Tokyo-3 Arcana
Chapter 6
Wait, What? / Oncoming Storm


Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm doing wrong (to correct it).


Tokyo-3, Horaki Household (Guest Room)
Monday, Morning

Limiry rose from a deep sleep, stretching her arms and legs. The previous days had been invigoratingly strange. Hikari had loaned her a pajama set that had belonged to Nozomi, until the girl had outgrown it. The cloth it was made of was a wonder! Soft and warm as nothing she had ever tried on. Limiry decided to get some bolts of the cloth, and comission a whole wardrobe of clothes. Maybe with some unicorns. No, no! Butterflies! It would surely please Desna.

Limiry jumped down from the bed, enjoying the feeling of the wooden floor on the sole of her feet. She picked up some playing cards from the floor. A welcome gift from the youngest Horaki sister. Nozomi herself had stayed with Limiry about half an hour past her normal bedtime, playing several games she had stashed in her room, mostly card games.

The gnome had enjoyed those games immensely. She had never had any idea that simple cardboard sheets could have such variety in form and rules. Being told that each player could have their own deck of cards, and modify them at length before sitting down to play had been quite the experience. Vaguely, Limiry remembered she had once played with a Harrow deck some time before arriving Tokyo-3, but couldn't remember the exact circumstances. No memory at all of where, when, or even with whom she had played with. What she could remember was that each Harrow deck was exactly the same as any other deck, allowing for variations in design and quality, but the cards themselves were the same.

She shrugged. What was important was the here and now.

To begin with…

Breakfast!

Delicious smells filtered into the guest's room, and Limiry began to salivate, despite these smells being from foods she had never tasted!

Even better!


Tokyo-03, Katsuragi Apartment (Not Exactly),
Monday, (Very) Early Morning

"So, is she ready?"

"Almost. I showed her the steps to the Light spell, and she almost got it at the end. We will keep at it after school. If everything goes as I expect, she will master a few zero level spells by the end of the week."

"Good! I can barely wait!" A soft thumping sound filled the room.

Shinji smiled. "I bet she will be casting Light tomorrow at most. Probably later today. She's very eager to learn."

"Best kind of apprentice, kid."

"Well… I must go. Breakfast and lunch won't prepare themselves."

"Only because you won't use magic to do it."

"There's that; I admit it. But I have my reasons to do it the regular way. First, Misato. I don't want her to know about magic, and more important, I happen to like cooking. I find it relaxing."

"Ah, to each their own. My tastes are much simpler, you know."

"And easy to prepare, I know. By the way, it's time for your recharge. Any preference?"

"I'm in the mood for a Shocking Grasp, if you have one."

"Sure. Baish agarath." Shinji rubbed his hands together. When he separated them, a coruscating trace of electricity connected them to each other, bathing his face and torso with a blue-white glow.


First Municipal Junior High School
Next to the Gym, Lunch Reccess.

"Guys, you're not gonna believe me!" Kensuke beamed with excitement. But before he could say more, the PA System blared an announcement. "Student Toji Suzuhara, to the Principal's Office immediately. Toji Suzuhara, to the Principal's Office, please."

Toji closed his bento, well… actually, Hikari's, but he had been lucky once more. Hikari had prepared to much food and shared it with him. "Oh, man, just when I was about to begin! Damn!" he mumbled.

"What did you do?" Kensuke opened his own bento, and began to pick on his food.

"Nothing! I've been a model student!" Toji held his hands up, protesting innocence.

"Maybe it's something old they have just found out." Kensuke offered while Toji stood up.

"Then they would have called you to, Kensuke. No way I would be the only one."

"True that." Kensuke nodded. "I'll tell you my news later. Now scram, or you might get into trouble!" Kensuke made shooing movements.

Meanwhile, Shinji kept silence, his brain was already running through the possibilities.' Why Toji? Why now? Why not Kensuke too?' He needed more information, but he had already decided he didn't like this, not one single bit. He would have to ask Toji later.

While his jock friend departed, Kensuke turned back to Shinji. "Pal, something strange happened when I was camping."

Shinji opened his own bento and started to eat. Between mouthfuls, he listened to his friend. "So, did you find an army hiding in the woods?"

