This is the Cirno News Network with a breaking news story! Trouble on the continent as the Free State of the Basque reports a small number of attacks in their territory. The border of their country, once heated with soldiers from the decimated and former nation of Spain on both sides, are the location of battles with the native forces. Similar attacks have taken place along the Aquitaine and near Toulouse. Could there be a growing attempt towards the restoration of the union? Stay tuned!

Thank you, and enjoy the show. This has been THE STRONGEST! Now back to your irregularly scheduled fic.

The train puffs along through the forest before emerging onto the rolling plains of Eire proper, leaving a trail of steam in its wake, and nothing more. The rails that it rides on vanish moments after the back end of a ruined car clears the last tie with a squeal of steel meeting old iron. Magical or real, they haven't been tread upon for years on end. The sound is shrill, that of an old friend asking where another has been for so, so long.

The puffs of smoke barely clear the cab of the engine, where stands two people staring off into the distance. Staring from one window is a girl with tired eyes and a green cap on her head. She looks behind her, staring wistfully at the water they had passed miles ago, but eventually she glances back forward stares down the tracks that continuously appear in front of them.

Behind her is another woman with serious eyes and a permanent frown etched on her lips. She pays no heed to the landscape ahead as she sits down on the benches that are buttressed against the windows. Her focus remains on a few long pieces of steel that are wiped down and placed in a box next to rolls of tape and splints. Her hand rests on a leather scabbard on her hip as she works, but she continues to clean and stock up as the train rocks along.

Back behind the engine and its tender, sitting on the roof of the moving vehicle, another girl lays down on the roof, facing the sky. A trumpet rests on her stomach as she grins and hums a tune, playfully kicking at the air on every third beat to her quiet song. The wide grin on her face never seems to diminish. However, though she seems to be gazing at the clouds, her eyes are not darting about. Instead, she is focused on something beyond their fluffy heights.

Down inside the last car on the short train are another two people. The one is a girl with three wings, and she is shoving everything that is sitting upon a cabin's seat into a sack, with most of it being various trinkets and baubles that might have been considered precious in ages past. Her clothes are stitched noticeably in a few places, and some obvious patches remain, but her smile, although tight, is none so worn as her dress. Resting on her lap is a well-used book with faded pages.

And to her side, I find myself busy helping stuff as many items as I can in the pack as well. This train didn't have much in the way of stuff that we could sell, but it would have enough. Anything ancient that we didn't want could hopefully be bartered for. Sister had mentioned plenty of stories about this town we are going to, although she spoke more of rebellions and lords of the land.

All I know is that this is a foreign land, and we are heading towards what used to be its capital. I know too little about this part of the nation to truly feel content entering it. At least with those three… three girls, I'll be safe.

I shake my head and look at Tokiko for a second. It truly is hard for me to imagine them as something other than girls at this point. Save for Merlin. Something that can show up in my dreams and speak like that would easily disturb me. It would disturb anyone, as far as I know. At least Nitori and Tokiko are plenty kind enough… Not that their good nature is entirely natural, either.

"…What is it, Gray?" Tokiko blinks and reaches forward, waving a hand in my face. "Are you just going to sit there and stare at me? I thought we were supposed to be trying to hurry."

"We are, we are…" I grumble and shake my head as the girl's grin widens just a little bit more. "Don't even go there, alright? I just got distracted, thinking of things."

"Well, if you do that when you think, we might need to make sure that stops happening. After all, we have Nitori and Joy with us. We hardly need you to think as well." Her grin widens a bit, and she nudges me a little bit with one of her wings. "As long as you can shoot stuff, we'll be good."

I don't dare dignify her with a response and throw my pack on my back before standing up. "Whatever you say, Tokiko. We're just going along because we have to warn someone on this side about this. We travel faster than any ship that sails, anyway."

"…Why are you telling me this? I do know why we're doing this, Gray." The winged girl snickers a bit before standing up. "Are you feeling a little woozy? Or have we been rocking on this train too long?"

"I'm perfectly fine, Tokiko. It just sounds like someone is feeling a bit chirpy. You need to get out there and stretch your feathers? You've been cooped up in here for a little while."

"I did enough while we were outside." She shrugs and heads for the door. "So, coming on out? We do need to be ready to go."

"I know, I know." With that, I grab the sling to my shotgun and follow her on out the door. "Once we get in the city, you know that we're going to have to put the coat back over you. Take the opportunity while you have the chance."

