Anything for you." I said, "Though, they might be a little noisier when they wake up." I mumbled back.

So, with a quick look around, I made sure none of the sleeping children would be in the way, and slipped out of my 'skin'. Now a tiger sized fox, I put my tails next to the children to keep them warm, and used the ones not doing so to help bring Haruhime closer. "Boop." She said, poking my nose with a finger that still smelled slightly of that tooth numbing gel, "Maybe we should get a fur pelt for our bed..."

I couldn't reply with anything that wouldn't risk disturbing the children, so I gave the tip of her nose a lick, then rested my head on her shoulder.

Aside from having to gather, and convince, a bunch of baby foxes to change back into two legged 'Renard' before they woke up the house with their excited noises, the morning went as usual. Oh, okay, not quite. Haruhime had woken up a few minutes before I had and returned the favour by brushing my fur a little. So, even after I changed back to try and corral the children, my skin was feeling that weird pleasant tingle still.

Welf and I, before bed, had made another Occulus pair, and today's 'dungeon team' had one half, while the 'day off' team had the other. The day off team was going to help Ganesha today, and maybe earn a little pocket money while basically relaxing. Funny to think of 'working' to relax, but it was basically like me 'working' at the Hostess of Fertility for a day. Aisha, Haruhime and our pile of rookies were going into the dungeon, along with Okakai and Fukawa. The Oni however were planning on staying a while. As much as being a door guard was -important- it wasn't much -fun-.

As everyone was gearing up to leave, going through multiple equipment checks, weapon checks, shopping list checks, etc etc, I felt a hand touch the outer wall of the property. Of course, everyone noticed me, noticing the 'trespass' onto my territory, as I looked directly at the wall near the gate. (Kind of like a cat staring at a wall for no apparent reason).

"Hello!" A moment later, Ironbeard popped up in front of the gate. Unlike last time, he was wearing all kinds of smithing gear. Apron, heavy gloves, tool belt, goggles, thick pants and shirt... like a true professional who actually had to worry about hot bits from working metal. "Wow, um, sorry for dropping by unannounced?"

Since we were all looking at the gate like we were expecting trouble, he looked a little nervous. To be fair, we WERE expecting trouble, but we relaxed a little when we saw who it was, and the rest of them went back to equipment checking.

Except me and Toshi (this morning's 'I don't wanna let go' child). We went over to the gate and opened it, "Master Ironbeard." I greeted. Then much less seriously I looked to Toshi, "Toshi? Say hello to the nice dwarf?"

"Bleeblublbe." Followed by a 'I want that' towards his nicely trimmed beard.

"Well, thank you." He replied seriously, instead taking a glove off and offering his hand to the child, "Pleased to meet you, little Toshi."

"You look like you came here before actually starting work today." I said, smiling as Ironbeard diplomatically ignored Toshi as he gummed his finger ferociously.

"That's cause I did." He nodded, "Got the message from the Hub about that cat person. Figured since I was there, I would come tell you everything."

"Ah, well, come in, and I'll get the team leaders over to listen as well." I nodded, "Now now, he needs that finger. Come on, leggo."

Bell, the two Oni, Mikoto and myself stood close by as Ironbeard started to describe what had happened.

"Well, at first it seemed pretty innocent. We were kicking around near the basin, hoping to gather a few materials like Master Welf." We nodded, since yes, it was a good place to get solid materials. "In the basin itself, things were going pretty well. Then one of us spots that cat, washed up on the short of the basin."

"Washed up? Really?" Bell said, surprised.

"Yeah. Just laying there, trying to drag himself out of the water. With one arm though, he was having a hard time. And well, we couldn't just leave him there."

I could respect that. I mean, sure, it bit them later, but the dungeon was the enemy. Even if you were from a rival Familia, you didn't just abandon people in need. Later, when everyone was on the surface, you made them buy drinks or something, but abandon them? No.

The others were nodding as well. "I suppose he told a story then?"

"Not at first." Ironbeard shook his head, "He did however stay out of the way while we cleared a little space and our supporter warmed him up a little. I was too busy fighting to see if his ear and arm were old wounds or not, and our supporter made no comment on it, so, I dismissed it as the best bad luck you could live through."

Yes, living to get back to the surface, no matter how injured you were, was still a win.

"Chigusa-chan did notice that his wounds were very well healed for the amount of blood on his clothing. But only after we had returned." Mikoto said with a frown.

"Don't be hard on her, Miss Mikoto. We were pretty busy." Bell said.

