Hello everyone, it's March 2020 and I hope you all are still well and healthy because of .. you know why.
Anyway, because of … you know why, I have now more time continuing this story, so here enjoy.
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 21: no response
(OPENING: Promare OST – Gallant Ones by Hiroyuki Sawano ft. Mpi & Benjamin)
UNKNOWN PLACE – SOMEWHERE UNKNOWN – MORNING
"HUH …...", Ryuu slowly opened her eyes.
Ryuu looked around, realizing to be in a cave, maybe somewhere in the dungeon.
"good morning Ryuu.", she turned her head on the right, seeing Syr, who was also being with her here.
At first, Ryuu didn't remember, but then she had a flashback.
Approximately one hour after Bell and Noct left for home, she and Syr needed to bring out the trash, but then Ryuu noticed that someone was stalking them both. When Ryuu wanted to confront the stalker, it suddenly became dark around her.
"Syr, where are we? " Ryuu asked since Syr seemed to be longer awake than her.
"I think we'll find out soon, " Syr said while looking around.
At this point, Ryu noticed, that not only they were tied up, but that there were many more people than just they two.
She looked around, noticing every one of them was tied and worse, like one of them, which Ryuu noticed as Welf, was even beaten up for some reason.
Everyone else seems to be still unconscious, expect another Elf girl, who was beside her on the left, she seemed rather traumatized.
"hey you, can you hear us." Ryuu asked her.
She then looked to the two, then she started crying for some reason.
"why ? " she said while still afraid. She didn't even seem to notice Ryuu since the other Elf looked quite traumatized.
Then they heard someone else waking up.
"where am I.", another Elf, which Ryuu recognized as Aura Morel a.k.a 'Krater' from the Dionysus Familia, woke up.
When Syr looked back to Sophie, she saw that Sophie suddenly got very quiet and even more scared for some reason.
Then, on the right side of Syr, was a brown-haired Pallum Girl Syr recognized as Liliruca Arden, but she still seemed to deep sleep.
What's more, they now heard footfalls from the dark paths of the cave. Then suddenly a blast wave could be felt. Everyone, except Ryu and Syr, fell asleep again.
"Show yourself." Ryu loudly shouted across the room.
At first, they only could see two dark silhouettes, but then they saw them clearly, which shocked Ryuu as well as Syr.
"it's a small world, isn't it ?"one of them said, whom's voice was recognized by both Ryuu and Syr.
The first one has short dark red hair and eyes he keeps closed. He wears a black top with gold trim and an overcoat with the same color and design. He also has two brown belts with a gold buckle around his waist.
The second one was a cat man with only one ear, black clothes and a large back around his waist.
"J-JURA !" Ryu shouted gritting her teeth, this time rather angry while also looking towards the man she recognized as Jura Halmer.
Syr, on the other hand, remained rather calm, compare to her elven companion.
"didn't expect you to capture us this time, Vito" Syr also greeted him, but politely, "I see you're now different, somehow … "
"well …" Vito said, also rather politely "…. didn't expect anything else from someone with that dangerous eyes of yours ", he then opened his own eyes.
"Since we've been 'chosen' recently, we both thought we could try out more of our new abilities, but unfortunately we've been ordered for playing only 'Hunters' and 'Paperboys' for today " Jura explained.
Now another loud crack could be heard, seeing that another person appeared along with them.
Jura and Vito turned around. A black-clothed person, a man, with a black tagelmust, hiding his face.
"Ah, it seems some of our guests are still awake." the tagelmust one said.
"yes, we've delivered the posters, as you've ordered." Vito said to the tagelmust person.
The tagemust person then looked to Ryuu and Syr.
"you've taken one more hostage then ordered I see." the tagelmust guy said while remembering Vito and Juro telling him about their experiences, "so those two are the troubling women you both talked about, " the tagelmust person asked, still looking towards the both captured girls.
Right now, Ryuu could feel some familiar energy from this person.
"you're the one from Melen the day before yesterday" Ryuu concluded.
"oh that's right, you were also there when he finished off my sea snake, " the Tagelmust guy said.
"It seems he really didn't said anything in detail, otherwise he wouldn't use a name like 'Noct Gar' " he continued.
This statement shocked Ryuu, but for some reason, Syr didn't seem surprised.
"I remembered that he wasn't entirely truthful to me, but he isn't a bad person compare to certain someone in this room." Syr said before looking to Vito, who just politely smiled while his eyes were closed again.
the Tagelmust guy then stooped towards Syr. At this moment, Syr could see that beneath the Tagelmust, he was wearing a carnival mask, which also hid his whole face, except his sharp, snake-like, eyes.
"Syr, right ?, I'm curious, what did you saw in him ? " the tagelmust man asked her.
"the first time I saw him, he felt a bit disorientated." Syr started expressing her option about Noct, "At first you may think 'it's quite normal since it's his first day in Orario' but not with him", this time Syr's expression got more relaxed,
"he actually felt like he has been, how do I put it, 'given a new chance', but doesn't felt knowing how to take it, as if he is still seeking something"
The tagelmust guy was surprised how well that blue-gray haired waitress could read people. It seemed that Vito wasn't exaggerating about her. He now looked directly towards Syr's eyes.
"Yeah, I guessed you would say something like that," the tagelmust guy said before standing up, "because of his wealth, someone like him never had to worry about things like 'disorientation' or 'lack of perspective' back then. It's quite entertaining to watch over him how he manages all that you know."