She looks back over her shoulder and rolls her eyes a bit before grinning. "I know, Gray. I am capable of doing that much by now." She shakes her headwing back and forth a little bit before turning around. "But if you insist, I'll go on ahead. Just stand back a little, alright?" With that being said, she goes ahead and stretches her wings back, nearly touching my nose with her feathers in the process.

It's enough to make me sneeze loudly, though, and the laughter coming from her makes me wonder if she was intending to do that. Still, there's other things to worry about, so we head on towards the cab of the train without waiting any longer.

Once through the other cars and over the tender, we both sit opposite of my sister and Nitori as the countryside rolls by. While the little birdie stretches out, I look past her feathers and into the landscape beyond. "You know, at this rate we're going to be seen by someone. Not that it matters, but… It'll be odd. At least we'll travel faster than them. I'd rather not be recognized."

"It will be too late for that, I fear." Joy looks up from her work and stares at me. "Even if there are few electronics left to disseminate information, a piece of equipment as useful as this train will not be missed. Besides, the rabbits do not have the problems that we have. Anyone that is working with them will probably know to look out for us, even across the ocean."

"You do have a point. And we did want that guy to get the news out. I still have no clue how he'd manage to get it out quickly. Maybe a train or a courier, perhaps?"

"The same as us, in the end. But we've enough details to worry about now." She looks back at Nitori for a second before nodding to herself. "We'll need someone to stay and watch over the train while we're gone. If we're lucky, this thing will park itself in an old, abandoned rail yard. If we are not so lucky, it'll be more likely that we are in the center of town. If the latter is the case, we'll definitely need to keep busybodies away."

"Well, it's not like any of us know the area, so I'm not sure how you want to decide who stays and who goes." I glance at Nitori for a second, and curiously watch as she nods back towards joy. "Or have you already made the decision on your own?"

The kappa looks at me and nods once more, rubbing the back of her head once she begins to speak. "We have. It's not actually that hard of a decision. It's not as if [i]all[/i] of us need to be exploring. If we attract too much attention, It might draw the curiosity of those who are authorized to protect this place."

Beside me, Tokiko looks back at Nitori and sighs. "So, you want me to stay behind."

"I never said that." Nitori turns to look at her fellow captive youkai, and she begins to wring her hands. "I never would want to leave you behind. You've helped us too much. And I don't want any of us to be separated. However, this [i]is[/i] our primary means of conveyance. Without it, we'd be stuck in this land unless I managed to rig up another machine." Nitori pauses for a second before she starts to exclaim loudly. "Not that I couldn't! I just wouldn't want to lose this thing. There are parts of it that I do not understand yet, and I still want to examine its depths. If I can integrate some of its design…"

"Then why don't you stay? That way you'll have all the time in the world to continue and look for anything you want." Tokiko crosses her arms and looks away, trying to keep her face blank. However, her headwing shakes back and forth before she glances away from Nitori. "That way we'll both be satisfied. You'll be able to dive into this contraption and discover its secrets, and I can make sure that he doesn't do anything silly."

Joy shakes her head at the spiel before looking up, her lips raising in mirth. "I'm sure that you would say that. But the two of us can keep him straight, I do hope. We'll not be going out of our way to cause trouble." She glances back at me before strolling over to Tokiko. "Besides, we will come back soon enough. We just need to take in the sights and learn what exactly is going on over on this side of our ocean."

"Fine, fine…" The bird grumbles and looks down, her wing noticeably flapping in consternation. "If you want to do it that way… And I had gotten my hopes up about setting foot on land again. I've been cooped up in here for too long."

"Tokiko…" Grumbling, I make sure that Joy understands how I feel about this well. "Just a second, here. I'm sure there's a perfectly good…" My words trail off as the bird takes to wing and heads back into the car. "Well, that could have gone better. Why in the world did you even do that, Joy?"

"Because we don't know this land. I'm hesitant enough to allow Nitori to join us. You were able to disguise both of them earlier, but the people here may be even more paranoid than we were." Joy crosses her arms and leans down a bit to look me in the eye. "You know that she is more obvious than any of us. How would you have reacted if you so much as saw a person with hair of odd color? We have been fortunate to make it as far as we have."

"And without her, we wouldn't have been able to persuade some without her there. Some people are a little thicker than I thought. If we could just persuade them… What are we supposed to do? Use Merlin?" Joy just closes her eyes and lets out a small sigh. "What?"

"I was hoping to avoid invoking her until we were about to go. I suffer her presence just as readily as you do." It takes me a moment to realize that behind her, a grinning face slowly creeps up from outside the car. Before she can even try to spook her, Merlin finds a knife in her face. "I do not believe I'm in the mood, poltergeist."

