Nitori Quest - For Science, We March!

[Kasu]

> It is time for SCIENCE!
> Once the preparations have been made, head for the lab.

[FinnKaenbyou]

>"I'm a genius, you dimwit. I told you I could save her. You gonna call me a liar now? Arrange the lab already. And some cucumber juice."

> "...I suppose if it will keep you inside Kuromizu, then I've got no reason to turn you down."
Hiro gets to his feet, straightening his tie as he heads for the door.
"It will take a little time to get together everything you asked for, but I'll see what I can do. I need to go make some calls. Our scientists have already tried and failed, but...maybe the Kawashiro blood will give you the edge you need."
As he reaches the door, though, he turns back with a venomous glare.
"However, I hope that you aren't lying to me. If I find that you've created a machine to rule in your sister's place...I will make you queen, so help me Yasaka, even if I have to chain you to the throne to do it. I've put too much of my life into this family to let things fall apart here."
With that, he closes the door, leaving you to yourself for a moment.

A few minutes later, you hear a gunshot.
"Dammit, I missed!"
Kai doesn't bother with subtlety given that she's already given her location away. In the alley, you can hear two other voices as well.
"What is this?! I thought Sir Hiro told us the hunt was over!"
"Not again! Hasn't that bad luck worn off by now?"
Pinned down by two Serpents, Kai looks rather flustered. She looks up to you and shouts.
"Hey! Princess! How long is it gonna take you to beat that guy up? I could use some backup down here!"

[Hello Purvis]

>"It's alright, I got him! They're with me now! And I'm Nitori, damn it!"
>Make some basic plans.  We gotta attune this thing to one point in time and space...

[Fightest]

> This voice politely questions why its inputs were ignored.

[FinnKaenbyou]

> This voice politely questions why its inputs were ignored.

> The parser combined your requests with the requests for a lab, cucumber juice etc. All of these will be supplied at once when Hiro returns. You will receive your transcripts in due time, though the parser needs a clarification as to which court orders you want ratified.

>"It's alright, I got him! They're with me now! And I'm Nitori, damn it!"
>Make some basic plans.  We gotta attune this thing to one point in time and space...

>"Huh? Did I miss something?"
Janna and Sanna step out when they realise Kai is letting her guard down, and get enough of an opening to grab her again.
"Hey! I can walk up there, y'know!"
The Serpents aren't listening, and proceed to haul Kai through the palace into Hiro's room, placing her in front of you. They proceed to stand in the doorway, not particularly keen on talking to you after what you did to them earlier.

>OK, you need to examine this belt more carefully now. You've been spending time on-and-off thinking about the circuitry, but you're still drawing a bit of a blank. Perhaps some time in the lab will give you more insight; you produce a quick blueprint and look it over while you wait for Hiro to return.
"Hey, what're you looking over, princess? Some sorta escape plan?"

[Hello Purvis]

>Give SannaJ a look. "You be good to her, we're about to make all your wildest dreams come true."
>"The next time you call me Princess, I'm demoting you from favored lab assistant to cucumber culler. And vaguely, yes."
>Contemplate blueprints
>Can we do any onsite repairs to Rocky whilst waiting?

[FinnKaenbyou]

>Give SannaJ a look. "You be good to her, we're about to make all your wildest dreams come true."
>"The next time you call me Princess, I'm demoting you from favored lab assistant to cucumber culler. And vaguely, yes."
>Contemplate blueprints
>Can we do any onsite repairs to Rocky whilst waiting?

>"Really!? You mean I'm gonna get promoted to Commander?!"
"Hey, that isn't funny, Sanna. You know that I'm the one who deserves that promotion."
"But she just sai-"
"Who was falling over herself in the middle of combat half an hour ago?"
"...Uuu..."
They seem clueless; maybe they weren't in service when the Mitori incident happened. Mayu knew, but maybe she was the only one.

>You'll have to wait until you get to the lab to repair Rocky. It's too badly damaged to solve by hand.