"so you've captured us just because of Noct ?" Ryu wondered if he really wanted to take revenge on him.
"that's right," the tagelmust turned to Ryuu, "it's not so different from your reasons, right Jura… " he said to Ryuu while then looking to his ally, who was the only survivor of Ryuu's redemption on his familia.
"and still they allow her to stay in Orario, how 'justified' " Jura said angrily.
"she's lucky after all, lucky that she met the 'right' people, who decide what's right and what's wrong, that's why her life is more worth than some others." Vito explained his opinion about that matter.
"Those who can commit crimes and escaping unscathed, just because of a beautiful smile or enough wealth, that's why I won't hold back,..." the tagelmust guy explained,
then he stooped again towards Syr, " not even against someone like Freya."
Ryu saw that this statement somehow shocked Syr even more than usual.
But considering that this guy has a very strong presence compared to Vito and Jura, it wasn't surprising at all for Ryuu.
The Tagelmust man then snapped, which made Syr and Ryuu sleep, resulting in all hostages being unconscious again.
"Anyway, it seems our other Guests will appear soon, so you may leave right now" he ordered Vito and Jura before disappearing again while both went for the door.
NORTHERN GATE – OUTSIDE OF ORARIO – LATE MORNING
The group went faster towards the Wheat Manor, after saying goodbye to Miach and Dian Cecht, who gave all present adventurers potions and Elixirs as an exchange for finding Airmid.
Especially Bell was concerned, which wasn't unusual after hearing that not only Welf but also Syr, Ryu, and Lily got captured as well.
While on their way, they noticed a heavy cloud cover above them.
"did someone took some umbrellas along? " God Hermes asked out of concern, while for the adventurers, his question seemed sarcastic.
"asks the one with a hat, we have no time for this nonsense, Lord Hermes" Asfi annoyingly answered.
"what, I'm just concerned for Hestia and Hephaestus, that's all " Hermes said while looking to the said goddesses, who in turn felt a little bit dumbfounded.
"As if we'll be concerned about some bad weather while we have to save ours and other's children." Hephaestus declared.
"but still, it's quite unusual for orario having that much of a drastic change of weather during this season."
Noct himself couldn't agree more since he had a bad feeling that this hasn't any natural cause.
'and that feeling again', he thought while remembering the dark presence in the Dungeon and Melen.
When they could see the Wheat Manor, they were surprised that it wasn't damaged of sorts.
Lunoire could still see the main building, a golden gate in front of it, surrounded by a wall of orange bricks around the building complex.
Because of that, they slowed down a bit, since it didn't seem that something bad had happened.
OUTSIDE OF THE WHEAT MANOR – SOUTHERN MAIN FRONT GATE – LATE MORNING
When they finally reached the manor's gate, Allen, which impatience could be immediately seen through his face, hit the gate with his feet, still failing at opening it.
Then he realized why "it's sealed through magic." he said to the group before then trying to skip the whole gate.
When he was about to trespass the gate, he then felt a slight pain, like he runs against a wall, only that there was no wall of bricks. Allen then slowly slid down.
Seeing how Allen failed, Bete chuckled, then quietly laughing at the failed action of Allen, who clearly could hear him laughing, which made him look rather angrily at him.
"an invisible wall ?" Filvis asked to Luniore, whom she heard was a member of Demeter Familia.
Lunor then looked to Filvis, "the barrier is usually activated when it's still closed, but it's already morning, soo..."
Then Luniore runs towards the gate, touching it with both her hands and shouted, "LADY DEMETER, PERSEPHONE, IT'S ME, PLEASE OPEN THE GATE".
They waited for a reaction, but there wasn't.
Now Hephaestus wanted to try it out, "DEMETER, ARE YOU THERE, IT'S IMPORTANT."
Still no reaction.
While they tried to call the appropriate Goddess, Bete noticed something strange.
He then went near Hephaestus, "There's no one outside, which is strange, considering it's the Demeter Familia we're talking about."
"you think they've been blackmailed too? " Hestia asked her fellow gods.
"most likely, otherwise the culprit wouldn't have mentioned the Wheat Manor in the first place" Hermes answered.
Noct then turned to Luniore, who seemed to be familiar with Demeter.
"say, Luniore right, do you know another way besides this one, something like a secret entrance perhaps?"
"W-Well ..." Lunoire suddenly got nervous and beet red since she finally interacted with Noct directly, but she needs to focus, ".. there are other entrances, but because of the barrier … ", she wanted to continue but couldn't since she didn't know if any entrance wasn't affected by the barrier at all, which made her feel bad since Luniore thought, she wasted her time being useful to Noct.
But then they all realized a drastic change around the near environment.
"is it just me, or are the clouds getting heavier than usual." Chloe asked everyone.
"I'm sure that meow instincts didn't tell me something about bad weather, " Anya said proudly.
"and I'm sure that you never mentioned being a weather forecaster, " Chloe told Anya annoyingly.
"LOOK ! ", everyone heard Asfi calling, who showed at the right side from the gate.
When they turned to the mentioned direction, they suddenly saw a strange purple energy emerging.
The Energy circulated until many glowing dark violet bubbles were hovering around.
What's more, on those bubbles, creepy looking faces emerged out of them.
(ENDING: Jacob Lee – I Just Know (New Immunity Remix) )