"Of course you aren't. Whenever are you fond of sighting me?" The poltergeist turns herself upside down as she simply passes through the knife and into the car. "It seems that my presence here seems to be just a little bit unappreciated at times. Am I really that big of a source of trouble for all of you?"

"Quite." Joy spins the knife once in her hand before placing it back inside its sheath. "You did force yourself upon us when we left that old city. While you may have assisted us in a few of our endeavors, you have caused all of us enough headache with your antics in the short time that we have known you."

"It'll rub off on you, eventually." Merlin just grins and looks over at me. "Besides, did you think that you could keep me from following along? There's hardly much of a chance of that, after all. You're not going to leave those little balls behind, wherever you go. So even if I went back inside, you're stuck with me.

"Can we please stop this now?" Nitori takes a deep breath as she looks away and out the window. "Listen. Listen. We get that you two hate each other, ok? And you're doing all you can to annoy us. I remember you from before, poltergeist. You never used to give people this much trouble. Without your sisters, can you really not contain yourself?"

The air around the train chills, and Merlin grins back at Nitori. "Don't be so cold? You know how lonely that it can be without entertaining myself. So don't be so dull, ok? You don't know how much i missed everyone from the old land!"

"Considering what you are, I would hate to try to define how loss would make you feel." The kappa shakes her head and turns back to the controls. "Either way, we're both going. And if we're lucky, we're not going to run into rabbits or lunatics or any of their men. But you know we're not going to be luck. Luck never goes my way. So just sit down and get ready to go inside. And try to do something that isn't quite as dramatic. You stick out like a sore thumb."

"I'm sure there are period dresses from her time in the back somewhere." Joy sniffs a bit and looks at the poltergeist. "Would one of those be appropriate."

"Sister, that's enough." I was getting tired of the bickering myself. I needed to get a little relief from the constant yammering. "Merlin, you can come with us, but we're trying to stay low key until we find out what is going on. And that means no scaring any random passerby, especially if they are armed as well. I don't want the first person we meet end up dead because he ends up scared and trigger happy."

"You have no sense of adventure, do you?" Merlin laughs to herself and floats off. "You've stripped so much of the train that it would be hard to find anything. So i'll just stay as I am. And I'll just have to be a bit duller. Some have a bit of a hard time appreciating color." With that, she disappears into the car behind us, leaving three of us in the cab.

Joy clucks her tongue and looks out the window once more. "Hrm. It appears that we are starting to close in on civilization. The young growth is starting to vanish."

"Really? That's great! We can get off of this train and actually do something!" I lean out and look over Nitori's shoulder as I stare at the countryside. "Still, after all our conversation, I was expecting something... more."

"This land is old. That does not mean it suffers from any of the adverse effects that beset us, nor does it mean we are going to find a large number of inhabitants either. Depending on how the panic occurred on this side of the Atlantic, things could be better or worse."

"But they have to be doing well if the forest is going away. And I can see the empty holes where houses used to stand." I keep on looking about, but the horizon is still very empty. "I was almost expecting castles."

"Tch. If any remain, there should be few that we can see behind this engine. Besides, technology has not regressed so far that great castles and walls are still useful. Not to mention that most of the monsters that plagued us could manage flight, after all."

"Alright, so I have no idea what we were going to see. I only had a few stories to base it off of." Grumbling a bit, I watch out the window. "Any idea what monsters we are going to encounter this far out into the wilderness?"

"None whatsoever."

"Ah. What I thought. Still..."

We fall silent for a few seconds, only for Nitori to chime in. "I wouldn't... wouldn't really know. But most of the species only seem to be regional. So it's not likely we would run into any that you would be familiar with."

"Good to know." Sighing, I fall back into silence along with the others, and we stay there as we continue to head towards the coast. I keep on dithering of what I can say to our one unhappy fellow, but nothing really sounds appropriate. Any gesture would likely be hollow, as I couldn't take her along at first, so what could we do?

I found no answer as we finally pulled close. I spotted the first buildings in the distance, or rather, the remains of the first buildings. Many homes on the outskirts of what I assumed to be our destination were falling to pieces, or cordoned into large piles of rubble. There seemed to be little in the way of rhyme or reason to the detritus, as there was no visible path of destruction. Everything simply appeared to have been torn down or demolished on purpose.

For that matter, the plant life seemed to be quite vibrant as well, and was taking advantage of the demolition to expand over the streets and up through the rubble. And for all the destruction, there is a noticeable absence of any vehicles or appliances or any other kind of metal.