> "OK, OK, I get it. Nitori it is."
> The contemplation turns up about as much as usual in terms of results. Kai looks over your shoulder, furrowing her eyebrows.
"That's, uh, a pretty complicated circuit. Not really following what's going on here."
You don't mention to her that your understanding of it isn't much better, instead maintaining your typical aura of knowledge.
"This segment here looks sort of screwed up. What's it doing?"
Kai points to one area on the circuit board, with wires flaying around in all different directions. You assumed that it was the segment responsible for the entire time travel incident, so you didn't tweak with it for risk of depowering the machine entirely. It's too complicated a mesh of wires for you to accurately recreate.
"Sorta reminds me of an octopus, with all those arms coming out the middle."
An octopus? What sort of analogies did this girl come up wi-
Wait.
Wait.
The middle.
Oh god, she probably doesn't even have a clue what she's talking about, but she's onto something.
"Huh? You figure something out?"
You don't respond - you're busy frantically pulling off the belt, throwing it onto a nearby table, and opening it up to examine its insides. You look at the mesh of wires Kai's attention had been focused on.

They all pass through one point. If the power is dependent on the resistances of the wires here, then by shifting this focal point...
Shit. You've done it. You've done it. You honestly want to hug Kai right now, but first you want to get to this lab and try things yourself. You have specifics to work out before you can declare this an outright success.

Hiro returns ten minutes later, handing you a set of files. "Hopefully, this should cover everything you need to know about the incident. The interviews with the killer, the details we could track of the crime, everything. And your...other request will be ready within the hour. Just...don't let me see her. Not again. It was bad enough once."

He leads you through the palace again. "And as for a lab...well, we have the very best to offer you. It may be somewhat ancient, but for the sake of dignity we've kept the equipment up to date."

He leads you into the basement. After you get over the realisation that the place even HAS a basement, you find yourself being guided into...oh, wow. You could have sworn you'd seen this place in your dreams as the perfect laboratory - with every piece of equipment, every modern technology you could ever hope for. Hiro allows himself a small smile.
"Welcome to the workplace of Ichinose Kawashiro."

[Hello Purvis]

>Okay, now Kai gets a hug.
>Also squee.
>"Ahem. Let's get to work."
>Proceed. Read through the court records while concocting a good reasonably safe way to test the Camotime Device.

[FinnKaenbyou]

>Okay, now Kai gets a hug.
>Also squee.
>"Ahem. Let's get to work."
>Proceed. Read through the court records while concocting a good reasonably safe way to test the Camotime Device.

>Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeokay you'd better stop that now. Kai is giving you a pretty awkward glare.
>The records are, in general, rather unhelpful in terms of providing information. There's only one record that holds anything of interest; an interrogation with the hired killer, who after refusing to give his name was referred to simply as K.

Transcript of Interrogation of Prisoner #2254, Codename: K
Officer In Service: Mayu Fukuhara

Mayu: Good afternoon, K.

K: Hello again, ma'am.

Mayu: Do you have to keep up the politeness routine?

K: It's not a facade, ma'am. A killer has to be graceful and polite. Otherwise clients become irritated, and no-one likes an angry employer.

Mayu: Funny you should bring that up. I wanted to talk to you about your employer today.

K: I've told you a dozen times, already, I've got no idea who it was.

Mayu: There's no way that they could possibly have left no traces of the contact. They must have given you a name to work with, or sent an advisor, or something.

K: Can't say too well. I got all of that second-hand, remember? Only person I talked to in person was Councillor Haiji. How is he, by the way?

Mayu: He's dead.

K: Can't say I'm too surprised. From what I could tell he was horrified of who he was working for. Makes sense he'd rather die than snitch.

Mayu: Did he tell you anything more useful than that?

K: Hmm...I guess there was one time that he talked about it. He was shaking like a leaf, kinda hilarious how pitiful he was, actually. He was only saying one thing that I guess could help you, though.

