Lamentable Nights: Act 03 - "Cloudy with a chance of ______"

[marcien]

Date: 5 Jun, Saturday
Time: 1507
Location: Block 44 #12-108
PC: Z. Redmist
Other PCs: Hailey (with Jacket)
================

Redmist lugged himself off the bed grudgingly. Ever since the accursed bird had broken into his room, he had not been able to sleep properly. He withdrew a TV dinner from his fridge and placed it in the microwave oven to heat it up.

That was close. So close. Just now that woman... bird, got too close for comfort.

The tray was warm. Redmist stabbed at the macaroni with a fork.

I should be avoiding that much contact with other people.

Because it was a supposedly "healthier choice", the food was not as salty or oily, so it was relatively plain.

I hope I shall never have to see her again the rest of the week.

"What, you're eating one of those again?"

Redmist did not need to look up to tell that a certain middle-aged woman had stretched her hand through the conveniently-made hole in his window to let herself in.

[AYC]

(Decided to keep this short... mainly because I forgot what it was that Paso wanted M and Sanae to discuss. The punchline... also lacks punch, what?)

Date: 5 Jun, Saturday
Time: 3:45 pm
Weather: Rain
Location: Sanae's Room
PCs: M, Sanae
================

Call it being selfish and close-minded, but M thinks that hell, man, it's been a long day. Just this morning, he was about to be wiped off the face of the Earth by Sanae's legion of undead followers, and then - without any practice at all, geez - he had to swoop in (literally) and whisk away a handful of people from their splattering fate. Really. This has probably been the most eventful day in his existence.

And now, all he wants to do is watch the latest episode of the Tower of Draunest and be done with it. Even if it means he has to take over Sanae's computer to do it.

Sorry, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

Because, you know, watching cartoons is a very manly activity.

Sanae's probably more than a bit miffed at his invasion of her PC, but if the rapid sound of buttons being pushed behind him is any indication, she's probably entertaining herself with a few text messages to friends... or something like that. Actually, if he was to take a wild guess...

"Oh, how could I be this silly to miss this?! I have to re-send again... umm... this and that... umm... 'How are you, Mister Martin'... Uwah, it's hard to text in English!"

Why is he not surprised?

"Do you need to fuss so much about that crude goatee?"

"Crude... goatee? Martin-san... ka?"

"Yea, him. Totally crude."

"I don't understand. Martin-san has been nice to me, but everyone else seems to not like him..."

You don't say.

"Well, well... you don't know him the way we do..."

Though, M supposes that he can't really blame the nice lady for not knowing, the grouch is usually on good behavior around women... even if, with the right amount of jabbing, the guy would let his facade slip for a second to grit out some of his less than savory language. Although M himself has only known Martin for a mere day longer than Sanae has, hell if he hasn't picked up a shitload of stuff about the man from freeloading around his house.

...

What can he say? The fact that he fights crassness with crassness probably had an important role in bringing out the worst in the man. ... Not that he can help it.

"Meh. I don't hate the guy, if that's what you're worried about."

"Eh? ... Oh."

M doesn't need to turn around to guess the kind of expression Sanae must have on her face. Confused... or possibly disgruntled at how everyone seems to be beating up her dear friend grouchy without her really understanding why.

What a kind soul, she's practically playing superhero to her friend's reputation. Martin should be flattered.

... Bleh.

Or maybe, rather than the grouch, she's still kind of mad at how he's sitting here, eyes glued to the her computer screen watching a bunch of knights kick monster ass instead of her... doing whatever Japanese girls do on the computer.

Probably both reasons, actually.

Luckily, it's at this particular moment that M gets to take a break from the beautifully crisp animation as the ending credits begin to roll, and he whirls around suddenly in the chair to grace his Crosser with his full attention for once. Apparently he does it so quickly that the ever so timid Sanae visibly flinches at abrupt movement.

"Holy crap woman, show some backbone, will you?"

Not that he was trying to use it as a form of reassurance, but the lady shrinks back even more. M raises an eyebrow at this action, almost like a small show of disbelief, before scoffing and crossing his arms on top of the back of the chair. "Tch... well, at least we know why Martin likes you so much, ugh. You're just screaming damsel in distress here... it's like the jailbait for guys who just can't get a girlfriend - except for the fact that you're like 24 or something..."

Maybe it's due to his horribly nonchalant tone or his equally bored expression, but Sanae flushes deeply, probably because he's just compared her to the object of lolicon fetishes. Lolicon... like Martin, perhaps?

