Iku Quest Dos - A Z-Machine Adventure

[Hello Purvis]

>"... is Kanako upset?"

>"Very," says Sanae. "I'll try to meet you around the edge of the mountain or something later. Right now you just need to go. And...um...don't get mad if I shoot at you, I don't mean it."
>"What the hell?" Tenshi says. "If you wanna go, I'm not running anywhere!"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Take Tenshi's hand, in case she tries something.
>"Tenshi, she obviously doesn't want to. Don't make this worse."
>"And Kanako won't listen to you? Isn't even willing to hear us out?"

[Hello Purvis]

>Take Tenshi's hand, in case she tries something.
>"Tenshi, she obviously doesn't want to. Don't make this worse."
>"And Kanako won't listen to you? Isn't even willing to hear us out?"

>You take Tenshi's hand.
>"Like hell I'm going to just sit here and let them run me off after inviting me up here!" Tenshi says
>"Just go, now, please!" says Sanae.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Tenshi, I understand how you feel, but let's not fight another unnecessary battle. There's been too many of them today already. Please."
>Move to leave. Try to pull Tenshi with us if she seems to be being a little stubborn.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Tenshi, I understand how you feel, but let's not fight another unnecessary battle. There's been too many of them today already. Please."
>Move to leave. Try to pull Tenshi with us if she seems to be being a little stubborn.

>"Fine! Whatever!" Tenshi shouts, throwing up her hands.
>You move to leave, Tenshi stomping off after you.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Quickly leave the premises and head away from the mountain

[Hello Purvis]

>Quickly leave the premises and head away from the mountain

>You quickly leave; and hear danmaku streaming out after you!
>"Oh fuck her!" Tenshi says, "Let's beat the piss out of her, right now!"
>You notice that you're getting some looks from the tengu in the town as you hurry away from the shrine.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"She's putting on a show. Don't bite. If she really wanted to beat us, she wouldn't have given us the warning."
>Pick up the speed
>Glance back enough to see the incoming shots, and shift aside a little, if we can
>This really isn't going to make us look good to the villagers....

[Hello Purvis]

>"She's putting on a show. Don't bite. If she really wanted to beat us, she wouldn't have given us the warning."
>Pick up the speed
>Glance back enough to see the incoming shots, and shift aside a little, if we can
>This really isn't going to make us look good to the villagers....

>"Oh I'll give her a show alright!" says Tenshi.
>You put on more speed and look back. There is a lot of danmaku back there, but most of it isn't coming at you. Close to you, maybe. But you should be fine if you don't move erratically.
>You can't imagine this will endear you to many.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Tenshi didn't just double back to engage her, did she?

[Hello Purvis]

>Tenshi didn't just double back to engage her, did she?

>Not yet, you still have her by the hand. But you think she might have fired back.
>As you run down the street, you hear a voice from nearby shouting "Let me out of here, damn your eyes!" off to the north a bit.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Don't shoot back! We're innocent, remember? Going to have a hell of a time convincing people of that if this keeps up..."
>Can we identify the source of the voice?

[Hello Purvis]

>"Don't shoot back! We're innocent, remember? Going to have a hell of a time convincing people of that if this keeps up..."
>Can we identify the source of the voice?

>"No one cares we're innocent!" Tenshi cries.
>You can't immediately identify where it is coming from, but it does sounds distantly familiar. You can't quite work out who's it would be.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"I care! We can't run around like this forever, and none of this will get better if we beat them down. If they think we're guilty, they'll just do it over again the next time they're on their feet!"
>Keep on moving

[Hello Purvis]

>"I care! We can't run around like this forever, and none of this will get better if we beat them down. If they think we're guilty, they'll just do it over again the next time they're on their feet!"
>Keep on moving

>"Not if we make 'em think twice about it next time!" Tenshi says.
>"I'll drown you all in your sleep if you don't let me out of here!" cries the northward voice, now distant to hear, as you reach the outskirts of town. The danmaku flying at you is thinning out now.

>_

[DracoOmega]

Investigate northward voice.

That will put us right back into the town we're fleeing from. It's unfortunately not something we can deal with at the moment, if we don't want to risk a major altercation, and potentially getting Kanako directly involved.

>"I doubt Kanako will be put off by a show of force, and Sanae's heart already isn't into this."
>"We'll do what she suggested and meet later. Maybe she'll help us understand why this happened. I'm genuinely surprised at Kanako; I wonder if there's some other angle to this situation we don't yet know."

[Hello Purvis]

>"I doubt Kanako will be put off by a show of force, and Sanae's heart already isn't into this."
>"We'll do what she suggested and meet later. Maybe she'll help us understand why this happened. I'm genuinely surprised at Kanako; I wonder if there's some other angle to this situation we don't yet know."

>"I'll put her off, alright!" Tenshi cries. "But alright, we're totally being the crap out of Sanae then!"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Sigh
>We can argue about that when she's had time to cool down
>Get out of the city entirely and head towards the Aki's

[Hello Purvis]

>Sigh
>We can argue about that when she's had time to cool down
>Get out of the city entirely and head towards the Aki's

>You leave the upper reaches of the mountain behind, flying over the city, and heading toward the forest at the edge of the mountain. Thankfully, no further fire follows you, though you notice the tengu patrols closing in on you before you leave their area.
>"Now what?" Tenshi asks.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Are the patrols closing in from behind us? Or are they also ahead of us, as well?
>What is their speed, compared to ours?
>Would they have seen the danmaku in the city, from here?
>What is their general posture and intent? Do they seem directly aggressive, or merely wary?

