Hello my fellas, long time no see, or rather, long time not read.
Here my update, hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, not even the soundtracks. Danmachi belongs to Fujino Ōmori, Final Fantasy XV belongs to Square Enix.
Is it wrong to seek answers?
Chapter 20: the Invitation
(OPENING: Promare OST – Gallant Ones by Hiroyuki Sawano ft. Mpi & Benjamin)
OUTSIDE – STREETS OF ORARIO – MORNING
Noct, Bell and Naza went outside the blue pharmacy since Miach ordered her to help them finding Airmid while Miach himself went to Dian Cecht. They agreed that the should go to the Guild at first to report about Airmid's disappearance. Noct remembered that since this world wasn't technologically advanced compare to Eos, they took such realistic images, like on the paper, very serious, especially if someone is tied up in chains.
„thank you very much for coming with us, Naza" Bell said while they were still going towards the Guild.
„don't get me wrong, I'm just following lord Miach's orders, otherwise I wouldn't even think to help that woman."
Noct could see that Naza looked rather angry. He then looked to Bell.
„Do they both had some bad blood or something." Noct asked Bell since he didn't want to provoke the bothered feeling.
„well, expect with Naza, Airmid is actually friendly to everyone else, even to lord Miach" Bell answered since he remembered never seeing Amid getting pushy, compared to the women who are following them right now.
„It's not only her but also her God, Dian Cecht, who gets even more on my nerves, " Naza said since she remembered how badly he behaved around her and Miach many times.
Bell and Noct could feel the bad mood coming out from Naza, which made them both slightly afraid.
„what if the kidnapper is right beside us ?" Noct asked Bell very quietly with a quiet sassy tone.
„n-now that I think about it...Naza is rather skilled with bows compare to swords or knives, and remembering how she used me for a quest ... " Bell quietly answered, also rather sassy, since it made sense, knowing Naza's and Airmid's 'not so friendly' history together.
Naza, who heard them, looked to them, with a rather angry expression, „IF I WERE TO DO THAT, I WOULDN'T HAVE SENT A PICTURE LIKE THAT, NOT TO MENTION SENDING IT TO YOU" she said with a strict voice.
Both Boys got more terrified for provoking Naza, who looked at the paper again, „AND DRAWING SUCH REALISTIC IMAGES, I'M A PHARMACIST FOR MIACH'S SAKE, NOT AN ARTIST." she still spoke with a strict voice, „even though I like seeing Airmid like that." she seemed to calm down after saying that.
She wondered if she could later use the picture as a target-image for Darts or even for her arrows when she is bored in her workplace.
„ „Naza ?" " they asked, now more terrified after hearing Naza's last sentence.
She then looked again at the cheeky boys.
„Sorry, it seems I've been exaggerating a bit" Noct apologized which seemed to calm her down again.
Naza, on the other hand, realized that Bell got rather cheeky unlike before. She wondered how much influence did Noct had towards Bell, which worried Naza also a bit.
They needed just to turn right then they would have been there, but then the 2 papers started to glow dark purple for some reason.
„what the? ….." Noct loudly wondered.
What's more, the papers started to move on their own, flying away.
„let's follow it! " Naza suggested, which they did since the papers were flying rather fast.
At the crossroad, they saw Hestia with other people running along, also following their flying papers.
Hestia saw how they joined, along with Naza.
„There you are Goddess, please tell me you found Welf." Bell asked Hestia with hopeful thoughts.
Hestia made a sad expression, „And Amid ?" Hestia asked.
Both her children looked sadly away for a moment, which Hestia took as a clear 'no'.
„I wouldn't mind" Naza bluntly said, which shocked them.
Hestia made a nervous smile, trying to ignore what Naza just said since she also knew about her's and Amid's God's relationship.
Since they were running towards the northeast, it didn't take for them to long to pass the Shop of Dian Cecht, who they saw was crying in front of Miach.
Dian Cecht and Miach then noticed the flying papers and the running group, which caused them to run along.
„HEPHAESTUS, HERMES, PLEASE TELL ME YOU KNOW WHERE AMID IS" Dian Cecht shouted cryingly since he knew that Airmid is never late at work.
This Question now shocked everyone present even more, „that's what we want to find out" Hephaestus answered to the crying God.
Naza, on the other hand, noticed that there are some Figures on the roofs of both sides, left and right, running along.
„everyone, look there." she shouted to her group.
She didn't realize it at first, but there were also flying, dark purple glowing, papers even up the roof, which have been followed by apparently other adventurers.
Then, they saw the northwestern city gates, where their flying papers stopped flying, while the ones on the roofs flew down, joining their papers.
Then, they saw two adventures jumping form each roof down.
The first one has black eyes and black and gray hair along with cat ears and a tail, looking at the bunch of people. He had a silver spear holding with his right hand.
The other one has gray colored hair, along with amber eyes, as well as a sleek tail and wolf ears, also now looking at the bunch of people. He had two shortswords on his hips.