But luckily - or not - it appears that Sanae has the great benefit of misunderstanding him entirely.

"... I'm sorry? But... H-h-how did you know my age?!"

...

Facepalm. Again, he can't really blame her since she really did just come from Japan a while ago - how would he expect her to know what jailbait is? Ugh... women sure are sensitive about their age. Honestly, it's not like twenty-something implies that you're some wrinkled old hag ready to kick the bucket, shit.

But still, ruined jab or not, M can never pass up a chance to mess with someone, especially with as golden a chance as this one. He's gotta recover somehow, right?

A toothy, freakishly wide and sinister grin spreads seamlessly on his face, and Sanae leans back slightly at the unexpected, and somewhat uncharacteristic change in expression. If anything, she looks rather creeped out. Which is totally what he's aiming for, actually.

"You'd be surprised at the amount of things Strays know about their bonded Crossers."

[SavviG]

Date: 5 Jun, Saturday
Time: Midday
Weather: ????
Location: Infirmary (??!)
PCs: Graciel Flay, Cassius
Other PCs:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walking through the corridor Graciel eyed on each door label as he approaches and pass onto the next. He passed serveral nurses and patients and went past a corridor twice. Lost.

A while later
'3b45, 3b45 ... 3b46, 3bbbb48 -- AHA!' Graciel put his hand on the cold handle and slowly pushed it down. The door creaked silently as he opened a tiny gap to peep in. He couldn't see the bed, door opened abit more, 'aha'. On the bed laid a sleeping Cassius.

Graciel slowly stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. Tiptoe to the bed end and placed a fruit basket onto the tray like table.

He watched Cassius sleep. He was battered, cut and brused in several areas which is now mostly bandaged and plastered.

Graciel took a chair by the bed and sat down. Watching a hint of crimson climbing up the IV tube.