"Once he got back on his feet again, and calmed down a little, he started to help. He was pretty handy with that whip, and he slipped into a mid range support role. Keeping our archer safe so he could deal with harpies." Ironbeard continued, "He seemed really skittish, but otherwise competent. But it was clear he needed a real rest."

"And that was when you went back up a little?" Bell asked.

"Yeah..." the smith sighed, "We had a couple of drops by then, and were going to rest a bit soon anyhow. So we got ourselves into that room, secured the walls, and got a little fire going."

'Secured the walls', for those who didn't know, was a term some used for damaging the dungeon walls a little, so the dungeon would prioritize repairing the walls, instead of spawning monsters from them. It was something we were doing more as our Familia stayed in the dungeon longer, before I ended up... yeah.

"I'll admit, we were pretty tired. But it had been a great haul." Ironbeard smiled bitterly, "We had just eaten and were settling in for a bit of a nap rotation, when that... thing broke through the wall."

"Eina-san has told us of monsters who tunnel through walls, but we have never encountered them." Mikoto said, "As well as monsters who move between floors, but again, we are still inexperienced."

"We were just as surprised." Ironbeard said, "Sure, I've heard of a few things, but they're supposed to be deeper down." He shook his head, "From there, well, the cat and I managed to get out of that room. Enclosed space, surprise, half our equipment off for either repair or rest..."

"Perfect ambush." Okakai said.

"Yeah. I wasn't really attached to my armour, so I just cut it away so it wouldn't slow me down." Ironbeard said. I noticed Bell and Mikoto nod, making me think they knew this part of the story. "Thankfully, I'm my own armourer, and don't have any commissions on at the moment." Again that bitter smile.

We stood there a moment, and I could tell Bell and Mikoto were both thinking. The Oni, as usual, looked passive, but that was normal. "This makes me think he's based around that area." I said, "Lots of smaller rooms right?" I myself was inexperienced here, "Little side paths, a few known frontier areas...?"

"Yeah, it's kind of like the eighteenth." Ironbeard nodded, "Dangerous, but if you aren't stupid, you can find spots to rest that are safer than the others."

Aisha came over, probably wondering what the delay was, "Yeah, there is one room near the top of the ramp that is half frontier. We stopped there." She nudged Mikoto, "Hey, you already have a solution to finding that thing right?"

Mikoto nodded, but gave Aisha a bit of a glare. One of her special skills, who's name I forget, was to be able to sense any monster she'd encountered before. It also had a variant that detected Familia members. Very handy when someone was playing hide and seek and had forgotten about dinner. Thinking on it... these were very much like Ki abilities, and not magic...

"Well, if you can find that mossy ba-" He stopped cold, looking at my two golden tails as they arched menacingly, "Thing, give it a good thrashing." He nodded, "Anyhow, that's all I know about him. Didn't even get a name."

"If we spot him, shall we leave him be? Or bring him to Ryuu?" Fukawa asked, his lips peeling back a little, not quite smiling.

"We wouldn't want to deny her." Okakai said.

"Stop by the Hostess and ask." I said, "Fair game on the mossy thing though."

They nodded, tapping their nice new Kanabo on the ground lightly. "This reminds us." Fukawa said, "Hmm..." They turned to go back to the main group.

I wondered what that was about, but figured if it were really important, or even particularly noteworthy, they'd say something.

"Well Miss Kodori, I think that was very helpful." Bell said, Mikoto nodding once, "Oh, should we stop by the Pharmacy? Miss Cassandra and Miss Daphne..."

"Do that on the way." I said, "Stick around a minute or two." I gave the dwarf a pat on the shoulder, "Going to see them off."

"Sure." A pause, "When the heck did you get there?"

"Woo? Woowoo?"

Aisha Mikoto and I walked back to the group, who looked to be all set to go. I spotted Lilly giving Okakai her spare skinning dagger as well and figured that's what they meant. To be fair, it was basically a razor sharp toothpick in his hand, but still the right tool for the job. I'd have to make a pair for them when I got a chance.

"All set guys?" I asked as we got close enough, making sure to stop next to Haruhime and give her the smallest of hugs, "Remember, keep in touch, don't take too many chances, and keep an ear out. As much as we need to find this guy, staying alive is more important."

"Yeah, I guess we have no excuses now." Welf tapped his new bracer, "Try not to burn the place down while we're out."

"No worries there. Grounded remember?"

"Take care Ko-san." Haruhime said quietly while the others laughed.

