The idea of using up Briar's guaranteed life-saving power when there are still enemy ninja wandering about and friends in danger doesn't sit well with you. Accordingly, you decide that getting Shiden conscious and mobile will be enough for the immediate goal of getting him, his family, and the rest of your little (expanding) group out of this bombed-out box before bad guy reinforcements start showing up.

"Just get him up and about, Briar," you say. "Don't go overboard with it."

"Don't want to lose the safety net yet, huh?" There is no censure in the fairy's tone, only wry understanding and a certain amount of agreement. You suspect that, like you, Briar also prefers to retain the option to haul someone's butt out of Deep Trouble, just in case it's needed.

Three guesses about who she expects to need it for, and the first two don't count.

Shaking your head, you turn to speak with your teacher.

"The original plan was to come up here, have Briar help anybody who needed it, and then start taking people away as fast as possible."

"Where to?" Lu-sensei asks blandly.

"Anyway," you continue, "that was before I used up a third of my mana casting those other spells, and the current batch of bad guys got knocked down or ran away. I have enough power left to evacuate everybody, but I'll be running on magical fumes afterwards - and we'd have to split up for a bit in the process, because I can only take two other people with me at a time. The range isn't terrific, either. I can probably get outside the arena, but not much farther." You shrug. "All in all, I'm not really liking the original plan so much anymore."

The kunoichi, the ninja master, and the sage teacher trade glances. The other woman, Yuki, is looking at you with an expression of surprise - but not disbelief, from what you can tell. Normally, most adults who hear a kid talking about magic would dismiss it as a game or something, but this lady appears to have an open mind, or prior exposure to the supernatural. It's possible that she could just be dazed from being healed at the brink of death - that happens, sometimes. You'll have to wait and see.

"I can see why you might feel that way, Alex," Lu-sensei admits. To the other adults, he says, "So, what shall we do?"

"The main fight does not appear to have ended," Jo notes, cocking his head to listen to the noise from the ring below. "Ayame?"

Turning about to face the window, the kunoichi makes a wordless hum of frustration as she tries to find a section of the shattered glass she can see anything through. After a long moment, she seems to give up on the search and bows her head; almost immediately thereafter, you sense a pulse of ki.

"The Tenjin Mon have rallied around Hayate and Ryu," Ayame reports. "They have three, perhaps four injured, two of them serious, but no fatalities as yet. Two of the Hajin Mon are present and supporting them. The Red Hand have also formed up around their young master, in roughly the same state. Several of the young fighters appear to be unconscious, but the flying girl and the oni are fighting again..." She trails off abruptly, and you sense her aura shift in an unpleasant manner.

"Big Sis?" Yuki asks at the sudden silence.

"Two very strong young men I don't recognize are fighting Raidou, and each other," Ayame reports in a cold tone that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. A certain vicious satisfaction creeps into her voice as she adds, "They appear to be giving him quite a lot of trouble."

"And the tournament security?" Jo inquires calmly.

"...seven or eight of them are down," Ayame says, less nastily. "Perhaps twenty remain... why are they not getting reinforcements?"

You look at Altria. "Fallout from the shadow monster?"

"Most likely," she agrees.

"...just how bad was this creature?" Ayame asks, as she turns to the two of you.

"It took a powerful spellcaster to get rid of the thing," Lu-sensei says, "and it still left a score of the tournament staff in need of long-term recovery due to ki drain." He frowns. "Speaking of Ambrose, Miss Drake..."

Altria sighs and fishes out her cellphone with the hand that isn't holding up her shield. "It died when the bomb went off," she explains, pressing the quick-dial button for emphasis and getting no ringtone, only the faint, dull clack of plastic sliding against plastic. "And if Ambrose has not tried to get in touch with me by more conventional magical means in the midst of this chaos, something extremely pressing must have his attention."

"And done!" Briar suddenly announces, on the heels of a pulse of warm, soothing magic.

Shiden groans, opens his eyes, and sits up-

"DADDY!"

-only to be knocked back to the floor by his daughter's flying tackle-hug.

The next minute or so is a bit confused. Shiden doesn't quite remember how he ended up on the floor, although he catches up very quickly once he sees the state of the box - and his wife's arm. Kasumi appears to have thoroughly exhausted the reserve of courage that let her pull shrapnel out of her father's body, and flat-out refuses to let go of him. Ayame shows signs of similar thinking, though she's able to control it better. While the ninja work on calming down their daughter, you have Briar make a sweep of the room, healing Lu-sensei and Master Jo, both of whom were somehow able to avoid getting hit by any cursed shrapnel. Ayame was a bit less fortunate, but none of the fragments that slashed her arm got stuck there, and Briar is able to patch up the wounds well enough for Ayame to use her dominant hand again.

"How are you doing for mana, Briar?"

"I've used up about half my reserves," she informs you. "Healing you big people isn't cheap, even for a sloppy half-done job like this, so be careful, alright? And make sure they all know to be, too."

As Briar works, you take a moment to quietly ask Altria if she knows where Ayane was when the bomb went off. The blonde informs you that the violet-haired girl was present earlier, but when Lu-sensei showed up with those two lunkheads who attacked you in tow, Ayame was sent off to assist Master Genra in seeing to the start of their punishment. That was before Hayate's last fight had even started, so they were all well clear of the explosion in the box. As to what's happened to them since... well, Altria can't answer that.

Shortly afterwards, the adults confer and reach a consensus that your group will stay together and try walking out. You're specifically informed that if more bad guys show up, you're to take Altria and Kasumi out of the arena and follow Kasumi to a nearby safehouse, where other members of her clan will be present and able to keep you all safe. Then you move out. Master Jo takes point, leading the way down the hall in the direction opposite that which the surviving enemy ninja fled. The other adults crowd close around you and the girls, doing their best to keep you from seeing the bodies lying in the hall - but not entirely succeeding.

Gained Traumatic Memories F++

After your group rounds the first corner, you begin to spread out a bit. Shiden moves up to support Jo, while Ayame and Yuki fall back a bit, the former helping the latter, who isn't quite so inured to life-and-death sneaky situations as the other adults - though she's a lot less shaky and rather quieter on her feet than you'd expect most normal people to be, leaving you to wonder what, exactly, her connection to Ayame is. They don't look at all alike, so Yuki calling the other woman "Big Sister" is probably a reflection of friendship rather than blood-relation... but you might be wrong. Lu-sensei brings up the rear, while Briar flitters back and forth overhead.