"You see it too, don't you?" Joy shakes her head as she looks about. "Someone orchestrated this, it seems. There is an organized rebuilding effort here."

"Or at least someone was smart enough to take everything valuable for themselves. But then I'd expected see some buildings left standing. Instead I see... nothing."

"Hrm..." Joy frowns a bit and continues to look around. "Not in as good of shape as Chicago was, from what little I managed to see of the city."

"There weren't this many ruins there." Nitori chimes back in, although her voice is so quiet that it can barely be heard over the roar of the engine. "Everything looked like it was in good shape. Sure, there were a lot of empty buildings, but the buildings were still there."

"Not for long." We have been talking long enough for the train to finally start traveling through the outskirts of the city. "Seems to me that the city is doing fairly well, at least." As I speak, the train jerks and begins to slow. It manages to catch me off guard and knocks me to the ground "Oww..."

"Very nice, Gray. I see that you are managing to keep a proper awareness of the situation." Joy's lips curl up slightly as she spins around. "Is there anything else that needs packing before we exit?"

"Not that I can think of." Shrugging, I turn to drop the pack and open it up for her. "You can see what I have. I brought enough that we could get some money, hopefully."

Joy shakes her head and turns back. "There is no need for that. I'll double-check myself. ...Besides, I do trust your judgement on such things. As long as you do not plan to bargain the train away, I do believe that we will be perfectly fine."

"What's that even supposed to mean?" She never answers, and I just shake my head as she squeezes her way past the tender and back onto the train. "I feel like I'm the butt of some joke here."

Nitori snorts softly and shakes her head. "I think your sister is looking for a reason to amuse herself. I thought she was about to bust... Something. Not sure which one would have been first."

"I see..." I shake my head and look around. "You doing ok? Are you going to have to stay here for any reason?"

"The train isn't going anywhere, and I don't have to leave it running. I was just going to volunteer so that I could keep a watch over the thing. It would... it wouldn't hurt to take another look at it."

"And you probably don't want to go looking around with all of the other humans, either." I just shrug a bit. "I can hardly blame you. We'll just have to hope that there isn't one of those... factories here as well. If someone can recognize you."

"That would be horrible." The kappa shrinks a bit more as she returns to her controls. "I mean... If such things were ruined... I don't... I don't know how I could even live with myself."

""It wouldn't be your fault."

"It may not. But it might as well be. I can't help if those that I have tried so hard think that it is all because of me that things are ruined." Nitori bites her lip and squeezes the throttle, and the metal groans ominously as she bends it back. "I will take care of that thing if we do manage to come across one."

"I'm not going to stop you if you do." All I could do was to shake my head and sigh. "Baby steps, remember. We're going to have to let people know about what is going on as quickly as we can. Maybe then something can be done."

The kappa just shoots me a dark look as her shoulders droop a bit. "Maybe." At that, she turns back to the controls as the train continues to slow down into the city. "You should go get the others. We're almost there."

There wasn't much else that I could do. The mood had settled rather darkly upon us all. "I'll go and do that. I'll come fetch you once everyone is rounded up."

-oo-

The moment that we step on our train, we hear the tinkling of cracked glass. The station we had pulled into had certainly fared much better in the pass. We had come to the stop in a large and open station, of which the various metal tresses were barely managing to hold up the roof. Various beams have rusted and corroded, and a few have noticeably bent down.

Their current state is no doubt worsened by the shattered roof that covers the station. The terminal was open to the sky above it, and any creature on this earth could have easily fit between the spaces that large panels must have occupied previously.

Whatever had shattered that glass however many years ago had left it crumbling on the floor of the station, and no one had been by in those years to clean it up. There was not a sign of human habitation anywhere, or even of any use of the other rails. A few tracks over, other railcars lie on their sides in a state of disrepair not dissimilar to the station that surrounds them.

Once more hefting the bag on my back, I keep walking, treading carefully over the shards. What I have on should hopefully be enough to protect me from the stiletto edges of the glass, but I'm not going to risk even the slightest chance of damage. With the pack's strap in one hand and my gun's in the other, I continue to make my way over the ground.

Right behind me, our other two ground-bound members do their best to keep up, while our recently ever-present ghostly companion manages to stay behind and above us. "You know, there's no one even around here! I don't know why you are even complaining about staying incognito."

"Well, we're hoping that a large, noisy ghost doesn't give us away." Joy pinches her nose with her free hand as she easily dances through the field of glass. "So do be kind enough for once and come down here. It's hardly like you're going to be hurt by the detritus."

The ghost just laughs softly as she bobs down. "Really? I was having more fun testing to see how far you'd bend. You really don't take it well when people completely ignore you, do you?"