"YOU TWO," Hephaestus commented since she didn't expect first-class adventurers like them to appear.
But then they heard more people behind, running towards them.
Noct and Bell recognized three of them as waitresses from the pub and also the women with 'far eastern style ' clothes.
The other was a woman with white clothes, long black hair, and red eyes and pointed ears, which Noct recognized as an Elf.
"Mikoto, Anya, Chloe, Lunor " Bell shouted, first wondering why they were coming along, only to see other flying papers.
"Brother! " Anya called to the black-haired cat-eared man, who for some reason suddenly had a bored expression, "you, ...", he looked away since he didn't want to interact with Anya.
The black-haired Elf seems to recognize the while haired wolf ear guy.
"Vanargand" she greeted clinically but still with a rather serious expression.
"Banshee..." he greeted back, but rather unkind since he also seemed bothered by the whole situation.
Then, they noticed a slight release of energy out of the papers.
Everyone looked and saw how the, now 9, papers were laying themselves on the surface of the city walls, arranged like a pattern of many rectangles, which resulted in one large rectangle. They were arranged on the pictures, which meant everyone could only see the empty pages of the papers.
At first, they saw nothing until a message seemed to appear on them:
EXCEPT FOR THE GODS AND GODDESSES, EVERYONE PRESENT MUST APPEAR AT A CERTAIN PLACE, IF ONLY ONE OF YOU IS MISSING, ALL HOSTAGES WILL BE SEND TO THEIR ETERNAL SLEEP.
After everyone read it, the message suddenly disappeared, only for another one to replace it.
WHEAT MANOR, BEFORE MIDDAY
After the final message, the papers disappeared into dust.
"T-That's Demeter's Familia home," Hermes said.
Suddenly, the black-haired cat guy went to Lunor, pointing with his spear on her nose.
" "Brother" " Anya called worryingly while he did that.
"I hope your Goddess will have a good explanation for this " Allen said threateningly to the afraid Lunor, who got mad herself.
"lady Demeter would never do such thing," she responded angrily, not understanding why Allen would immediately suspect her Goddess.
"OH REALLY, because as far as I know, it wouldn't be the first time, right," he said while turning his eyes towards Chloe.
"w-what do y-" Chloe was about to ask, but then Allen put his spear in front of Chloe's nose.
"The Casino", he said. Now, nearly everyone wondered what he was talking about, expect Naza, Mikoto, and Chloe herself, who now got very nervous.
"W-Wait Allen, I've heard what happened in the Casino, but it's very doubtful that she's the culprit," Hermes said with a rather nervous expression.
The black-haired cat man named Allen, still angry, now turned his head towards Hermes. Allen knew about Hermese's respectful dealings with his goddess and his honesty. Even his Goddess said that Hermes was nearly perfect if it's about assessing certain situations.
"according to the final message, we should appear until midday, which means we have still time since it's morning, so I suggest to make a small discussion about the current situation," Hermes said, "but before that, I think we should introduce ourselves since is a new face here. " Hermes suggested before turning his head towards Noct, who was now watched by everyone.
At this point, expect Naza and Mikoto, all-girls suddenly went beet red.
"good morning my friend, I think we haven't been introduced to each other, my name is Hermes, leader of the Hermes Familia." he introduced himself in a very eccentric and playful manner.
"likewise, my name is Noct Gar, I recently joined Goddess Hestia's Familia," Noct said while called goddess felt proud how Noct introduced while coming closer to her children.
While he seemed very eloquent with his speech, Noct didn't like him for some reason, even if his expression seemed otherwise.
An eccentric and playful guy with that much confidence, and what's more, with a hat. Noct didn't like that combination since it was very familiar.
'at least his hair isn't purple' he thought while thinking of a certain enemy he and his friends confronted many times back in Eos.
Hermes then looked to a blue-haired girl, "and this beautiful woman here is the Captain of my dear Familia, Asfi Al Andromeda."
Noct could see that she was slightly red, "g-good moring, n-nice to m-meet y-you," she stammered while greeting Noct.
"likewise." Noct just said, while trying to ignore the red color.
After he turned away, Asfi happily smiled for some reason, which was noticed by the three waitresses.
Then Hephaestus came along, "so finally we met, you're Noct Gar, who already got that much attention, seems Welf didn't just exaggerate while telling about you," she said while shaking hands with him.
"I guess so, and since you're here, I'm right to assume that Welf hasn't appeared, right? " Noct asked
"I just gave orders to look for him, but my instincts already told me that he really disappeared, so ..."
"we will find him, like everyone else, lady Hephaestus," Bell said, which made the red-haired Goddess smile slightly.
Then, the black-haired Elf appeared in front of Hestia, Bell, and Noct. She bowed in front of them, "good morning Hestia Familia, my name is Filvis Challa, Captain of the Dionysus Familia, nice to meet you." she introduced her self while also being slightly red.
" " good morning " " Bell and Noct introduced.
