Bay 12 Games Forum

"......you know, a normal person would've run away a long time ago."
Maki regards the newcomer with some suspicion. Most normal people didn't tend to head right to the place where everything was on fire, the place was trashed and where, likely, social media and the news would've all warned people away to get them out of the path of a Zoanthrope.

Minato, meanwhile, gravitates towards wherever the rest area for the servants might be, perhaps to do a little social reconnaissance. Maybe he could get some information out from people who'd been here longer.

This really, really wasn't his area of expertise. He couldn't really wait for the moment they could get back to kicking the ass of an Aramitama, an activity Minato was well familiar with.

Bernie had spent the morning this time doing a jog around the campus and then her usual practice with the violin.
"I'm up for a little exploring today, sure!"

Maki approaches the newcomer, looking between the girl and the new guy. She brushes off some of the dirt from her armor.
".....Wait a second. Right. Okay. So, Zoanthropes.....are people. Have we just been beating the crap out of people for the last couple of months?"

As you resolve to keep the Zoanthrope alive, the sound of helicopters approaches. The Foundation is likely to be here any minute. You get the feeling that it might be safe to leave now; after all, it's all over now, right? The Foundation is pretty well-equipped to deal with a Zoanthrope.

Then the Zoanthrope explodes in a burst of hot steam, staggering anyone standing next to it.

The sound of hard plastic (presumably its shell) clattering onto brick and earth can be heard through the steam as it envelops the park. The steam is nothing particularly dangerous; it smells unpleasantly of burnt flesh and fat, but apart from that, nothing of particular danger or import. The pieces of the shell the Zoanthrope once wore fall through the steam, as the afternoon winds begin to blow the steam away into the sky and towards the sea beyond Touto.

And in the crater where the Zoanthrope once was, a naked girl- at least your age, if not younger- is lying in the dust, her body shrinking and her skin warping from stone grey to pale pink and covered only by long, black hair, splayed over her unconscious form.

Her breathing is slow and ragged. A series of wires and gadgets are attached to her flesh, which fall aside as her body returns to normal. Her eyes are shut in pain, the right side of her abdomen cut and bleeding, but not heavily. Indeed, the weeping wound seems about ready to shut; despite the beating you just gave them (it? her?), they recover quicker than you expected. A small gadget falls aside amidst the mass of useless junk that once made up their body, catching Haruko's eye.

This Zoanthrope, at least, was a person. No, is a person. They aren't dead yet.

And now questions ought to be asked, while you have time.
........
Meanwhile.....
A young man arrives outside the park, clad in a long coat, short black hair ruffled by the wind and dark grey eyes focused on the carnage within the National Garden, the flames still going but dying out and the sounds of emergency sirens approaching.

In the long bag he carried were tools of his trade, for he was no ordinary young man. Indeed, no ordinary young man would have set foot so close to the site of a Zoanthrope attack.

This was Hideyuki Ito, Makai Knight of Touto. (Hideyuki may now post.)

Bernie shrugs.
"Yeah. I can get further developing tomorrow. I'll come explore the place today, you know? Make it an adventure."

Bernie looks up from her studies towards the others.
"Oh, you're going around to see places? Mind if I come with later?"