HomeAfter clearing up the incident with the rat-human hybrid-like creatures a little while ago, Shichiro found himself sleeping for a day in Keita's lodgings. He had twisted and turned as he was subconsciously disturbed by seeing a monstrosity like that come to life. He wasn't exactly having a nightmare but it was still frightening to witness nonetheless. Waking up, Shichiro had yawned a bit, wiping away the sweat and getting ready to go back to the neutral guild hall for an update on their situation. They still needed to do something about that large den of rats they had heard mentions about but no concrete details of the whereabouts. Getting up, he was unsure if Keita was awake or not himself but he figured if he wasn't awake yet, he wouldn't disturb him. After all, he'd still need to go into the bathroom to freshen up, take a shower and what not. His companion Panther Lily was awake as well unknowingly to Shichiro but decided he wouldn't move or do anything until it was time to go. After taking half an hour to himself, Shichiro came back out feeling better than before. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have a change of clothes so he had to hand wash his current attire before putting it back on while wearing a towel. He was quite annoyed with this but it was better than wearing filthy clothes he has been battling rats in not too long ago. He could only hope this would be done soon before his cousin woke up.
Pest Control #4 [Keita]
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Mon Aug 23, 2021 7:53 pm
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Keita woke up at the crack of dawn as he usually did, as he was a person raised as a calm and collected martial artist, so he enjoyed watching the sunrise while meditating, which usually meant he did not stay out late at all, as he went to bed extra early to see the sunrise paint the area all around. As he came back in from his mediation session, he heard the shower running and knew that his cousin Shichiro was in there. Keita nodded at that, as he was glad that he and his cousin had gotten caught up and were acting almost like brothers again, which was nice. Keita decided that he was going to make some food, and so he headed to his refrigerator and grabbed a bunch of eggs, cheese, and a few strips of prosciutto from the counter. His plan was to make some mini egg quiches with some ham and cheese, and so he got to work. As he was preparing the food, he knew that his cousin would be out of the shower soon if he had just started, it did not seem that he liked to sit in there for a long time, and so he wanted to make something quick and simple to eat. He grabbed the muffin tin out of the cupboard it was in, and started making the quiches. All it took was a bit of time in the oven and they would be ready to eat. As he was waiting for them to bake in the oven, the wonderful smell of cheese and bacon was wafting through the apartment. They should be done as soon as his Cousin got out of the shower, but it seemed he was also washing his clothes as well.
Tue Aug 24, 2021 12:21 am
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Washing his clothing in the bathroom, Shichiro was a bit annoyed he didn't think this one through to bother with getting a change of clothing. Well there was no point in complaining about it now as he was almost down washing off the blood, dirt and grime that he had acquired through his little skirmishes with the human-rat hybrid. After he is done, he'd have to wait a little while for them to dry so he can move on to going to the guild for payment from the last job and to get information about the new one. He decided he had no choice but to go out and do something else while he waited. When he was done, he could smell the scent of what seemed to be breakfast being made. Most likely it was his cousin making it as he nor Panther lily were exactly in the kitchen. Stepping out of the bathroom in a towel, Shichiro waved towards Keita who was making breakfast. Grinning from ear to ear, Shichiro made a snide comment about Keita being a good house husband for somebody. After saying it, he began to chuckle loudly before making his way to the table in his towel and sitting down, waiting to be fed by his older cousin, like old times. They'd have to hurry though because after they eat, they'd have to follow up on what's going on between the feud with the rats and the coyotes. On top of that, he always wanted to know what was behind that barricaded door back at the farmhouse.
Tue Aug 24, 2021 11:39 am
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Keita watched as his cousin got out of the bathroom and sat down, saying that he would make a good house husband. Keita chuckled with him as it was a fairly lighthearted joke, and he sort of agreed. He knew how to cook, clean, and take care of the other miscellaneous chores around the house extremely efficiently. This along with the plain and simple style of house he usually liked would indeed make him a good person to have around the house. He would say something about how he was probably the best, at least out of the mages, before taking the food out of the oven. He had a bowl of fruit on the counter, and some fresh fruit would be perfect to go along with these mini quiches, and so he grabbed an orange for himself before asking his cousin if he wanted something, and grabbing him the one that he wanted. Serving them were pretty simple, arranged on a platter as if they were little samplers from a fancy restaurant. As they were enjoying their breakfast, Keita would ask his cousin if there was anything that they were doing today. They had been pretty busy recently, and with the constant attacks of the monstrous rats going on in this city, it seemed that they might be sent to go off and exterminate more of them today, but Keita hoped for something different, and he would not withhold this information from his cousin, openly complaining about the rat problem, wondering why the city did not just mass hire a bunch of specialists for it.