Mayu: Say it.

K: Ah, you seem eager. Well, I'm not about to let my chips down easy, so if you want me to talk you'll need to lighten my sentence a li-

Mayu: Done.

K: ...What has you so desperate, ma'am?

Mayu: Your target...her parents are rich and influencial. They're desperate to apprehend whoever planned this.

K: Hm, is that so. Well, I can only tell you this much: there was one phrase that I saw Haiji muttering to himself whenever he got really worried. He'd just sit and whisper it beneath his breath...'we started it, we started it, we started it'...

-INTERROGATION CUT SHORT DUE TO OTHER SCHEDULING, END TRANSCRIPT-

> Received Interrogation Transcript.

> You begin tweaking the belt, trying to figure out how to properly prepare it. From what you can tell, shifting the focal point left or right determines how far back/forward in time you go, while moving it up or down changes the distance from your starting location you're sent. It's rather far down right now, which is why it took you out of the border last time, but this time you pull it all the way up so that you'll arrive in roughly the same place you left.

A few seconds later, you're setting the time variable to take you thirty seconds in the past...only to find another girl suddenly appearing in the room alongside you, wearing exactly the same belt. In fact, it IS you.

"Wow. This thing really works. It...really works! I did it! I DID IT!"

She sits around for a short while, dancing, before realising where she is and pressing the button again to jump Back to the Future (TM). You are slightly afraid that if you don't perform this test as well you'll fall victim to a time paradox, but you're not sure if it's worth the social humiliation.

[Kasu]

> Time paradoxes are horrible things.  Do the test to ensure it doesn't happen.
> After the test, mull over what the phrase in the transcript might mean.

[FinnKaenbyou]

> Time paradoxes are horrible things.  Do the test to ensure it doesn't happen.
> After the test, mull over what the phrase in the transcript might mean.

> You cast aside your dignity for a moment, before taking your before-future-now-present self and activating the device. You emerge exactly thirty minutes ago, and suddenly there's an incredible urge to dance on the spot and celebrate your success. Your before-present-now-past self stares at you, unimpressed, and a little part of you dies inside as you go Back to the Before-Future-Now-Present.

Time travel is confusion.

> 'We started it...' This was coming from a councillor, a member of Kuromizu's undercover government. Was the attack part of a revenge plan for some earlier misgiving?

You don't even realise how long you've been working on fine-tweaking the Optic Chrono when there's another knock on the door.

"Princess...we've brought it."

Janna and Sanna enter, wheeling along a disturbingly accurate body. You'd rather not know the methods they went through to create this, but you're rather confident it will work. The body would have been cremated after a quick inspection found nothing of note, so any misgivings would hopefully be forgotten.
That face...it's a little comforting now, knowing that if you succeed she'd never have screamed like that. You take a moment to ponder if you're actually in control here, or if some god up above is running the shots with your time travel and you're just following orders you aren't even aware of.

Your head hurts again.

[Kasu]

> Examine the body.
> Do any last minute adjustments and preparations.
> Consider bringing a firearm.
> Consider bringing Kai.

[Hello Purvis]

>We have Vera. It'll be all we need.
>Bringing Kai might complicate things. Leave her here for now.

[FinnKaenbyou]

> Examine the body.
> Do any last minute adjustments and preparations.
> Consider bringing a firearm.
> Consider bringing Kai.

> It is, for all intents and purposes, a believable and lifelike replica. A mark on her throat has been made to look exactly like the fatal knife wound.
You had expectations when you heard about her, but you're still surprised at how different she is from you. The yin from your yang, indeed - a bright red dress with an accessory shaped strangely like a lock. You remember having a fondness for keys in your youth, and bite your lip.
> You need to decide where and when you want to go. You have an estimated time for when the crime took place, and a definite location, so you need to decide how far before the crime you want to be prepared before heading out to the alley where she was found.
> You decide Vera is more than enough. Harming K in the past could invoke another ugly time paradox - you'll have to convince him that he killed Mitori, without actually letting him kill Mitori. Vera's probably the best for that.
> "Aw, man. Guess I'll take some time to figure out how some of your kappa technology works, then."
Kai walks off to dissect some innocent machines on the other side of the room, muttering the occasional 'ooh' and 'ah'.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Don't worry, Kai, I'll have this dealt with."
>Ponder, then look over the reports to find out exactly how the crime was done, and how long the assassin was laying in wait.