"And yet you still listen to me."

"Only because I've got a more interesting subject than you, human. Someone who is a lot more entertaining to examine."

"Ladies..." Grumbling, I keep on heading forward, stepping around the remains of a trash can that had spilled over. "Smells nasty. What in the world died in there?"

"I'd rather not find out. Something undesirable could still be living within." Joy frowns as she looks around. "For all the effort they took toe clean up the outside, such a large facility in the innermost part of the city... Why was nothing done?"

"Maybe they're planning to reuse the station, once there are enough people that they need such a thing." I shrug and look around as well. "I don't see any engines. Doesn't mean that they're not going to be here..." When I spot another wrecked car on the tracks ahead, I let out another sigh. "And that car is on our line. Is there a switch that we can use to get around it?"

"Considering the current train that we are taking, we are more likely to simply go through it in some manner in form. It hardly blinked in traveling thousands in miles in the span of time it took to get the cars through the portal. Do have faith in your oddly convenient magical artifacts." Joy shakes her head. "I would imagine that you should be the one more used to such things."

"It hasn't been that much longer. You took to Tokiko faster than any of us, did." Sighing, I shake my head. "And was that really necessary to go off on her in such a way?"

"You know the answer. Let's not rehash the argument now." Joy waves her hand forward. "Besides, we are approaching a structure that is most assuredly lived in."

"Lovely." Looking ahead of us, we were approaching a large stone building that had certainly seen better years. A few plumes of smoke trailed off of the roof, but from this distance, I couldn't be sure if there was any movement." Alright. Let's get going. Do you think they've noticed us?"

Nitori chimes in as she eyes the building just as carefully as two of us. "I would think they would. We're out in the open now. If anyone noticed the train coming in, it wouldn't be hard to follow it here."

"And we're a lot closer to the city... and by the smell, the coast as well." Sniffing, I can barely smell that brine over everything else. Joy looks back at the ghost, sniffing as she catches sight of the grin on her face. "Can you do something about that look of yours? You're bound to draw attention."

"Why? Am I too attractive?"

"No. You're too clean." Joy blinks and turns her head back. "If you so desire, there is some mud over there that you could roll around in. Then you might approach the look that the rest of us are sporting."

"Catty. Perhaps I should visit in your dreams as well. They sound like they'd be so much fun." Merlin chuckles a bit, and a second later there is a brown-eyed girl looking at us. "Are you happy now?"

"As long as you are." I just roll my eyes and turn back ahead. Come on. Let's go.

Even as we keep going, Merlin tries to butt in. "So, not going to ask me why I'm a brunette now?"

"Not particularly, no."

"Why not?"

"It's not really the time."

"Then when will the time be?"

"When we're not at threat of getting shot."

"Too bad. I'm sure there was lots I could tell you about."

"I'm sure there is."

Eventually, though, we had gotten close enough to the building to spot a few shapes milling about in the windows. The residents, or vagrants, as it may be, seemed to be paying keen attention to the train that was sitting on the tracks. And I could feel the eyes of a few on us as we made our way out of the train and farther up into the yard.

And, most worryingly, there was a group of people milling about the entrance to the building, mostly men and trying to look tough. They were not armed as far as I could tell, but from this distance I couldn't really say anything. "Joy, should we keep going this way? We could probably make our way across the yard instead of going through the building."

However, she doesn't respond. "Sister?" I turn and look at her, and she is eying the roof of the building. "Is there something wrong?"

"...Nothing in particular. Although, I am concerned about the prospect of that flag flying once again here. Perhaps the region was hit harder than first glance anticipates." She doesn't say anything else and keeps heading forward. I look up and spot the unfamiliar blue and red flag that is hanging from the flagpole on top, but I shrug it off and keep following after her.

After another minute of walking, we make it out of the station, and finally have an easier time walking over a ground free of shattered glass. It doesn't take us long at all to make it near the building, at which the men milling about seem to take an interest in us. One of them finally speaks as we get here. "Looks like you're rather heavily armed there. Expecting trouble."

"Always. Does it ever end?"

"Perchance, sometimes." He snorts and looks at the others. "Where'd you end up from? Hadn't heard an accent like that in a long time."

"From America. Long ways away."

"Really?" The man snickers a bit. "Sure you did. Must have been tiring, the swim."

Joy takes one step forward and intercedes before I can reply. "I'm sure you cannot be that ignorant, seeing as you witnessed us arrive. We crossed the ocean by train." Before he can reply, she clears her throat. "We are looking for some place to sell or trade goods, along with someone who is capable of reporting to those in charge."