Next to me, Aisha very discreetly gave my butt a squeeze, "Don't worry Fox, I'll bring them all home for you."

She grinned back at me as I returned the favour, though her rear was much firmer than mine. I'd need to do more leg, on leg day.

"See that you do." I said with a smile of my own, "I'll keep the place warm for you."

With everyone gone, and a little tending to the children done, I got back to Ironbeard. "Sorry for the wait." I said, smiling as he tried to figure out how to shoo the metre tall birds away without looking impolite.

"These are the oddest things." He said, taking one step forward, only to have them all move back exactly one step as well, "Did you train these guys? Or what?"

"We do have an animal expert here, yes." I said, "Shoo, he's a friend."

Like a switch, they all seemed to lose interest, and wandered towards Gros's cage. "Huh. Wonder if their feathers would be useful." He looked at me, "I'm sure you can feel it too, right?"

I nodded, a little surprised, though, it shouldn't have shocked me at all. "They are the only ones of their kind in the world, so I'm waiting a little longer before I start plucking feathers."

He nodded, "So, did you need something else from me?" He asked, "I mean, not that I mind a little quiet time. This place feels... I dunno, nostalgic somehow?"

"Oh no, it's not what I need from you, but what you need from us." I smiled, "As a fellow crafter, I'd like to offer you something from the shop, since money would be... less useful to you."

To see a grown man's face light up like a child on Christmas, was almost as good as making Bell into a stuttering idiot. "Really? Heck, I won't say no, for sure! After seeing what you made the other day, and glancing at the materials you have stored here..."

I opened the door to the workshop, laughing a little, "Oh hey Hagane."

"Hrrm." He didn't even lift his head from his spot in the corner.

I paused, "Problem?"

"I am too sharp for the children, and their noises make my ears hurt."

"Oh, well, lemme settle old business first." I motioned to Ironbeard, "Okay... I think... Aha!" He followed me down one of the rows of shelves until I stopped at a barrel, "Welf must have moved it. Anyhow." I said, with a bit of a theatrical flourish, "This! Is our scraps barrel. One of them at least... There's another one there, but this one is for fabric type stuff, and that one is for... less than perfect monster drops."

"Less than perfect?" He didn't seem insulted, but genuinely curious.

"Orc hide with inconsistent thickness. Teeth with cracks or cavities. Horns with odd shapes." I pulled a random example out, "Shells with cracks in it." It was a bit of beetle shell with...

"You okay?"

"Yeah... Yeah." I said after a moment. It was a bit of beetle shell, from the day of the 'disaster', the day I ended up in Kuoh. "Ah, well, anyhow." I shook my head to focus myself, "Basically, it's stuff we would need to put effort in to find use for. Sure, it's not use-less, but well, we have all kinds of perfect teeth or what-not, so these just get put aside."

He nodded, "Less convenient to start with, but just as useful in the end."

"Yeah." I managed to recover my smile a little, and found a leather sac, and a smaller pouch, "Here you go, what ever you can cram into these is yours."

Again, his eyes lit up. It wasn't that these things were exceptionally valuable. With so many adventurers going in and out of the dungeon, they were reasonably abundant. But, to an artisan, they were useful. Not just that, he was probably saving a lot of time on finding them as well. I mean, off the top of my head, I could think of four different places to find teeth, six for fabric, three for leather, two for 'exotic cloth', and that was just in the markets of the city, and not the dungeon.

In the end, he picked up a bunch of teeth, a bit of shell (not the one I'd picked up, since I hadn't put it down yet), a few scraps of salamander wool, a sheet of already cut up orc hide, and a patch of drake scales that might have been big enough to cover a dinner plate.

"This is really generous of you!" He grinned, securing the pouch to his belt and (carefully) slinging the bag over his shoulder.

"Keep your payment quiet, since I don't want a bunch of people coming and trying to feed me false information for 'gifts'." I said, breaking his good mood a little, but getting a nod of understanding, "Otherwise, enjoy your time in the shop. Consider this my investment in you, so you can return home at the end of the day."

We shook hands, and I saw him off the property. He was practically dancing as I watched him walk down the street towards his next destination. On the way back up the path towards the manor, I did a quick 'look' through Fen-chan's eyes, made sure the children were still sleeping off breakfast, and returned to the shop.

"Hmm?" Apparently Hagane hadn't expected me back yet.

"Kids are still sleeping." I replied, kneeling down next to the giant metal cat and rubbing the top of his metal skull, "Let's take a look at you and make sure nothing will fall off the next time something happens."