[FinnKaenbyou]

>"Don't worry, Kai, I'll have this dealt with."
>Ponder, then look over the reports to find out exactly how the crime was done, and how long the assassin was laying in wait.

>'Culprit K followed victim through back alleys and confronted her for roughly a minute before the fatal blow was delivered. K has various bruises and cuts that correlate with a brawl.'

[Hello Purvis]

>About ten minutes beforehand should be good enough.
>Do we have it calibrated to take us to that alley, or do we need we walk there?

[FinnKaenbyou]

>About ten minutes beforehand should be good enough.
>Do we have it calibrated to take us to that alley, or do we need we walk there?

> You can only calibrate it as 'distance from starting point', unfortunately, so you'll need to be there in person unless you want to risk being in the entirely wrong place.. The Serpents should be able to order people away so they don't see incriminating information - like, say, the body you'll have to haul around.

[Hello Purvis]

>Let's do that, then. Hie over to the alley with the body; wrapped up in a blanket.

[Blitzer]

>Current Quest
>Consider what would happen if you succeed. Any time paradoxes?

[Hello Purvis]

>Hopefully, leaving the corpse behind and capping the shit out of the killer with Vera will cause the killer enough bad luck he'll get blamed for it even if he didn't actually do it, and will leave time relatively intact.
>Does the Mitori doll have proper blood we can dip the dagger in, or do we need to arrange this ourselves?

[E-Nazrin]

>Briefly wonder if we're K.
>Or if it'd be possible to orchestrate the 'assassination' through more subtle means...

[FinnKaenbyou]

>Current Quest
>Consider what would happen if you succeed. Any time paradoxes?

>What Once Went Wrong: Use your new invention to prevent the death of Mitori Kawashiro.
Akyu's Homework Chronicle: Deliver your notes on Kuromizu to the Human Village's historian.
> Simply stopping the murder is likely to invoke a time paradox and is therefore the least viable option. You must convince the world that the murder happened - up to and including the 'murderer' himself - while either ordering Mitori to go into hiding until the present or cutting the middleman and bringing her straight into the future.

>Briefly wonder if we're K.
>Or if it'd be possible to orchestrate the 'assassination' through more subtle means...

>Unless you spent several years in Kuromizu Prison and are also male, you are probably not K.
>Subtle is to vague a word for the parser to fully comprehend. Come again?

>Does the Mitori doll have proper blood we can dip the dagger in, or do we need to arrange this ourselves?

>Blood is the one thing you don't have - the appropriate marks are on the body, but that's all you have.
The murder weapon was an immaculately sharp blade, sharp enough to only catch a few traces of blood. There was no obvious need to identify the blood given the circumstances, though.

>Let's do that, then. Hie over to the alley with the body; wrapped up in a blanket.

>You have Janna and Sanna accompany you to the alley in question. It's a desolate dead end, nothing of note here. The place seems almost unnecessary. Maybe if it had never been built, things would have gone differently, but that's too much of a time paradox to really be worth considering now.
There's a single cut flower lying on the ground. It must have been beautiful once, but it's long since wilted. A silent memorial from a grieving father?
"Anyway. You'd better go and do...whatever it is you're doing. Man, I hate when the higher-ups don't fill us in."
"Eh. I'm used to not knowing where I'm going and what I'm doing it for, Janna."
You double-check the settings one last time, making sure everything is immaculate before taking a deep breath and activating the belt. There's a familiar bright flash, and after a few seconds clearing your eyes, the world around you has changed completely.
It's now evening, and a dimmer light is hanging over Kuromizu. You're holding the covered body in one hand, ready to drop it when the time calls for it. You still have a little time before things get serious, so now is the time to make any necessary preparations to the crime scene.