Tue Aug 24, 2021 1:27 pm
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Settling down in his seat, Shichiro had watched his cousin lay down the food he was preparing of ham and cheese, mini quiche and bacon. Shichiro began to lick his lips as he saw the food in front of him wondering what he should dig into first. It didn't matter to him either way as he picked up a fork and began to dig into the egg quiche in front of him. Mixing it up with some of the ham, cheese and bacon, Shichiro was delighted as he ate his breakfast. Panther Lily had also joined in on the feast as he took his place at the table, literally sitting on the table. in order to eat the meal that was prepared for the three of them. Sometime in the middle of the meal, his cousin had spoken up and asked what the plan was today as well as voiced his discontent with the jobs they've been doing recently. It was always nothing but rats being the root of the problem. Shichiro had to admit there was a bit of an infestation in these parts and they do need to do what they can but it's not like they have enough specialists in the region to take care of everything that was going on. On top of that, the rats have been evolving lately and they've seemingly been able to become far more intelligent than humans, with some even being able to cast magic. If these were nothing but simple, common rats he'd be on board with Keita's discontent but something just didn't seem right with this region.
Tue Aug 24, 2021 2:01 pm
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Keita sat down and started eating after serving his cousin and then they started talking about the actual rat problem. His cousin said they did not have enough sp[ecialists to deal with the problem as a whole, and Keita wondered why, considering how wealthy the place was. They could offer lucrative rewards for clearing out certain nests all the time for the two of them, it should not be that much extra work to save up for a bit before hiring multiple teams to at least clear out a large area, enough to set up defenses against new infestations at least. They could then slowly take back all of the places that were lost to the rats, and protect the places they could fortify. He guessed it had something to do with some sort of profit margin, as just like with a lot of medical procedures, it was always more lucrative to treat the problem over a long period of time rather than treat it outright. Keita assumed something like that was going on with the leaders of this city, and voiced a bit of his concerns to Shichiro as they were eating. Soon they would be done with the food, and all of the leftovers eaten by panther lily, so it would not go to waste or anything, and they would be ready to go out and start their mission. Keita then started to talk about the mutated rats, as he had no idea that some of them were starting to learn how to utilize spells, which was definitely worrying.
Wed Aug 25, 2021 12:58 am
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Finishing up his breakfast, it was time for Shichiro to get ready to head out back to the neutral guild. Although it was time to go, he'd have to dry his clothes by himself somehow. Walking back into the bathroom where his clothes were hung over the tub, he decided to take a nearby hair dryer, turn it on and place it near his wet clothing. He didn't know why he didn't do this before but it was going to inconvenience him at the moment. It took ten or so minutes to blow dry all of his stuff to the point where he could wear it again. After getting dressed in the bathroom, it was time for them to head out of their lodgings and collect their payment from the neutral guild. Shichiro had continued to speak on the matter of rats being able to use magic and even weapons once in a while. It wasn't exactly something that would alarm Shichiro as he literally had a talking cat wielding a shape shifting blade. Arriving at the neutral guild, Shichiro opened the door and entered it, going to the lobby's reception desk. to find the receptionist there. He had inquired about their pay from the last urgent mission they were given. The receptionist nodded and reached down into the space below her in order to fish out both of their rewards. Taking the reward, Shichiro nodded and then decided it was time to ask about the mission details they were supposed to receive a few days ago.
Wed Aug 25, 2021 10:53 am
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His cousin had finished up the breakfast, which made Keita a bit happy, as it was always nice when people finished all of the food you cooked, it meant that they actually enjoyed it. Keita grabbed the few dishes they used and started to clean them as his cousin went back into the bathroom to grab his clothing, and he heard a hair dryer being used on it. It was a pretty good plan, although Keita wondered why he did not just use his magic to make sure everything was dry, he was a fire magic user after all, and it would not be too difficult to raise the temperature in the bathroom around the clothing to dry out the clothes, as Keita assumed that his cousin was far more experienced in using and controlling magic than he was, but at this, Keita just shrugged. He knew some people that did not like to rely on their magic for everything, and he was kind of one of them. After everything was done, they started heading to one of the neutral guild halls so that they could get their payment, and kept talking about the magic and potentially weapon wielding rat creatures, which his cousin did not find strange and essentially hinted at panther lily. While Keita greed that panther lily was a good example of a highly intelligent and advanced animal, he would argue that panther lily did not take a quick few months to advance to where the entire species was today, as something like that would take hundreds of years being near magical essence to do, but these rats seemed to be dumb monsters until very recently.