"Nope, a woman!" He smiled as if he had revealed the secret of the ages.

"Really? Another camper?"

"Let me start at the beginning. I was picking up my stuff yesterday morning, when a strange woman came down from the hill, carrying a big axe." He held his hands apart a respectable distance, showing Shinji the size of the axe. "I thought it was strange, as she wore some kind of leather clothes, and rings and jewels in her hair."

'…That rings a bell…' Shinji thought; he nodded, and Kensuke continued.

"She's obviously not from around here, but she must have been raised in Japan, she speaks perfect Japanese, has a slight accent, but it's not as obvious as Asuka's. What's weird is that she had no idea of what Pocky is. She thought it was some kind of religious offering." Kensuke scratched the back of his head.

"What kind of accent?"

"Kinda guttural, but not German-like. Anyway, she lets me see her axe. It's a work of art! Every square centimeter of it, except for the actual edge, it's worked with all kinds of decorations! It must be worth a fortune! And it's not just for cosplay, she demonstrated with a piece of paper. It's even sharper than a scalpel! And she told me she had cut a tree just the past evening."

'Yup. It does ring a bell.' Shinji looked into Kensuke's eyes. "Short and wide? Very long hair, braided?"

"Braided, yes! How did you know it?"

"Lucky guess. You didn't say she was taller than you. I know you like tall women, so you would have mentioned that. If the axe was as heavy as you implied, she would have to be quite strong, therefore, muscular. And you mentioned rings on her hair, usually, people who uses hair rings also braids their hair, although some prefer dreadlocks. Dreadlocks are less common, though." He shrugged humbly.

Kensuke shot him an incredulous look, still smiling. "Really? Who are you? Shinji Holmes?"

"Nope. But I like the way that sounds, Dr. Kensuke Watson." Shinji mimicked putting a curved pipe in his lips.

Both laughed, although Shinji was starting to get worried. 'This complicates things, I need to talk to that woman. If I am right, she's actually a dwarf. What could a dwarf be doing here on Earth?'

"Hey, Kensuke, I would like to speak to her. She sounds like an interesting person."

"She is! I helped her get a room at Mrs. Hayabusha's Inn. I had to pay for it, but she gave me this to pay me back for my help!" Kensuke produced a small ring from his pocket, and put it on Shinji's hand.

The pilot examined it carefully. "It's very beautiful." He looked at it carefully, closing an eye. 'I will need a magnifying glass to see the finest details, but such attention to detail is either elven or dwarven. The designs are very dwarven-like, geometric shapes instead of organic.'

Kensuke kept on talking. "She also gave me a handful of these, I need to check how much they are worth." He put a couple of gold coins in Shinji's hand. "I'm going to check that after school."

The weight alone told Shinji the coins were almost certainly made of real gold, but he didn't recognize the minting. "Gold coins? Who uses gold coins these days?"

"No idea, I think these really are for cosplay, but if that's so, she really went the extra mile making them. How much do you think I could get for them?"

"A lot. But do not try to sell them as coins. On second thought, don't try to sell them."

"But I promised I would exchange them for her! She doesn't know the city."

"I will buy them. But I want to talk to her first." Shinji's face was absolutely serious, no hint of a joke there. "Can we meet her today?"

"I guess so."

Right then, the bell rang, and both picked up their stuff to go back to the classroom.


Tokyo-03, Abandoned Warehouse,
Same Time

A hobo looked for a place to sleep it off. Even with all the advances in the design, construction and operation of Tokyo-3, it was almost inevitable that a small percentage of the population would eventually fall into poverty, and even misery.

One of those unfortunate individuals had had a very long night, he had found a full bottle of high quality sake, and polished in a few hours. Now, the hangover was making itself felt in a pounding way inside his head, the bright light of the sun wasn't helping him in any way.

He stumbled into a door, and to his surprise, it opened with barely any effort, as the lock had rusted through, thanks to a water drip that fell directly on the padlock. Smiling, the man entered the place, clumsily walking inside.

His erratic steps took him into the warehouse's main room, a very spacious place indeed, cool and dry. It was also quite clean, although the man wasn't in any condition to notice that.