"No time for formalities? A pity." The man, along with a few cohorts, eyes her up before looking away. "Just head to the river and follow it down onto the college. Right nearby is the parliament house. Do try to hurry, though. You might be lucky and see the brawl."

"Errr... Am I missing something?"

"Nothing much, lad. just be careful with that thing there..." He snorts and looks at my gun. "You're gonna get a few funny looks. Don't see many carrying like that anymore."

"Don't they have anything to worry about?"

"There are no monsters in this part of the island. Might have a few look at you queerly. You're not hunting them, are you?"

"Not in so many words." Snorting, I look at the others. "Come on, let's get going."

Nitori peeks her eyes out from under the brim of the cap. "What about getting rid of all this stuff?"

"Not now. We'll find someplace. A storefront won't exactly be hard to find." Seeing the odd look that was being sent her way, I grab Nitori on the shoulder and gently start pushing her out. "This isn't really the time."

The kappa sighs to herself as I lead her away. "Very well. We wouldn't want me to create any problems for us, would we?"

"Right. But later." The men give us another odd look, and I just nod at Joy as we head out. "This way looks like the best way to go. Are you ready?"

"I'm doing just fine. Let us proceed." With that, we head out of the building, walking into the streets once more. "I am pleasantly surprised that our floating friend managed to not cause us any trouble."

"I am capable of not causing trouble. But that's going to have to go on your tab." Merlin grins and walks fast enough to get back into Joy's face. "After all, it still is a performance. Silence is even more important than the sound."

"A pity that the movement does not simply continue to repeat." Joy shakes her head and looks around once more. "...Indeed. I would suggest that we head on to find our target. We are not in that much of a hurry to offload a supply of goods that may not be worth much."

"Why the rush? Are you still bothered by what you saw?"

Sister simply nods her head as she cans about, looking for the waterfront. "Somewhat. I wish to make contact before anything else. I want to know what the situation is in this neighborhood. ...And if the ones we are attempting to warn are even worth warning."

Nitori spins her head and looks at my sister, a dark look flashing over her face. "Do you suspect rockets?"

"I suspect something. There's nothing to say at this point. I wish to discover for certain. Even if there is nothing wrong going on, there is certainly some force beside the norm here at work."

"Tell me about it..." Grumbling, I glance around at the city. "There are simply too few people here. I guess everyone could be hiding inside, but at this time of day, there should be more people outside."

"Right. And there simply has been too much done." We continue down the street, which save for a few pedestrians ambling about, hurrying along with their packages, seem to be deserted. "It was odd how much of the outside of the city has been cleared up."

Nitori shakes her head and looks down. "It could be a simpler answer than that. There doesn't have to be a large human presence here. If this was a major city, the few that are still here could only be the natives that remain. Whomever is in charge might have come in, stripped all of the easily accessible materials, razed the hiding spots, and moved on."

"That would be logical, wouldn't it?" Joy nods slightly as she considers the situation. "It looks a bit too neat, but it might be the best answer."

"Were you thinking something else? It doesn't have to be completely supernatural."

"No it doesn't. Although, I had expected a larger population..." Joy sighs. "I can't exactly tell you what to do."

The kappa looks and shoots Joy another look, this one a bit perplexed. "If we are going towards the water, aren't we going the wrong way? I can smell the river."

"Oh." Sister merely muses for a moment before offering a contrite apology. "You would be better at leading, wouldn't you? You can take us there. From thereon, it shouldn't be too much to find our destination."

"If you insist..." With that, Nitori takes a turn north and starts heading up the street, with the rest of us following behind. "Let's just get this over with." As we start to follow her, I chance a glance at our suspiciously quiet member just to see if she is scheming anything. There isn't anything much that I can spot on her face, but she just winks and grins as we continue to float on.

I just shake my head and continue, observing even more of the city as we go along. The streets do become a bit more crowded the closer we get to the riverbank, but the population still numbers at most in the high dozens, at least in my own eyesight. The river itself seems to have eaten away at the bank, with the reinforcing concrete crumbling away into the water. The bridges are old and rusted, and some of the surface streets and sidewalks nearest to the water have crumbled away. On the opposite side of the street is where most of the action is, and there are vendors that are peddling their wares from glassless storefronts.

I'm tempted to peel off and dump what we have, but I hold off and continue to head through the streets with everyone. Considering the current state that Sister is in, I'm not going to try and stop us from continuing onwards.

At the very least, we are not drawing too much attention. Nitori is doing her best to keep her hat down and keep anyone else from paying attention. Oddly enough, Merlin is still doing her best and is keeping quiet, even now.