Sat Aug 28, 2021 6:07 pm
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The receptionist nodded at the two of them before she had begun to explain the details in full. It turns out there was a strange ritual involved that the farmers had performed beforehand. The members of the investigation team that had returned safely came back and told them they had discovered a locked door on the second floor of the farmer's house was a strange, ritualistic altar that seems to be used for certain ritual spellcasting. What they had discovered was a pagan rat god whose name has been lost to time other than to its devout followers. They had managed to decipher the last two rituals they had performed, the first being able to turn humans that love and worship the pagan god into rat-folk hybrids after consumption of a magical rat's flesh. The second one being to transform rats into a more humanoid figure as well as adding human intelligence to rat intelligence. This allowed them to wield human weapons and learn magic faster on their own instead of being taught like other magical companions. This, of course, required them to be the ones consuming the flesh of a human, their rate of growth depending on how powerful the human was when they consumed the chunk of flesh. Hearing that, Shichiro had realized that's probably what happened to one of the farmhands as they were missing quite a bit of flesh from their body. Well, that was a gruesome fate Shichiro didn't want to think about too much. After the explanation and listening to the report the investigation team had written, he was more interested in learning where the rats have nested.
Sun Aug 29, 2021 10:58 am
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Keita grimaced a bit the more he listened toi the receptionist explained what the recovery team had discovered. It seemed that they had gotten into the locked door on the second floor of the farm house that the two of them failed to get in to, and this was only because there were no living creatures in the room and they were more concerned with helping people that might have been targeted by the rats, and of course targeting the rats themselves than investigating the grounds further. Keita was not a trained investigator, so he might as well leave that to the people that had been trained to do that type of thing that the guild already had access to. He grimaced as he listened because the woman started talking about some sort of ancient rat god that would give rats sentience and humanoid features and humanoids more rat like features and power if they ate each other. Eating each other for power and becoming more alike was something that could not really be tolerated, especially because whatever power they got was corrupting them and making them attack and eat humans, regardless of what species they were beforehand. After the receptionist had finished giving them the information they found in the locked room, Keita asked if the team had found any clues to the location of some sort of next, and the receptionist had started to speak about an old cave area that was once part of the old sewer system, and you could still get there by using some of the tunnels.
Sun Aug 29, 2021 3:27 pm
Guest
The receptionist had informed the two of them of a cave that had been intertwined with the town's sewer system that would lead them closer to the Sieghart Mountains region though not directly in it just yet. The investigation team had figured they were coming mainly from there the reports had led to believe. Shichiro placed his hand onto his chin wondering how long it would take to get there. As soon as he was getting ready to ask another question that might help in their endeavor, a shrill scream of a creature came from behind all of them which had translated to, "I WAS HIDING!!!" This made Shichiro turn around to spot a green rat half his size holding a crossbow and wearing some kind of poncho that matched its color aiming in their general direction. It was a peculiar thing to witness as he's never seen that before but nonetheless, this left Shichiro a bit stunned. The green rat had then begun to fire its crossbow towards everybody in the general direction it had been facing. Shichiro simply turned back around in front of the receptionist he was talking too as that's where he had kept his sacrificial shield fastened. He used it to defend himself and the receptionist in front of him from the incoming magic bolts it was firing. Well this was a surprising turn of events as they were just talking about how the rats gained human intelligence in order to use and wield magic and weapons just like them. He was currently pinned down so he couldn't make any offensive moves so it was up to either panther Lily or Keita to do something.
Sun Aug 29, 2021 4:17 pm
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So, the two of them got the location of the tunnel system they needed to head to, and so it was just a matter of time before they cleared out this particular nest. Keita already had a plan when they saw the nest, if it was just a suped up version of a normal rat nest at least, and so he was thinking about all the ways that he could essentially destroy the nest and the creatures within without damaging the structural integrity of the sewers. As he was thinking about this, suddenly something screeched seom words that Keita could not quite understand, as alarm bells were ringing in his head and he could not do much but attempt to defend himself. He acted quite fast, however, quickly summoning up a wall of earth through the floor boards of the room they were in, and Keita was extremely thankful that they were currently on the first floor of the building. The arrows that seemed to be coming in a small storm also had a bit of power behind them, as he heard a dull thud as they embedded themselves into the earthen wall he had made. Keita quickly stomped the ground, which caused the wall to lift up off of the ground so that it was then free floating, before he shoved it with both of his forearms. This sent it careening quickly into the rat creature, and as it impacted him,, the wall became a bit fluid, wrapping itself around the rat, capturing it, leaving the head exposed.