He dragged himself towards an old couch, and let himself fall into it- Turning around a couple of times, he got himself comfortable, and promptly fell in a deep sleep.

From above, eight black eyes watched him with interest.

The giant spider that had claimed the warehouse as its lair descended slowly from the center of its web, hamging head down from a thread of spider silk. Slowly, it skittered towards the hobo, walking silently on its eight long, black legs.

The man stirred a little, and the spider stopped.

Once the man started to snore, the spider resumed its way.

The man would never awaken, and no one ever missed him. That day, the spider fed well enough to grow even bigger.

The creature looked for a nice, secluded place, and soon, it was busily discarding its exoskeleton.


First Municipal Junior High School
2-A Classroom, Lunch Reccess (A Few Minutes Before).

"Asuka? Can I talk to you a while?"

The german raised girl was about to bit on a delightful morsel from the bento Shinji had prepared. "Huh? Hum, sure, Hikari." She put the food back into the bento, and picked up her stuff. "At the roof?"

"Yes! I have to tell someone and I know I can trust you." Hikari was quite nervous about whatever she wanted to talk about, Asuka noted. The gears in her brain began to turn.

The redhead pilot raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment.

Once on the roof of the school, Hikari looked around, making sure no other students were already there.

"Okay, Hikari, spill." Asuka sat on a corner, readying her food, while Hikari did the same.

"Well, I'm not sure where to begin. I have a new tenant at home."

Asuka rolled her eyes. "Tell me it's not Jock Stooge, please."

Hikari's face blushed beet-red. She looked sharply at Asuka. "NO! Why did you even think of that?"

"C'mon Hikari. Even Shinji knows you're sweet on him, and he is thicker than Unit-02's armor. 'Toji, hi! Can you help me with this? I made too much food for my family.'," Asuka was surprisingly good at mimicking Hikari's voice, and even her body language. She continued, "that is as big a hint as I have ever seen. Even Baka Shinji would have caught it by now. Only Jock Stooge can miss on a hint of that size."

Hikari seemed to be about to choke. "R-r-really?"

"Oh, yes. And Shinji says he likes you back. The idiot can't keep his eyes from you when he thinks nobody is watching. Kinda cute, in the grossest way possible."

"Then why hasn't he..?"

"Because you two are a pair of fools! You're too subtle, and he doesn't even know what subtle is. In your place, I would already have done something very direct!"

"I know…" Hikari averted her eyes.

Asuka glared at her. "What do you mean?"

Suddenly, the normally very self-assured Class Rep didn't know what to do with her hands, She settled on wringing the hem of her skirt, "I… um… Mr. Kaji…"

Asuka rubbed her temples. "Yessss… I see." She shook her head, a bit confused. Her heart was betraying her at times. She still held Kaji as the epitome of what a man should be; but since Shinji's return from whatever other world the Twelfth Angel had sent him; and even more, since they had actually talked, the Third Child was occupying more and more time in her thoughts.

"Look, let's not speak about that, okay? I have a lot to do." She picked a piece of fish with her chopsticks, and bit on it. She closed her eyes to enjoy better the rich flavors on the food. Wherever Shinji had been, he had brought some very interesting ways to prepare food, that was for sure. And five years of practice too. "What made you drag me up here?"

Relieved, Hikari continued. "Well, it's my tenant." She lowered her voice conspiratorially. "She can do magic, Asuka. Real magic!"

Asuka's eyes shot open, and she began to cough, trying to dislodge the piece of food that she had almost inhaled into her lungs. Scared, Hikari hit Asuka's back several times.

Desperate, Asuka punched herself on the diaphragm, dislodging the obstacle. She gasped and breathed deeply several times. She had to wipe a thin trail of saliva from her chin.

"Asuka! Are you okay?" Hikari's eyes were full of worry. Asuka nodded a couple of times while she recovered her breath.

"Magic?" she hissed, looking intensely into Hikari's eyes, trying to find if her friend was joking. She found no hint of a lie or a joke in her eyes. 'If this is true, and she really can do magic, I need to tell Shinji at once.' She thought.

"Hikari, have you told anybody else?" Her blue eyes bored on Hikari's brown.