"Very well." His metal legs scraped over the stone floor of the workshop quietly as he rolled onto his feet and sat like a good nightmare catto. "Ears too?"

"Yes those too. Though, I'm not sure how I can make them 'more' lifelike than I have already. Not really anyhow... well... maybe..." I looked towards my alchemy set... except it wasn't there anymore.

"One step at a time." He said, "Have you made any progress on your armour?"

Carefully, I started to look over the outside of his body, checking each segment of his long serrated tail. "No. Too much politics in the air, and that's before the children." I stood up, "Lemme get a file or two." I entered the smithy and hunted for a couple of Welf's sharpening files.

"I've been thinking a little on it. With my abundance of free time."

"You, or her?" I returned, kneeling down again and finding the nick I spotted a moment ago, "If I had to guess, you're about 75 percent different people at this point."

"Too rigid a way to put it. It's almost like... oh... Issei was doing this in school before we separated..." He looked up at the ceiling, "Ah, networking computers. She is the mainframe, I am a terminal."

"And a terminal must be able to run the software, even though it isn't stored on it?" Wow... I really made Hagane's body tough... This was going to take forever to sharpen...

"Something close to that." He said, "Without her power, I would run out of 'batteries', and be left with nothing but the soul fragment inside my chest. I will say however, that with what you've put onto this body, and the natural magic density in the air, I could probably move around without any power at all."

"Even Jiru is looking super healthy because of the more abundant mana in this world." I nodded, "Hmm, going to have to make better files."

"Admittedly, if I did anything other than move I'd run out of power nearly instantly. But I can at least stay awake on my own, or not, as I please." He sounded almost happy about that, and I couldn't blame him. I mean, before I hooked him up to his own power, he was unable to do anything but sleep. "But, returning to the previous topic."

"Enlighten me, oh wise dragon." I said without a hint of sarcasm.

"You 'translated' Fels's occulus on the other side, from the magic he used here, to the magic used there."

"I did. I even left it there, since it wouldn't work here anymore."

"Could you not do the same then, in reverse?"

"Technically, yes." I nodded, looking down at the poor file, that was very quickly turning into a smooth plate of metal, "With the Occulus though, much of what needed translating was stuff I knew from the HIDA project. Light, sound, colour."

"Hmm. You did send back a couple of books on Mathmagic, did you not?"

"Yes. But again, time."

"You have HIDA-lite still." He said, "And you can charge her battery. The camera works still as well, correct?"

"You want me take a picture of all the pages, and have her study it?"

"I do not want you to do anything." He said in true 'wise dragon' fashion, "I am merely pointing out that you can."

"That's a really good idea. But... wait, she's an A.I. She could probably figure out new ways to do things... maybe? Oh wow... This could go really well, or very badly."

"She doesn't have hands, has no network to connect to, and will run out of battery power without someone plugging her in."

"Okay, so she probably won't turn into Skynet. That's a plus. And if she does, it will be for like... four hours at max computing output. What could go wrong?"

"Heh."

"Okay, well, I'll do that after. How's your hip?"

After working with Hagane, having lunch with those who stayed home, working in the alchemy lab to keep our potion supply from running out, and generally being domestic, I got work with HIDA-lite.

"Oh who is the cutest little bean?" Her 2D pixel image waved to Kei, who squinted at her as if trying to figure out what was going on, "Oh, lemme turn down my screen brightness just a little. Don't want to hurt your little eyes."

"Very thoughtful. Unlike your original." Hagane said, "It's weird to think of my skull feeling drafty." He carefully raised a paw to cover part of his skull. I'd taken out one of his 'ears' so I could tinker with it a little.

"Well, the contents of your skull in no way diminishes the integrity of your character." I said, very carefully putting a tiny spot of liquid rubber sap in the middle of one of the little plates he used to hear.

Hagane's ears, or rather, 'inner' ears, were kind of like a spiral shell, like a nautilus. Sound would enter, and vibrate over each of the thin plates, allowing him to hear and interpret sounds. Unfortunately, being metal and hand crafted, he'd always have a bit of a 'tin ear'. And while his hearing was quite good, he lacked any sort of 'organic' bits to muffle or reduce resonance. It's why glass will shatter with certain pitches of sound, but not your ears.

"Well, hopefully this works. I rather enjoyed music when I could listen to it without pain."