The clock ticked away, everything slowly went dark ... zzZzZzzzz

~~~~
A nurse opened the door, popped her in the room. Making sure everything was alright. ('He must of left, at least he found the room.') She genltly closed the door after seeing the fruit basket on the end of the bed. But she didn't see the cat curled up with a apple, the chair back obscured him.

zZzZZ

[Pasonia]

Date: 5th June, Saturday
Time: 6.40pm
Weather: Heavy Showers
Location: Community Center
PCs: Martin Chang
Other PCs: Sophia (Oriole)

=================

"Crystal, this isn't right. You remember what we spoke on about the 'ladder'? Don't fight it. Use it to bargain for position elsewhere later in the game, but you've effectively lost the area for now. Endure through and get back to the game later."

Martin was not in his best mood... in fact, Sophia could intensely feel Martin's very messed-up mood just by his swaying thoughts and his louder-than-usual instructions. He was a Go instructor

"Jack! What are you thinking placing this piece here?! It's practically NOT an answer to the opponent---!"
"Mister Chang--- oh, sorry, am I disturbing?"

Martin turned back. "Oh, Miss Shelton. What's the matter?"
"Mister Warner is complaining that your shouting is actually affecting his band's practice. If you could keep the volume down a little?"
"Oh... I... uh, I didn't know. Thanks for telling me."
"It's okay! See you later, Mister Chang!"

As Miss Sheldon walked out of sight, Martin took a deep breathe for himself, as do the rest of his students, still eyeing him warily.

Sophia... am I shouting to the class today? Martin thought, directing the message to Sophia like a telepathic beam.
"Yes, Mister Martin... it was actually quite loud..."
"Gosh..."

Martin honestly didn't know at all that he was shouting.
"...I'm sorry, guys. I spoke a bit too loud today."
"..." The class was still silent. Then, a girl blurted out.
"Sir, it's all right. It's all right to be in love."
"I'm glad you underst--- wait, what?"

The whole class erupted.
The legendary Go nerd is in love?! That's gotta be rarer than a four-leaf clover!

"---Shina, you sure?!"
"Where'd you get the info from? How could that be?"
"Really?!"
"There, there---"

Martin tried and tried and tried, but eventually he exploded.
"OKAY! CLASS IS--- DISMISSED! SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!!!"

Before the class could even respond properly, Martin had dashed out of the classroom. Sophia's eyes opened wide at Martin's angry response.

***

After what must have seen like an eternity's run in the midst of a heavy shower, Martin found himself in the cold shelter of a nearby bus-stop.

...despite the bus services having stopped since half an hour ago.

"...Mister Martin... you'll catch a cold..."
"It's... fine. Anything to get... get away from there."

Martin then kept silence for another ten minutes, creating ostensible confusion in Sophia, who had by now generated a small fire around Martin to keep him warm.

"..."
"Mister Martin... are you okay? You didn't talk at all..."

The thing that worried her even more was that, just like earlier when she had no way of reading Cyanate's thoughts, Martin's thoughts are just as equally blank to her.

And then, Martin seemed as though he snapped awake.

"Eh... whoa... what's this? How did I end up here?"
"Mr Martin... you ran here all of a sudden. You didn't say anything..."
"I... I did? I ran through this rain?!"
Martin tried scratching his head, instead his right hand ended up all wet from the accumulated water in his hair. Whoa.
"Sorry... I must have worried you, Sophia."
"It's okay, Mister Martin!"

Martin then frowned a little, out of Sophia's line of sight. Suddenly, he remembered what happened before at the community center, and what caused him to enter the mini-trance.

---

Martin had discovered that by controlling the Ether in his body via mentally willing it to happen, he could make it such that his Ether does not flow into his head at all. At first he wasn't sure what would happen, but as he stems the flow of Ether, the blank state of mind that came with it offered him a form of peace from the chaos in his head that were events of the past few days.

One of those events, of course, was meeting Sanae, but she is not the problem.

Martin noted that he had to be careful not to over-think matters between himself and Sanae, or things can go awry in a heartbeat.

But having gone through the effort to blank his mind, the first things he has to do would be to stop Sophia from prying into his head, something he hadn't the heart to tell her to stop - how exactly do you do that without hurting feelings, when the person you're talking to is just a kid?

---

"Mister Martin... can we go home now?"

Martin turned his head back, and face Sophia with a plastered grin. Even he found that grim, but with Sophia, a simple denial would suffice. He hoped, secretly, that the rain he had dashed through signified his determination in keeping his link happy, for however long it would take.

I don't want to cause my link to become the Blights I've come across. In that case, I can only do my best to keep her happy.

"Okay! When the rain dies down a little, we'll head home. That's a promise."

Alas, the rain chose to keep pouring down mercilessly on Martin's mind and body.
It would be another two hours before the rain finally subsides.

[SavviG]

This is for Martia! XD
Date: 5 Jun, Saturday
Time: Midday
Weather: ????
Location: Infirmary Room
PCs: Graciel Flay, Cassius
Other PCs:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Graciel opened his eyes slightly, enough to see a blur of his surroundings.
He felt cramped. He lazely slipped off the chair on to the cold floor, head first. Guess cats can't land on all fours when they're half asleep.

He quickly leapt onto the bed and curled up. The soft sheet is a lot better than a hard cold seat. Graciel quickly fell alseep again.

Cassius twitched, moved his leg a litttle shifting away from the lump of weight.