Hestia, on the other hand, got suddenly nervous, which was noticed by her two children.
Hermes used that to take Noct to the others.
"It seems we have more rivals" Chloe quietly said.
"w-what are you talking about," Luniore asked her, still beet red.
"What? did you expect the numbers of your rivals to decrease."
Lunoire felt slightly jealous while looking to Asfi and Filvis again.
Meanwhile, Hermes then brought Noct to the black-haired cat man, knowing that he won't introduce himself without help.
They looked at each other.
"And this remarkable adventurer here is Allen Fromel, Vice-Captain of the Freya Familia. a.k.a 'Vana Freya'."
Noct's eyes went slightly wide for a moment. 'So this guy is directly below Ottar'.
Bell and Hestia also seemed to recognize him, since he was the one who leads a night Attack on them both and Ais some days ago, after Bell trained with Ais that day.
Allen then turned his head away, closing his eyes, "Tch, don't smug around just because you could smash Ottar's face for once. " he said with a bothered voice. Noct already knew that he isn't the friendly type, compare to Ottar.
"so it's true then", Noct and Hermes turned after hearing a male voice, seeing how the white-haired joined them, "I've heard how some minors from my Familia couldn't stop gossip about how a newbie out of nowhere could take on that stupid boar," he said while feeling surprised all the same.
Now he and Noct looked at each other, "Bete Loga from the Loki Familia" he said. At first, it appeared that Bete and Allen were very similar, only that Bete seemed to recognize Noct as a strong adventurer compares to Allen. Bete usually would never greet anyone like that, but somehow Noct was different, probably because Bete could see that Noct wasn't behaving as cocky as most other adventurers.
Bete then looked to Bell, "little Rookie..." he greeted Bell, this time however less enthusiastic, which made Bell a little afraid, "g-good morning." Bell still greeted.
Bete then looked again towards Noct, "Anyway, just to be clear, if that boar would've challenged me, he would've needed a new face." Bete said proudly with a smile.
'oh really? ' Noct thought while feeling dumbfounded by Bete's words, and his smile too.
"Tch, that also sounds smug" was Allen's vocal reaction to Bete's statement.
This caused Bete not only to look towards Allen's eyes angrily but also coming towards him himself,
"not as smug as cowardly attacking a member of my familia during nighttime, along with some comrades of your own," Bete said with a rather strict and angry voice, his eyes fixed on Allen's.
Allen now looked towards Bete's eyes, holding his silver spear tighter, "it's her fault for upsetting our ladyship by interfering in her interests." Allen said, also in a rather strict voice towards the taller werewolf.
" 'our ladyship'?" Bete wondered why he called Freya like that, only to remember the reason, which made him devilishly smile, "oh right I've forgotten, every one of you would even lick her scruffy feet just to please her, right ... "
Not only Bete has hardly finished his final words, he felt a spear coming towards him, which made Bete not only to move away slightly but also to hold the spear with his left hand while using his right hand to block another fist, both which came from Allen.
Now, Bete and Allen were staring at each other's eyes very angryily, ready to blow off some steam towards each other.
Everyone saw the tense situation between Allen and Bete, but nobody seemed to have the courage for interfering since they were clearly weaker than they both. Noct also didn't know what to do, since he didn't know how to solve this kind of conflict.
Bete and Allen were still staring at each other.
"last chance, take that back, or you'll regret it, we both know how fast this could end," Allen said in a more strictly and angrier tone.
"if it's as fast as like in the Colosseum, I agree." Bete said mockingly since he remembered how fast Allen was been eliminated from the 'Greatsword Battle Festival'.
Bell, who didn't like the situation as everyone else, now with a nervous expression, tried to solve the conflict by himself, "uh, I don't think right now is a good idea to ..."
" " SHUT UP RABBIT " " Both, Allen and Bete said, signalizing that Bell should stay out of that matter, which made Bell shriek away from them.
"GENTLEMEN" the two arguing adventurers heard them saying. It was Goddess Hephaestus who now came towards them.
"I doubt that your both goddesses would be pleased seeing Familia executive members like you both behaving like that, especially at our current situation,"
"Tch, first, he should take back what he just said."
"Ok maybe her feet aren't scruffy, "
"Anyway, let's discuss the situation as Hermes already suggested before,"
At first, Hestia explained that the posters they got were of Airmid and Welf.
Then Hermes told everyone that his letters contained images of one of his Familia named Lulune and a girl from the Guild named Sophie.
Next, Mikoto explained hers contained an image of her Familia's captain, a Level 3 adventurer named Kashima Ouka.
From Filvis it was also one of her comrades named Aura Morel.
And Bete's image was of his comrade named Raul Nord.
Then Noct looked to Allen and the girls from the Pub, "and you ?" he asked since he, like everyone else, also saw they had posters with them.
"well..." Luniore was about to explain while she and the two catgirls got sad right now.
(ENDING: Jacob Lee – I Just Know (New Immunity Remix) )