It's starting to get a bit suspicious. When I check on her next, though, she just grins. "What is it?"

"...Nothing." I'm not going to get her going now. "Sister, do you know where we're going now? We've been walking down the river for a while."

"Hrm. I'm just looking about for a certain sign. The only thing we have to go off here are the directions he issued to us." Joy glances down the roads again as we pass by another. At least the buildings here are still in good shape. No glass, though."

"Well, we didn't exactly have a lot of windowpanes, either. We certainly couldn't replace any that were broken."

"Quite." Joy looks around a bit more. "Hrm. Let's go this way, if you don't mind."

Nitori jumps a bit and nods. "Yeah. That'd be best." The kappa stares at the river for a bit longer before turning to face us. "Do you notice anything odd about the river?"

I look down at the river and shake my head. "There's nothing that I can tell that's off. Can you, Joy?"

"Not at all. It seems particularly normal. I can't say I'd know too much." She clicks her tongue and looks up the road. "Now that I think about it, I do believe that this is the route that we should take. Come." She hurries up the road, leaving us to take off after her.

After her we chase, and I don't even try to shout after her, and instead just do my best to keep up. "What in the world has she spotted up here?"

"I wouldn't know. Would you like me to dash on ahead and check with her?" Merlin laughs softly as she effortlessly keeps us with her. Her feet are pointedly not touching the ground. "I'm sure that I could cheer her up enough to get a response."

"Considering... Well, no. Just no." With everything bouncing around on my back, threatening all to fall off and onto the ground, I'm doing my best to concentrate on that and where she is going. That, and I'm pointedly ignoring the attention that we're garnering. Just have to hope that nobody spots something is wrong with them.

After a block or two, I spot Sister running up to a large, massive building made of solid stone. The building itself is large and stately, with large columns across its entire entrance and pictures carved in stone just below the roof. Joy seems to be looking across the roof, examining it curiously.

On the front steps are a series of short metal fences about chest high. None are tall enough to get over; Joy has already vaulted them and is looking about. "Perhaps this is the place then. But why..."

"Why what, Joy?" Merlin speaks for us as we catch up. I catch my breath as I come to the stop, while Nitori continues to look around, worried. "We know that you love these things dearly, but how did you manage to spot this building?"

"I wasn't looking for the building. I was looking for..." She trails off once more as she circles around the columns before looking at the doors. "I spotted something on the rooftops that took off in this direction. I doubt I would even need to mention that we are being watched."

My head immediately shoots up towards the roof, and I search in vain for this shape. "Do you know exactly what it was you saw?"

"I'm not sure, but it did have wings. I'm not sure if we're dealing with another creature like Nitori or Tokiko, or if... It could be a sparrow."

"Great. But why would a sparrow be here at this time of day? Usually they don't even come out this late in the day, and there's too many people around."

"Either way, we have to be prepared." Sister sets down her baggage next to one of the pillars. "This could be the destination that we seek. If not, it could be a nest, or it could be nothing. Just be careful..." She heads towards one of the doors, and I set my own pack on the ground and follow after her.

The inside extremely dim, as the only source of light is that of the sun through the doorway. There were originally windows, but they have all been bricked up along with the other doors that line the entrance. "Nitori, could you get some light for us? I'd rather not have someone sneak up on us."

"Alright. That shouldn't be a problem." The kappa reaches into the back of her pack and pulls out a small light that is affixed to one of her extendable arms. Once it is positioned over her shoulder properly, it shines out over the surface of the floor. "Is that sufficient?"

"It is enough." Joy risks a bit and looks around. The lobby itself is small and closed in. The lobby itself seems cleaned, still. There is no rubble that is littered about. What decorations that line the hall, ornate as they are, seem to all be intact. "Hrm. Interesting."

"Why is it so dark in here? If this place is being used, shouldn't there be a light of some kind?"

"It is possible that they simply aren't attending. Maybe we are merely unfortunate." Joy risks and looks around. "Perhaps we should explore further. We might find some more information."

The noisy ghost finally speaks up and floats into the air. "That'll be easy. I'm sure I could find someone soon enough!" Without giving us a moment to respond, Merlin speeds off through the walls, grinning a little too smugly for our own good.

"So, how long until someone tries to get us killed for that?" Nitori sighs and shakes her head. "Well, should we spread up? We might find something..." She stops in mid-sentence and tweaks her ear. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" We both look around after the kappa's trailing beam of light, but I don't spot anything. "Whatever it is isn't in here. What direction is it coming from?"