~~~~
Sometime later
~~~~

Cassius slowly opened his eyes. Staring at the plain ceiling. He yawns, mouth wide open. He lifts his arms out of the sheets to block his yawn but something stopped him mid way.

He rolls his head to the left to see what obstructed him.

'!'

Cassius laid very still, face to face with Graciel who was sleeping sleeping right besides him.

'How? When!? WAH?' He stayed silent, the shock left him paralyzed. Things started to whirl up in his head... crazy thoughts. ////

Cassius slowly inches himself away... when suddenly Graciel rolled over away from him and off the bed.

The fall woke him up and he immediately stood up off the ground legs together and saluted. 'oh, right, a dream...' He turns around to face cassius now. 'Oh...'

'...'
'...'

Awkward silence...

[Johker]

Date: 5 Jun, Saturday
Time: 3:00 - 3:20 PM
Weather: Cloudy
Location: Infirmary
PC: Cassius
Other PCs: Graciel
NPCs: N/A

~ ~ ~ ~

"..."

"..."

There was a whole minute of silence, both parties unsure of what to do. Cassius decided to break the silence, hoping it would be less awkward if he pretended nothing had happened. However this was a terrible decision to decide upon.

"U-umm. H-hello Mister G-Graciel S-Sir, what... what brings y-you h-h-here?" said Cassius, face blushing beetroot red, slowly stammering and stuttering as he made his best attempt at acting normal.

"Wh-what are you talking like that for? That was just an accident! There's no need to blush like that!" exclaimed a flustered Graciel. 

"I'm sorry!! I blush really easily! Ahhhh..." said an equally flustered Cassius, trying to bury his face in a pillow.

"C-calm down...!"

~ A short explanation and a few apologies later ~

"Ehhh, you got all this for me, Senior Graciel Sir?" said Cassius, pointing excitedly at the basket of fruit beside him. "I'm seriously touched!! Thank you, Graciel Sir! I'll relish every bite of every fruit in this basket!"

"Ah, you're welcome. But you shouldn't move about so much, your arm is still healing."

Cassius's gaze drifted over to his injured hand, which lay forlornly in a cast. He suffered from a torus fracture of the wrist - an injury that would usually need at least six weeks before full recovery. 

Catching his reflection in the glass window adjacent to his bed, Cassius saw himself, peppered with scratches, cuts and bruises. He certainly looked like he was in a pathetic state. 

"Hey, don't look so down. Your healing rate's already being accelerated by ether technology here. You'll be as good as new in no time at all," reasoned Graciel.

He was perfectly correct; thanks to an invention by a scientific genius of a woman named Alkane, it was now possible to accelerate one's healing of injuries through the use of Ether from the surroundings. Hospitals in Panzer Head-Quarters eagerly contributed to the wide-spread use of this invention. 

"Y-yeah. I'll be fine. Umm... You wouldn't happen to know if Oriole got away safely, would you?"

"She's all right, M was responsible for their escaping safely."

"Oh. So that's what those shadows at the beginning were... Seems like I'd jumped into another situation when I wasn't needed at all," said Cassius, suddenly falling into silence. 

"Well, you did all you could in such a situation, and you're still alive. I suppose that's all we could ask for."

That seemingly innocuous comment stung Cassius more than it should have. 

That's definitely not all they could have asked for; I could have done so much better, protested Cassius. But he did not voice his protests. 

Perhaps at that point in time Cassius already knew that his performance was less than stellar, and perhaps he knew he could have done much better. He knew that one could ask of so much more from him, but he did not protest because he did not know if he could deliver. 

At this point of time, Cassius felt pathetic, and it was a feeling he urgently wanted to dissociate himself from. 

[Pictor]

Date: 8 Jun, Tuesday
Time: 12:20 PM
Weather: Clear
Location: Sunrise Spiral (Small cafe on Dawnview Walk)
PC: Hailey, Noco Sue-Berry

============

*Slam!*

The residual clinking of dishes and silverware echoed throughout the restaurant. Though the Sunrise Spiral doesn't see many visitors in the afternoon, enough heads were turned to make quite the awkward scene. Noco Sue-Berry was in no mood to pay any heed to gawkers, however. Her hand, still placed forcefully against the edge of the table, was trembling with frustration.

"Listen, Hailey Geminesca. The only reason why I'm even here is for your sake. So I'd appreciate it if you took this seriously, got it?"

"Y-Yes ma'am." Hailey wouldn't have admitted, but she did flinch just a little. Exhaling agitation through her nose, Noco quietly sat back down in her seat. Then, in a performance that would put any Hollywood actor to shame, turned her head toward the rest of the cafe with a lustrous smile.

"Ah, sorry everyone~! My friend here is just being a little troublesome. I apologize if I made a scene!" Naturally, nobody had any objections as they went back to their prior engagements. And so, too, did the two Panzer women sitting in booth by the window.

"Phew... okay. Now I lost my train of thought, where was I?" Noco rubbed her temples as she tried to recall the last point of discussion with her "troublesome friend".

"How you're busting your ass off trying to sedate those old fucks back home. Yea, yea I know. Really, Noco, if all you're gonna do is tell me off, you could have done that over telecom."