"No, of course not! Who would believe me?" The Class Rep shook her head in negation.

"Good. Start from the beginning." Carefully, she closed the bento, lunch would have to wait.

At that moment, the PA System sounded with an announcement. "Student Toji Suzuhara, to the Principal's Office immediately. Toji Suzuhara, to the Principal's Office, please."

Both Hikari and Asuka turned their heads toward the Principal's Office. It was Hikari who broke the silence. "I hope it's not something bad."

"We will ask Jock Stooge later. Now, tell me what made you think your tenant is any kind of magical mystery girl."

"Well… It was past Friday, after school…"


Toji didn't arrive for the next period, increasing Shinji's worry.

Hikari interrupted his thought, barking her usual orders as Class Rep. "Stand! Bow! Sit!" Although her tone was the usual, Shinji noticed a little crease on her forehead. 'Hikari's worried about something.' he thought.

Before he could even think about that, Asuka tapped on Shinji's shoulder, passing him a folded note. At the first chance he had, he unfolded it discreetly to read the message.

No kanji, simple letterblock, "We need to talk. I have news. It's urgent."

Shinji folded the note back, put it in his shirt pocket; and mouthed the words "I have news too. And I don't like them a bit." back to his apprentice. Asuka nodded slowly, careful not to attract the teacher's attention..


Author Notes:

The equivalent to Tarot cards in Pathfinder is the Harrow deck. Instead of Major and Minor Arcana, the Harrow cards are set according to both the six statistics of a character (Dexterity, Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma), and the two axis of Alignment (Law/Chaos, Good/Evil and Neutral in both axis) and their nine combinations; resulting on a deck made of 54 cards, with no Jokers. Each card corresponds to both a Stat and an Alignment. There are no duplicates, each card is unique.

When doing a reading, the person formulates a question, and then takes a card from the set of nine cards that correspond to the closest statistic. For example, asking "Will I do well in my tests at school?" would be covered by Intelligence. That card sets the tone for the reading itself, and it is incorpored to the whole deck before shuffing it.

Interpretation is tricky, open and flexible; as it should be.

Paizo sells a deck of Harrow cards, with complete instructions for readings that can be applied to Player Characters. The Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path (a campaign made of six adventures) even features ways to incorporate readings into the adventure itself.

Now, on a personal level, let me tell you, it is quite interesting (read, fun) to use the Harrow deck to make readings at a party… If you are any good at being mysterious and dramatic you'll have a gaggle of women begging for a reading in no time at all!

Just be sure to warn each and every one that this is only a game.

(And let me know how did it go!)


I haven't forgotten the giant amoeba. We will see what's going on with it next chapter. And also check on what else has come from Golarion through the Shadow portals. There have been more arrivals to the Tokyo-3 area during the weekend.


The Baish agarath phrase has absolutely no meaning from Greyhawk or any other D&D setting (AFAIK). I just made it up. Although, let's just say that Baish agarath is the Verbal Component for Shocking Grasp. Originally, I though it could be the Oerth equivalent to "Bon appetit", but as I was writing it, I changed my mind.


Ah, a little extra note, Big Finish Productions has released three series of audiodramas based on Pathfinder Adventure Paths. Especifically, Rise of the Runelords, Mummy's Mask, and Curse of the Crimson Throne. One of the main characters in all three series is Ezren, the iconic wizard, played by Trevor Littledale. As magic needs some kind of cue for the public to know whenever a spell is cast, the audios feature an invocation to signal any spell cast. They are quite consistent, and Mr. Littledale's acting is quite convincing. He really sounds like a wizard.

If you have the chance, give them a try, they are very entertaining. Each episode lasts about two hours, except for the six parts of Rise of the Runelords, with close to an hour each. This series was the first one to be released, and somewhat of an experiment, as Big Finish's usual fare is Doctor Who. Their Doctor Who audios are very good, featuring the original actors when possible. Sometimes they are straight audiobooks, other times they are full-cast productions.

The second title for this chapter comes from Doctor Who, The Oncoming Storm is how the Daleks call him, due to his unique capability to throw an amazing amount of monkey wrenches into their carefully laid genocidal plans. And destroy astronomical amounts of Daleks in the process…