A moment or two later, the rubber had hardened to the metal, and I slotted his ear back in place. I then took his other ear out and said, "Okay HIDA. Play a piano scale, one second between notes."

"From the top. Oh, hold on..." A pause, "music file here, pull a sound bite, shuffle shuffle, there!"

"Just raise a paw when the sound cuts out, or causes pain." I said.

It took a little while, and a few retries with the rubber sap, but eventually we got both Hagane's ears back in and working. By this time, Kei had fallen asleep, I'd traded children a few times on my 'in front' baby harness, and now, Toshi was giving HIDA-Lite the same 'what are you' squint eye.

Also, while I'd been working with the rubber sap, I finally got around to making a few teething rings for the children. Maybe now feeding time would be less painful. Or at the very least, we wouldn't have to worry about the couch legs getting chewed on.

"I think this is the best we are going to get." I said, "When Maki gets home, maybe ask her to play something on her zither?"

"I may just do that." He nodded, "Oh fine." He moved a little closer, his voice drawing Toshi's attention and prompting the 'I want that' grabby hands, "I look forward to the day you can do this without covering my head in second hand drool."

"Well, at least you don't have a touch screen?" HIDA-lite said, "It almost makes me feel ticklish... I think?"

I looked at the phone screen, and yes, there was a tiny little fingerprint on it, "Well, lemme just... There." I cleaned it off carefully, "So, I'm wondering, up for learning something new?"

"Sure! I mean, that's kinda what I'm supposed to be doing. I mean... Without a place to put stuff, I'll eventually be unable to learn, but I still have most of this SD card!" She pointed to an icon, and it brought up a system menu, "See? Gasper put in the biggest SD card he could, since I was supposed to be learning everything I could before syncing up with HIDA-prime."

I did a quick look at her system specs, and yes, this was pretty good. "Okay, well, after making sure nothing needs my attention, I'm going to come back and archive something. Hopefully, you can pick it up, because I'm going to need help going beyond what's in the books."

"Oh? Wuzzat?"

"Mathmagic. I'm pretty sure 'dimensional space, compression and retrieval' isn't in the beginner and intermediate books I have."

"Ohhhhhh, that sounds..." A pause, "Well, I can try? I'm kind of not allowed to do that."

"What do you mean?" I tilted my head a little, "Did Gasper put in a block or something?"

"Well, sort of. Remember that thing with Cao Cao? How I translated that teleport circle and cracked the wards protecting the other end?" I nodded, since yes, it was a pretty memorable event to be sure, "Well, Gasper had a little pressure put on him for that. Apparently having a super computer that can crack almost every magical defence in a matter of minutes makes people nervous." Her little avatar shrugged, "So, he had to tell me I wasn't allowed to do it anymore. And since I'm hard coded to listen to him, so long as it isn't in violation of the three directives, I technically can't learn 'magic' anymore."

Huh... "Well, if he told you that you could?"

"Well, then I could! Now, I know you could just logic this away, and tell me the rules are different here and stuff..." Her avatar started to do that cute little 'poking index fingers together' thing, "But... Could you not do that?"

"She isn't in the habit of doing that to friends." Hagane rumbled, moving his head just a little so Toshi could paw at him in a different spot, "Her enemies on the other hand..."

"Did you want to talk to him as well? Maybe the rest of them? Or even HIDA-prime?" I asked gently, "I could set up the Occulus for you."

"Please? I don't want to impose, but... I think I miss them? Yeah, that's probably it."

"Sure. Tonight, I'll get in touch with them, and get you set up so you can talk." I had no idea if it would provide comfort, but I gave her virtual avatar a pat on the head with my thumb, "Sorry for not thinking about it sooner."

"Heehee. It's okay. I'm gonna... I dunno... compile some notes or something. Yeah! Oh, maybe... hmm, heh heh..."

"I'll put a fresh stone into the converter, and get you plugged in." I said, "Let's go get a start on dinner."

"Message for the Hestia Familia." Everyone else in the house was either doing things with the children, or relaxing in some other way while I made dinner. Since my hands were free, not counting vegetable cutting or the like, I had the 'house' bracer.

So, I paused my work just long enough to uncover the little bit of glass and say, "This is Kodori of the Hestia Familia." Before going back to work, hmm, maybe some rice...

There was a pause, maybe because the only thing they could see was the underside of my bosom as I worked on the cutting board, "Ahem, the inkeeper on the Eighteenth floor, would like to talk with you, should I connect you?"

I took a moment to give the bracer a little turn so they wouldn't be talking to the underside of my left breast, then said, "Yes please."