Sun Aug 29, 2021 4:47 pm
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After being overwhelmed and trapped by the earth spell Keita had unleashed upon it, the rat creature began to squirm and screech. It couldn't fire, or move, anymore and so that ended that. Now that the crisis was averted, Shichiro had asked the receptionist if they were alright and if they had sustained any damages from the crossbow. The receptionist had shook their head 'no' before Shichiro had instructed them to have more security called whether it was mages from their own guild or more rune knights, maybe a combination of both and vacating the premise. The rats were clearly getting smarter as one has managed to find its way to this location to where the humans were being dispatched from. After the receptionist had left, Shichiro bursts out into a fit of laughter as he's never heard something so funny before. He knew he should have been taking this seriously but he couldn't help at how funny these events had turned out. Panther Lily had sort of given Shichiro a look as he wondered if he was taking this seriously. After calming himself down, wiping a tear from his eye that had been falling out, Shichiro had wondered if it was possible to interrogate this thing. Walking over to its immobilized body, Shichiro had squatted down near it and began to ask it some questions like motives and what not. The responses he got were something from a cartoon character or a video game as it kept repeating certain phrases. In the end, Shichiro figured he couldn't reason with this thing, so he guess it wasn't really worth keeping alive anymore.
Sun Aug 29, 2021 6:19 pm
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After all of the combat and arrow firing subsided, it seemed like this rat creature that was a sickly green color was the only one that had come into the building and started to cause a ruckus. As Shichiro checked on the receptionist to see if she was alright, Keita looked around and noticed the crossbow bolts that seemd to be sticking out of everything in the area. The rat shot the crossbow blazingly fast, and the arrows were quite strong, Keita wondered where it got a weapon like that, imagining that the rats could not make that advanced technology, and wondering if it had something to do with their unique physiology instead. As he was looking around, there were a bunch of arrows, and Keita decided to grab one of them that was not embedded too deep into something, because he was curious, as there was a strange smell, not only coming from him, but also the arrows. After looking at it, it seemed that there was some sort of poisonous substance on the arrows, which made Keita relieved that no one was hit during the encounter. It seemed that Shichiro was trying to interrogate the creature considering it had some sort of sentience enough to speak, but the creature’s brain seemed to be fried. Keita told the receptionist to go off and grab some guards while they went and dealt with the nest in the sewers, which would hopefully alleviate the attacks that were probably happening in more places in the city. He would then go and tell Shichiro his plan.
Mon Aug 30, 2021 2:19 pm
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Deciding this rat wasn't worth keeping around any longer, Shichiro had turned towards Panther Lily in order to give him a little nod. Panther Lily silently returned the nod before unsheathing his musica blade and jumping down off of Shichiro's shoulder. Walking towards the rat, Panther Lily would swiftly swipe his blade across the neck(?) of the bound rat in front of him. Quickly but cleanly, he'd decapitate the rat in front of him before swinging his blade once more to clean it and sheath it. Standing up from his squatting position, Shichiro had begun to look around. It seems this guild hall was compromised and it was only a matter of time before they would try and strike again. All they could do now was get started on their next objective as soon as possible and hope they could strike first before the rats come back in droves. He believed this one they had dispatched was a scout but once it heard about the two of them infiltrating the nest, it decided to take action by attempting to take out two enemies by itself now. Unfortunately it had misjudged their power and was caught off guard thinking they were the same as the investigation team that was sent to scout ahead before them. Shichiro would have liked to check out the farmhouse one more time before they headed out to their main destination but judging from the investigation team's last excursion and how only two of them had returned, it was safe to assume it was overrun with rat creatures similar to the one they had fought. For now, Shichiro would just head out towards the destination he and Keita were given in order to carry out their next task. If all went well, this would be over in no time.
Mon Aug 30, 2021 2:33 pm
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Keita noticed that while he was talking to a few of the people, making sure that they got the guards necessary to actually defend this place should another rat somehow sneak in, Shichiro had finished off the rat creature that seemed to be complete insane. Its mind was corrupted by the magical influence that turned them into the creature they became, and this meant that they were essentially mindless drones, carrying out simple tasks to defend themselves. It was a strange mentality to have, and Keita really felt bad for these creatures that lost all semblance of their humanity, and did not even have any sort of redeemable qualities to them anymore. As the rat creature was finished off, Keita added to the workers to bring someone in to clean up the mess created, before Keita noticed that Sichiro was headed out. Keita quickly followed, and it seemed that they would finally get going to the sewer system that the guild hall figured out before. They were going to take the fight to the nests themselves, and soon this would be all over. As they headed out towards their destination, they passed by quite a few houses on their way to a manhole, which was the closest entrance to the tunnel system they needed to go into. As they entered the sewers through the manhole, the relatively familiar scent of sewage came into Keita senses, and it was really unpleasant. He did not like the fact that he had to go into the sewers at all, let alone multiple times in a single month.
Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:55 pm
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It didn't take long for them to reach the cave the receptionist was talking about earlier despite it being quite a way from the city itself. He was a good distance away from the cave, deciding to watch a little before heading inside himself. Just listening from here, he could hear faint sounds of running water coming from it. At the same time, he could see another humanoid rat, coming out of the cave with another behind it both holding crossbows. It seems like they were on patrol or something and began to point their noses up towards the air, sniffing around as if they were alerted to something. Shichiro had hoped their scent hadn't been picked up by them and he could avoid attempting to fight the horde right here. First, the three of them would need to make their way inside and figure out how to navigate through the tunnel system. He was going to ask for more details and maybe a map but they were interrupted by the rat creature with a venomous crossbow so there's that. Watching the rat patrol finishing sniffing, they seemed to have finished and went back into the cave. It didn't seem like they had picked up their presence so Shichiro waited a bit longer before signaling Keita and his companion to follow.
Mon Aug 30, 2021 8:13 pm
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Keita followed Shichiro through the tunnel system through the sewers, noting that it looked fairly normal and that there were not any trails or tracks to show that rats had been here, large or small. It seemed that the sewers were frequented by something, at least something or someone large enough or frequent enough to scare off the regular rats, since it seemed tht the large rats had no interest in the beginning part of the sewer system. Soon they found the runoff drain they were supposed to exit from, and from it were now near a slightly marshy area off to the side of the town. As they rounded the side of a hill, Shichiro warned keita about the cave, and the rats that were on patrol there. The shortcut proved a bit too good, as they seemed to be close enough to the save that they risked the rats being alerted of their presence. Keita waited with bated breath as the rats sniffed the air for a bit, before walking back into the cave. Heaving a sigh of relief, Keita started to look around the cave entrance for places to attack from. Keita had an idea, and started to formulate it out loud in a whisper to his cousin. The plan was that he would use his earth magic to make the mouth of the cave smaller, meaning that when Shichiro and panther lily went with their attack, the rat creatures could not swarm them, and they could bottleneck the rats for a better tactical advantage. He then waited to see with Shichiro would say to this plan.
Mon Aug 30, 2021 11:36 pm
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Sneaking in after the crossbow wielding rats, Shichiro decided it was best to take out his shield just in case they had started to fire if the plan didn't go as intended. Signaling Panther Lily to stay right behind him with his blade drawn, Shichiro moved further into the cave as quietly as he could. He was unsure if he would run into the rats again but it didn't hurt to be prepared. Panther Lily posted behind him was his eyes, occasionally peeking out from behind him when needed in order to guide Shichiro until they had run into the other two rats. They had failed to keep stealthy and were seemingly caught right from the beginning outside of the cave. The rats just pretended not to know and set up an ambush, revealing themselves and firing with their crossbows. Keeping his shield, Shichiro used it to cover his allies as a spray of arrows had been sent their way once more. Since there were a couple of them this time, it was a little harder to advance so Shichiro had to slowly move forward behind his shield until Panther Lily was close enough in range in order to get them both unarmed. After dispatching the rats, they had moved further through the cave into the sewers where they had discovered an underground city, here is where their true mission would begin.
[Exit.]
[Exit.]
Tue Aug 31, 2021 2:10 am
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The two of them inched forward towards the cave, as panther lily took the lead and made sure that none of them were going to get ambushed, as it seemed more of a seasoned ambush predator than any of the rats. This was definitely deemed the case, as thousands of years of magical evolution seemed to dwarf the skills of the newly arisen rats, as it was able to move behind them and take them out nearly instantly. Keita was very impressed by his cousin's ability to hold that large shield and still move quietly while crouching through the cave system, following the two guards. The guards seemed to have to sniff to have their amazing sense of smell activated, a shortcoming of their magical alteration, no doubt, so they saw nothing coming. After dispatching the two unknowing rat guards, it was time to head towards the the back of the cave, and Keita was ready for a large fight. He was planning on using a spell that caused a large number of razor sharp spikes to appear on the floor in certain locations, essentially bottlenecking the rats that were not too stupid to not get out of the way of the spikes. His meticulous planning seemed to be all for naught, as when they rounded the final corner to see the end of the cave system, where Keita assumed there would be a lot of holes where the rats' nests were, there was a single entrance to the sewer. It seemed like the rats had burrowed and gnawed their way through the ground from the sewer, and established a city on the other side. It seemed like the day just got a lot longer for the both of them.
EXIT
EXIT
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