[Kilgamayan]

Eh. Not sure I would have run away in favor of standing up to Kanako as an innocent and disarmed representative of the Dragon, but what's done is done.

After that, frankly, I'm of the mind to seek an audience with the Dragon and get some information. Kanako was our best hope for a source of neutrality and info but apparently she's on the rag. Given Marisa is a musclebound oaf and will be of a similar shoot-first mentality, we'd need substantial help to get to Eirin which frankly I don't expect we'll get, and Renko and Mari are fuck knows where, at this point we're stumbling around blindly with a Tenshi whose patience with us is rapidly draining. We need a reliable source of information and, quite frankly, a bolt of confidence, and the Dragon is far and away the best source for both of those.

EDIT: This is after meeting Sanae again and getting our cards back, of course.

[DracoOmega]

Eh. Not sure I would have run away in favor of standing up to Kanako as an innocent and disarmed representative of the Dragon, but what's done is done.

I considered it, but Sanae seemed nervous enough to persuade me that talking to Kanako was not going to end well. I mean, she seemed almost desperate for us to leave. And if Kanako was really on the warpath, and there's no room to negotiate, what chance do we have against her and Sanae, on their home turf? At the very least, now, we may get some more answers later. But I admit that an argument could be made for the opposite (and really, it's what I would have wanted to do, but it was a judgment call)

I'm similarly inclined about The Dragon. I just figured that talking to Minoriko might be a good way to kill enough time for our later meeting with Sanae. Unless you think that Sanae meant more immediately afterward?

[Hello Purvis]

>Are the patrols closing in from behind us? Or are they also ahead of us, as well?
>What is their speed, compared to ours?
>Would they have seen the danmaku in the city, from here?
>What is their general posture and intent? Do they seem directly aggressive, or merely wary?

>They were closing in, but seem content to let you go once you left the upper reaches of the mountain and flew past the waterfall. They did seem aggressive at the time, though.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

Rereading what Sanae said, I guess we have a little bit of time leeway.

I admit it's not an easy call to make, but given we apparently have the authority to request an audience with Kanasuwa instead of going through the normal channels, I think I would have been willing to push my luck a little bit. (I'm also not sure how much Sanae was exaggerating, but I will admit it's certainly possible she wasn't at all.)

But whatever.

I have no particular objections to a Minoriko stopover.

[DracoOmega]

>Sigh
>"And here I'd started to hope we were moving past all this aggressive suspicion..."
>Head to the Aki's

[Kilgamayan]

> To Tenshi: "I'd like to make a quick stopover with the harvest goddess. After that...we're going to see the Dragon again."
> Narrow eyes.
> "I'm already tired of all this horseshit."

[Hello Purvis]

>Sigh
>"And here I'd started to hope we were moving past all this aggressive suspicion..."
>Head to the Aki's

>You sigh. Today has been awful. And you can't even blame it on Tenshi this time.
>"Yeah, I really expected a whole lot better out of her," says Tenshi. "We should set her straight just because of that."
>You make your way toward the forest at the base of the mountain, landing near the western edge of it. Simply put, the forest is breathtaking. The trees are a riot of fiery reds, golden yellows, and browns of all descriptions. Leaves swirl through the air, with the wind producing a wonderful rustle. The road is buried under a carpet of leaves. The forest is not too think here, perfect for exploring. Obvious exits are East and West

> To Tenshi: "I'd like to make a quick stopover with the harvest goddess. After that...we're going to see the Dragon again."
> Narrow eyes.
> "I'm already tired of all this horseshit."

>"Well, okay," says Tenshi. "But what do you expect The Dragon to do about it?"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Although I'm... disappointed in Sanae, I also feel a bit bad for her. She probably felt compelled to attack us, if Kanako wanted her to. It was likely an act of mild defiance on her part to essentially let us leave without a fight."
>"As for The Dragon... Honestly, I'm hoping it will have found some of the cause of the islands falling. That may at least give us something we can work with."
>Do we know where the Aki's house is? If so, head towards it. Otherwise, just head deeper into it, from our current location
>Admire the view as we go. At least there's probably nothing in this place that will try to shoot at us. ...right?

[Hello Purvis]

>"Although I'm... disappointed in Sanae, I also feel a bit bad for her. She probably felt compelled to attack us, if Kanako wanted her to. It was likely an act of mild defiance on her part to essentially let us leave without a fight."
>"As for The Dragon... Honestly, I'm hoping it will have found some of the cause of the islands falling. That may at least give us something we can work with."
>Do we know where the Aki's house is? If so, head towards it. Otherwise, just head deeper into it, from our current location
>Admire the view as we go. At least there's probably nothing in this place that will try to shoot at us. ...right?

>"Maybe," says Tenshi. "I'll give her thirty seconds to explain herself before I beat her like a drum."
>She nods. "Well, you know The Dragon better than I do."
>You have no idea where the Aki Sisters dwell, so you just head inside. The view is quite beautiful, to say the least. All of the trees bear shimenawa here, reminding you of many places in Bhava-Agra, and there is little in the way of underbrush to impede your progress, though there are bushes bearing bursts of leaves on their branches.
>You can hear and see faeries around pretty shortly in, though they don't seem to be quite so agitated as those you've met in the forest. Perhaps a bit nervous, though.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Continue further in
>Can we see signs of a path, anywhere?