There was another pause, then a quiet 'click' of two bits of glass touching, then, "Hello? HELLO?! Is this thing working?" The half familiar gruff voice of the innkeeper asked, much how anyone who didn't have a clue about a phone would ask. "Oh! I see... a chin?"

"Good evening." I replied, "I can hear you just fine. Getting dinner ready for the house."

"Oh hey! Yeah, your Familia dropped off this... thing... a little while ago. It got busy, so I only just got to it now."

"Busy?"

"Well, with all the fuss a little while ago keeping people out of the dungeon, everyone is hell bent on making money again!" He laughed, "And that means more work, and money, for me!"

"Good to hear." I nodded, "So, they told you all about 'the problem'?"

"Yeah." The good cheer in his voice vanished, "As well as catching me up a little with everything else. Cryin' shame about Ganesha Familia. And Dolos too. I hear you're the strongest in the city now too! Fighting off Ottar and keeping Freya away and stuff!"

"Well, hopefully, Ganesha has it under control now." I didn't comment on Dolos, but continued with, "I don't expect the 'under city' to join the alliance, but could you help us with tracking down Jura?"

His voice went even more grim, "A murderer is bad for business. Bors might be a right bastard, and allows all kinds of things to happen down here. But he does not tolerate murder."

Bors. I only found out a little while before I 'left' Orario that he was the guy who actually ran Rivira. It wasn't a place affiliated with the guild, thus making it a 'free city'. And he was known to be a money grubbing heavy handed jerk. But, he was a natural leader, and had rebuilt Rivira no less than eight times in his lifetime. I'd only ever met him once, though Bell was less fortunate, and had more than one negative interaction with him. This made Rivira a bit of a 'black market' location. But, since it was still close to the guild's influence, it was pretty low key in that respect. It wouldn't take much for the guild to set up a quest to 'change leadership' of the town after all, so there were some things he did not tolerate.

"Good to hear he has at least a little bit of a conscience." I replied, "So, what will it cost for you to keep an eye out?"

"Right to business eh?"

"I am cooking dinner for almost thirty people. Dinner is serious business around here."

His good cheer restored, he laughed again, "Okay then. I want one of those 'ice box' things."

"I will have one in your hands the next time my Familia takes a trip. Two, maybe three days." I replied easily. I already suspected he might want one, but was saving it for exactly this kind of occasion, "I must tell you though, read the instructions."

"Well of course I will."

"Good. Oh. We were serious about the warnings about the one we are trying to find. Very serious."

"Yeah." And the good cheer was gone again, "I know all about this kind of business. Besides, without a bounty on his head, there will be far less interest in someone else hunting him down."

I nodded, since yes, that was why we didn't post a bounty. Money would have called too much attention to the matter. And competition. "Good. I'd hate to make more work for Bors. Animal tamers can be far more dangerous than normal adventurers, and he may have been down there for years, including the time of the recent disaster."

"Yeah. Anyhow, hope to see you in a couple days or so yeah? Oh, and did something happen to those two big fellas?"

"They're part of Takemikazuchi Familia now."

"Huh... Glad my god didn't turn me a different colour... Anyhow, how do you turn this thing off?"

NOTES

Well, there we go. Plans and traps and progress! Maybe Kodori will be able to get her armour functioning again? I mean, she put in a lot of work on it, and now it's stuck in a little ball of crystal.

As we wander into this next little plot point, and then the conclusion with this Freya nonsense, I am wondering to myself how to do the 'next thing'. That is the next crossover.

This is just the author's ramblings, so, grain of salt time. Power levels. On the one hand, you have a world with almost no magic (the JSDF), though that isn't including DxD (that might still take an orbital role). Then you have another world, with a little 'high magic' mixed with 'normal fantasy'. Aside from the 'Special region' gods, and their disciples (Like Rori), it's really just 'normal people'.

Then in the middle, you have Orario. Gods, magic, and even a level one adventurer is superhuman.

How the heck can I balance that? Should I even bother trying? Should I cut one or the other 'world' out? I mean, sure, people like Rori and the magic of the Special Region is pretty neat. And bullets and modern weaponry are very dangerous in the hands of trained professionals... But there is still HUGE disparities between power levels here.

Anyhow. Ramblings aside, I still have time to work on things. :) Party on, and see you all in five days.

Daeore on Ko-fi, if you want to toss a coin to your writer.

Daeore on Inkitt, if you want to read my book, Were Too?