"It's just echoing... somewhere." Nitori twitches a bit as she snaps her head around, and I can start to hear a quiet song. "I think you were right, Joy. There's something around here singing."

"I see. It does sound familiar, if a little bit..." She frowns and draws her weapon as she starts to squint. "We're being hunted again. A sparrow."

I take my own gun down and start looking around for the source as well. Even as Ido, I notice my vision starting to dim. "This is going to be a problem. That noise is just getting louder. But why in the world... How big was that monster, Sister?"

"It was larger than any of those little girls were. This one must be full grown." The last thing I see of Joy is her looking around frantically, trying to use her eyes while she still has them. "...Don't head back outside. If it starts swooping at us from the rooftops, we'll not have any luck at all."

I just nod my head, for all the good it will do. The singing continues to get a bit louder, and I just raise the firearm just in case. "Don't try and do anything, whatever you are..."

A shrieking voice interrupts the music and pierces our skulls. "I'll do whatever I want. I am not gonna let another damn turtle ruin her home!" A moment later, Nitori yelps as she is tossed aside and to the floor. "Now, just roll over so I can gut you like all of the rest!"

"Dammit..." I swing my gun in that direction, but I can hardly see anything to use it on. "Dammit now. Are you alright, Nitori?"

"I'm fine. Just get... get this thing off of me!" A swinging punch wildly swings out and slams into the ground, and the building shakes at the force of the blow. "Don't even think of it!"

"I'll do what I please! Don't even think that I'm going to let you do whatever it is that you want." The creature growls a bit and lets out another note of song, and I twitch a bit more. "I'm weaker, but that doesn't mean you still can't bleed." Nitori yells once more in pain as the kappa tries to scramble back to her feet. "Now just die!"

Without any other option, I just run forward towards the creature. If Nitori could just get her bearings, we'd be fine. Even though I was the one blinded, the creature doesn't seem to notice that I am running in its direction, and I blindside it as it continues to injure my kappa. It grunts softly as it stumbles, but after a brief moment it turns back and smacks me around my face, cutting it with its long, thick nails. "Get out of the way! This is between me and that turtle."

The blow is enough to send me reeling, but I try to keep myself upright. "No, it's not. You hurt her, you hurt all of us." After a few moments, I manage to gather my footing once more and make another charge, prepared to strike her with the butt of the rifle if I even have a hope of getting a clear shot.

This time she is paying attention, and manages to smack the weapon away before thrashing out at me once more. "Get down!"

"Joy snaps at me as I fall down once more. "Just get out of there, Gray. You're just gonna get yourself hurt."

"So is she! She's as blind as I am!"

The creature growls a bit. "Well, if you're so enthusiastic, I'll get to you once I'm done with this piece of meat!"

"You're not going to lay a hand on him, you bitch!" A familiar bird's high cry sounds over the din of flailing limbs shattering stone, and I look towards what I think is the entrance. A second later, a body collides with another, and there is another yell along with the tear of claw against cloth and flesh.

"Tokiko, what are you doing..." Grumbling, I clamber back to my feet and head toward where Nitori was. "We agreed that you should stay behind!"

"You didn't tell me to, so I'm not going to leave you be out here!" Tokiko shrieks a bit and slaps at the creature, who immediately reciprocates. "Just... dumb. You're already getting hurt!"

"...Just... Not now." Instead, I try to find the kappa and get her to her feet. "Are you alright? Did she get you that badly?"

"Not too badly. Just clawed me. Still can't see." Nitori growls softly and I hear the groan of the metal arms growing out of her pack. "If that Merlin was here, we could do something."

"Maybe she would. Or maybe she'd just-"

"Gray, there is someone else-"

"Just go down." A head slams into the floor, or something else. "Won't you-"

"You shut up, bird! I'm just keeping her safe-"

"And I'm not gonna let you touch."

"...What is this perturbation? This fracas is certainly unseemly." The struggle on the floor seems to immediately stop as a new voice makes itself apparent. There's a little bit more of a movement as what I presume to be Tokiko struggles with the sparrow, but she stops as well as she looks up. I try to look up towards the direction of the voice, but as before, there is nothing that I can see. "...Now now, it is not the time to be chippy. Wouldn't you be kind and let them see again, old bean?"

A few seconds later, after a few chirps from the creature, and my vision swims back into being. Before us is a short man with green hair and wearing a bowler, or so it seems. And, behind him, I do believe that I spot the familiar grinning face of our friend. "'Tisn't the best of ways to meet. Tell, Mystia, is that a way to greet old friends?"