"TELL YOU O--" As Noco began what was about to be another outburst, she quickly stopped herself before the ball went somewhere she couldn't control. Instead, she lowered her voice to a whisper. A very aggravated whisper. "--You fired a top secret weapon of mass destruction upon a populated human establishment. A civilian human establishment. Just please, for once, Hail, understand the gravity of the situation!!"

The raven Panzer sighed in mock defeat.

"So what do you want me to do? Apologize? Say 'Sorry?' Like I said, I know what I did, alright Noco? I'm a big girl, I can take responsibility for my own actions. But the fact of the matter was..." This time, it was Hailey's turn to change her tone. "... that shit was hitting the fan, and none of those bastards on their high horses were willing to do anything to stop it."

"Hailey, that's--"

"-- Not true? Are you sure about that? What do you take me for, a sucker? Or worse... a stranger? You must have at least called for backup... I know you Noco." Hailey shifted her gaze out the window, toward the steadily darkening horizon. "... You aren't one to send a poor kid into that kind of mess alone."

"..."

For awhile, Noco could say nothing in response. It's ironic, that she had dragged Hailey here to give a lecture, only to be talked back to. If they were still both in school, she would have clocked that irresponsible bird a good one. But how quickly things change. Still, for some reason, her friend's words were oddly comforting, as Noco felt a small bit of stress slip off her heavy shoulders.

"... Thank you, for saving Cassius. As his commanding officer, I'm grateful."

"Hey, c'mon. No need to butter it up, girl. Owe me a drink, and we'll call it even, how's that?"

Ungh... what's with this sudden change of mood? Noco paused and wondered if she really had to resolve to see this lecture through after all. If Palmarr were here, he would probably have given a spiel about how one must always stick to their goals, or something adorably silly like that.

"Haa... what a mess this turned out to be. I signed up to be stationed in this town because I thought it'd be nice and quaint. Who'd have thought it was capable of producing disasters like this? First we have a Concealer... then, there was that whole dangerous fiasco with the Faust... now, on top of it all there's some nonsense about a certain 'Fragment' or something like that... it's all too much."

*PFFFFFFFFT--!!*

Hailey, who was in the process of eliminating the remaining portion of her glass of water, ended up spraying it all over the window.

"Hail! Whats wrong with you!!" Noco quickly took a wad of napkins to tackle the mess. The mess maker, however, was too busy choking to help. Through her hacking and coughing, Hailey managed to squeeze out some semblance of dialogue.

"Ack... H-How do you know about that?!" Still managing a large volume of napkins, Noco gave her friend a confused look.

"What are you talking about? Hurry up and wipe yourself off, you look like a drooling child!"

"S-Shut up about that for a second. How'ja know about... that thing you just said?" Hailey paused before carefully uttering the last bit of her demand. Placing a finger to her chin, the dog Panzer thought back to what she had just said before Hailey had her little accident.

"Uh... the fragment?" In a flash, Hailey nearly through herself across the table and threw a finger on her lips.

"Sssssshush! Not so loud! You never know... who might be listening in. Especially... if they're houserats..." Hailey darted this way and that, checking all over for her would-be eavesdroppers. Noco raised an eyebrow at Hailey's suspicious series of panic attacks.

"Hmph... A little birdie told me."

"Har har, bird jokes, huh? Aren't we a little too old for that?" At first, Hailey thought Noco might have just been teasing, but then suddenly realized that the statement have been serious. "... Hold on, it wouldn't have happened to be a little ghost birdie with yellow feathers, did it?"

Noco continued to return an accusing glare, as a firm frown slowly cemented on her face.

"And what if it did? ... Hailey, are you hiding something?"

"Eh?"

"You've been acting awfully jittery ever since I brought up the subject. You wouldn't happen to be part of that whole business, would you?" Uh oh. For some reason, Hailey had an inkling she just lead herself into a horrid trap.

"Nuh-no. Of course not! Ha-ha... psssh, the fragment? What the hell is that? Sounds real lame."

Noco, for reasons as clear as day, wasn't so convinced.

"Hailey, you're sticking your nose where it doesn't belong again, aren't you? Tell me what you're doing."

"Haha... look at the time. Gotta go! Busy busy! So many lost little children to help!"

"Darn it, Geminesca, listen to me when I'm--" Noco's protests fell upon deaf ears. Having thrown down her share of the bill surprisingly fast, Hailey was already halfway out the exit. Noco made an attempt to go after her, but was stopped by one of the waiters.

"Ah miss, you're going to pay for that, aren't you?"

"Y-Yes! Of course..." As she dug through her handbag, Noco knew there would be no signs of the raven by the time she made it out the doors. "Rrrrrg... that bird-brain. Try thinking about others for a change!"

Act 3 - Cloudy with a chance of _______ : Fin.

[Pasonia]

Date: Sometime after the incident
Time: ???
Weather: ???
Location: ???
PC: ???
==================================

The man blended into the office crowd with ease, and could easily pass off for being just one of the older workers, with a checkered collared shirt and a pair of black pants.