[Hello Purvis]

>Step one: Place the body, then cover it again.
>Step two: Look for a good spot to hide, and snipe with Vera. Should this not present itself, just a good spot to hide and step out speedily.

[E-Nazrin]

>Subtle is to vague a word for the parser to fully comprehend. Come again?

Orchestrating the entire murder scheme from the beginning would be thoroughly hilarious and neatly removes the issue of finding out who hates the Kawashiro line, since they don't actually exist if that happens. Problems include generating really fucked up paradox-avoiding logic, the time taken, and the huge risks of getting caught.

[FinnKaenbyou]

Orchestrating the entire murder scheme from the beginning would be thoroughly hilarious and neatly removes the issue of finding out who hates the Kawashiro line, since they don't actually exist if that happens. Problems include generating really fucked up paradox-avoiding logic, the time taken, and the huge risks of getting caught.

> It would also involve all sorts of hijinks with Councillor Haiji's suicide. So...yeah.

>Step one: Place the body, then cover it again.
>Step two: Look for a good spot to hide, and snipe with Vera. Should this not present itself, just a good spot to hide and step out speedily.

> You lay the body down on the ground, carefully placing the blanket over it so nothing is visible. You hide behind a small pile of crates, listening out for someone approaching.
It takes a few minutes, but a whistling noise starts to become audible. There's a little nervousness held within it.
"Oh, dear. I don't think I've been in this part of the city before..."
Her steps are moving towards and away from you, as she walks down different streets and alleys until finally she comes into view. It's only now you see how accurate the body copy was - the girl walking down towards you looks like a perfect match. She's smiling, though it's an uncharacteristically nervous one.
"...Ah. A dead end. Oh well, guess I'd better start again..."
She turns around. From here you can only make out where she's standing, but further down the alley someone must be staring at her.
"Oh. Um, hello. Could you possibly help me get back to the main street? I'm, ah, slightly lost..."
As the man approaches, Mitori instinctively takes a step backward. She's not naive enough to miss the aggression in his gait. It's going to still be a while before K comes into shooting range, and by then he'll likely be charging Mitori head-on. You might miss a moving target, but jumping out now might cause him to go for you instead...

[Hello Purvis]

>Can't risk Mitori, and if he comes from us, instead...
>Jump out now. Fire if we feel we can do so without hitting Mitori.

[FinnKaenbyou]

>Can't risk Mitori, and if he comes from us, instead...
>Jump out now. Fire if we feel we can do so without hitting Mitori.

> Too hell with subtlety. A life's at stake here.
> You leap out from behind the boxes, aiming Vera at your target  as quickly as you can. K is taken back slightly, and the knife he had been concealing behind his back comes out without a need to be concealed anymore.
Vera fires. The shot was perfect, you know it, there's no way he'll be able to move quickly enough to avoid it-
*thwip*
Unless he's skilled enough to, uh, cut the strip of ribbon before it reaches him. Which he apparently is. Uh-oh.
"Exactly what sort of weapon was that, ma'am? I can't believe you've survived in these alleys long if that's what you call a weapon."
He's smiling as he steps closer, brandishing his knife eagerly. Its blade glints for an instant, the light above reflecting from it momentarily. All the while, Mitori is watching on wide-eyed, without a clue what's going on.
One shot might be too easy for him to dodge. Several could be better, but you'd have to burn through your Vera ammo pretty quickly. Unless you have any other ideas - all you have in the environment that could help you is the pile of boxes nearby - it might be a choice between that and getting diced.

[Hello Purvis]

>Well crap.
>"That was pretty skillful, K. I am seriously impressed."

[Kasu]

> Is Mitori still in his range of attack?
> Inventory.
> Consider how we could use the boxes to our advantage.