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"Not many, in my experience. That's why it gets so nasty when it does."

Aya mulls what Joachim says over for a moment.
"....I suppose you haven't been out of Navarre much, huh? Yeah, that's the kinda thing I thought too, when I left home."

"You know, big adventure, see the world, look at the stars every night and see an new country every morning. Instead....I slept in the mud every night, got rained on a lot and I'm pretty sure at one point some old human wanted to carry me off and marry me, and a few times we almost got shanked by some bandits looking to make a quick buck."

"People do horrible things to each other. Doesn't matter if you're laguz or human. That's how it is sometimes. There's some real messed up people out here. I'm not gonna lie, I had the same exact experience as you did, once. Found out that I'd almost stumbled into a laguz smuggling ring, a couple of years back. Guys wanted a white wolf, had to kick their asses to get outta there. 'Course I did, and 'course I told whoever I could, and then I left, and I never looked back. Took a while for me to shake the feeling I was being followed."

"One day, I kinda just....gave myself an ultimatum. I could either turn tail and go home, and give up the adventuring life....or I could stay in it, and accept that bad things happen, and the best we can do is help others through 'em and sail through the storm. And...well, I'm here now, aren't I?"

"You don't need to show these guys mercy. They're the lowest of the low, and deserve everything they'll get. And we'll get the bastard who did this, that I promise you as much as I can really promise anyone anything. But don't beat yourself up about it. The world's got more beauty in it than rot; you just gotta give it a chance to show you the beauty."

Joachim is joined by Aya, her white tail swishing about anxiously.
"Hey. Penny for your thoughts?"

Aya, for her part, while bothered by this, wasn't unused to hearing stories like this. She'd seen it a few times; not like she hadn't gotten involved in bailing a few people out before in the course of her travels, but then she didn't exactly make a career out of it. Humans were perfectly willing to kidnap and torture each other for fun; it wasn't like Laguz were immune to this sort of thing.

Still, Aya was bothered by it nonetheless. It was times like this she wished she had people around to talk with, on the long lonely roads, late at night.

As the group- presumably with Keith at the front, Rosencrantz, Jarvis, Keilee and Vlad not far behind and Serena in the center (using everyone else as human shields, likely)- proceeds towards the castle, trudging up the wide brick roads of the Begninian capital, you feel as if there's something wrong about the air. The sky's a little darker, grey clouds are forming somewhere else towards the city center.

Then Serena pipes up. Instead of horrified, like you might expect, she looks pretty furious. As in, Asuna-level pissed off.
".....I can feel something's up. Demons. Not the nice kind; actual, stabby Demon Lord-serving scumbag demons."

---

Shoes and Marcia note that grey clouds are forming in a cone shape, pointing downwards to a location not far from the castle, about five blocks away from the fire station they're still in front of.

The fireman simply pinches the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. He'd seen Revivians who'd annoyed him less.
".....right. Well, you two be on your way. I've got better things to be concerned with than a horse trying to grind me into flour."
He simply turns around and leaves the two be, muttering something under his breath, to proceed with his day.

The goblin simply nods at Keith. These bouncer types, they get really gruff and manly about things.

"We're heading to the castle? Hmph. You mortals and your royalty."

2 Alterations to bring the 1 up to a 3. Use a weapon to propel Minato towards Rho Aias to pick it back up and deflect the shield. Back off to see what the Bodhisattva is planning.
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