He smirks, makes his way into a coffee house that had just eased up after the dispersal of the rush hour crowd, then coolly waves for a waiter. One of them courteously walked up to him, notepad ready in hand.

"Waiter, I'll like the house special."

The waiter blinked a little. "House special... Would decaf'd cappuccino be fine, sir?"
"Yes, sure. Oh, and do you serve breakfasts here, lad?"
"Oh yes we do. Sandwiches for you, sir?"
"Anything else?"
"If you would like a fuller meal, I recommend the Fish n' Chips."
"Fish n' Chips it is, then."
"One decaf, one f.n.c... Please hold on to the slip, sir, your order will be served shortly."

He waited till the waiter went behind the counter to place the order, then flipped open the newspapers he had in hand casually. Surreptitiously, he slipped a box-shaped device onto the table, which began to vibrate.

"Good morning, sir. What would be your orders?"
"Collect ether, obvious streams only, max capacity. Interference level minimum."
"Interrogative: Define minimum, sir."
He sighed. Sometimes, technology queries way too much.
"Minimal harm to lifeform."
"Understood. Collect obvious ether streams, minimal harm, maximum storage capacity. Processing."

"Sir... sir?"

He flicked the newspaper a little, enough for him to see the waiter's face.

"Your order, sir. That would be nine dollars and twenty cents."
"Oh, oh, right. Here's fifty."
"... thank you, sir, please wait while I return with your change. Enjoy your breakfast, sir."

He looked over at the food items on the table.
He knew he won't enjoy eating any of those, but he's just ordered it, and the cube will take a while before it's done siphoning Ether off the coffee house's worth of people.
"Frankly speaking, I don't really like either, but better keep up the appearance," he muttered to himself as he began chewing through the food.

A while later, with the sidewalk trees gently swaying to the morning breeze...

"Sir, your change."
"Oh, thank you," he replied as the waited passed the change over.

"Unusual Ether detected! Ascertaining source..."
The man gripped his bated breath. He hoped it wasn't a positive response. Things would get ugly if it was...
"Source confirmed! Latent, inactive Crosser."
He heaved a huge sigh of relief. The timing would have been horrendous if the waiter turned out to be a Panzer operative under Executive Orders.
"Capture and storage complete."
"Switch to idle, await further orders."
"Affirmative." The box whirred ever so slightly, before its soft pink glow died off.

"About time."
He quickly wolfed down the food on the table and literally poured the coffee into his mouth, as he walked out of the canteen and slowly broke into a sprint alley-wards.

"That'll be the last of Ether power I need to get things going."

In a flash, he vanished out of sight.

[marcien]

(here is goes, martia's attempt at the most boring post ever. because the hikki is a boring dude.)

Date: 8 Jun, Tuesday
Time: 0348
Weather: Heavy rain (it's perfect for sleeping!)
Location: Oceanside Drive
PC: Z. Redmist
Other (N)PCs: (Jacket), Noa Blue
================

The weather right now would be what most people would consider to be dreadful, but the man walking along the roadside wearing a poncho was rather enjoying it. The rain violently beat down on his shoulders and sleeves, and though no one could tell under the hood, the man was really thoroughly soaked. He had been in the rain so long, the poncho was but a mere decoration.

Because such a coolness in the summer was rare, Redmist could not help but enjoy this heavy downpour.

The vibration in his pocket alerted him to a change in ether emissions in his server cabinet. Redmist took a look at the camera feed. No, it is still unconscious. Might be it just having a dream. The reminder of the luggage that his least-favourite person had deposited at his apartment made him sigh.

With everyone holed up in their homes snugly in their beds at this time and weather, the small movement in the virtually empty town caught his eye. A blight...? No doubt another one of the Thousand. Since they were hardly any threat to the town or its residents, Redmist never paid them any heed. But he had just alerted this one to his presence by using his enomena on his phone. Tch. How annoying. He waited for the blight to narrow the distance between them...

To his surprise, the blight dematerialised a few metres away from him. The attack originated from a teenage girl with multiple gradients in her wet hair, wearing light clothes unbefitting for the current weather and thus as completely soaked as he was.

"That was close! It almost got you. You're a crosser, right...? Gotta be careful next time."

Redmist bowed in gratitude. He decided to move away before Noa Blue came any closer.

It was not helpful in the least, since Noa Blue would have concluded that the only crosser who would be out at this time of the night was the loner of an information seller. After all, the other nocturnal crosser was lives in the same house as her.

"Wait, Mister Redmist, right?"

Damn. "Yes?" Escape foiled.

"Do you happen to be investigating the cause of these continuous bout of rainy days?"

Indeed, that was the case. Since Sunday, the rainfall had not ceased. One-point-five days of raining non-stop. "I cannot tell for now. It could be an honest seasonal summer rain."

"All right, if you say so."

Redmist, being not much of a talker, decided to make his way home. Noa looked at him for a while, then skipped away. She seems to be enjoying herself in the rain. Fish panzer, Redmist noted.