yogen | In League with Dragons (OPEN)

Entry tags:

In League with Dragons (OPEN)

Who: Gudako and you!
When: 3/28
Warnings: Spooky magic.

One morning, a few days before Spring "break" ends, a note is taped to the front of the class 2-A classroom.

Magic ritual in progress. Please be careful!
-Ritsuka

While on the face of it this may seem ridiculous, peering in through the windows sees all of the desks inside the classroom shoved into the corners while Ritsuka kneels on the floor, having laid the chalkboard on the floor to sketch some kind of elaborate magic circle on it.

Ritsuka frequently pauses, looks at her work, narrows her eyes, erases, resketches, repeats this process, and-

Flops back on her back and lets out a loud groan, just... laying there. Staring up at the ceiling blankly.

It doesn't look like she's going to move for a while.

Maybe someone should go and check up on her.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A... summoning circle? Then, what are you trying to summon?

[ Admittedly, Nene herself has thought of trying to see if she could call Hanako-kun out, but she wasn't sure if it would work. "Couldn't hurt to try" didn't count in this case, since all failure would bring her is fear and heartache. Shh though. ]

A Heroic Spirit! [That seems to animate Ritsuka a little bit, at least. Hauling herself to her feet, she begins explaining... to the best of her ability. It's really weird high-level stuff that even she doesn't fully understand but she'll do her best.]

You know how a bunch of historical figures and legends and even concepts that embody that sort of thing all take up the same area in your brain? Imagine that place as an actual space, somewhere out there in a weird metaphysical plane.

That's the Throne of Heroes.

Whenever something makes enough of an impression on history to be remembered like that, they get put onto the Throne of Heroes, and certain kinds of magic can summon them. Normally, it's... pretty much impossible to summon a full Heroic Spirit Servant, but if there's some weird, extraordinary circumstance like this one, it's more likely.

Does that make sense so far?

[ Oh thank god she's already used to supernatural stuff. ]

That- that's incredible! [ Maybe someday it'll see the Kamome Seven Mysteries! ...Well. Maybe it's better if they don't, actually, because they're all kind of rude, proud people. ] So you were trying to summon one to save us...?

Am trying. [Ritsuka raises a single index finger, then slumps, sighing dejectedly. It was really times like these where she wished she paid more attention to Emiya's magecraft lessons... or had a memory that wasn't shot full of holes due to constant erasing and dream shenaniganry... but really, it came down to the fact that she wasn't anywhere near a Caster or even a caster.]

The problem is that while I'm sure I've gotten the general structure right, [she gestures towards the shape of the magic circle,] remembering all of the characters on the writing around the shape is really, really hard, and I don't actually know what'll happen if I activate the ritual and one of them is out of place. So I need it to be as close to the original as possible... but my memory isn't that insanely good. It's a bunch of guesswork, really. At least I can kinda read the runes at this point so I know what they're supposed to say, but writing them is a lot harder.

Maybe you can try practicing them in a notebook separately? Maybe then you'll get it right, but.... without. [ And she gestures to the circle. ] That going off.

[ (she'd really like to avoid magical accidents.) ]

I don't have a lot of experience with magic, but I know the details are really important.

You've got that right. I really don't want to mess this one up.

...granted, I don't know what'll happen if I mess it up, but it's probably going to be pretty bad.

[She sighs, crossing her arms.]

The problem is this isn't really something I can practice on a small scale... although maybe you're right. If I just sketch out a few circles to get the feel for it first then hopefully when I try the actual thing it won't blow up in my face?

We don't want that! So yeah, we should have some extra paper to try with.

[ Already, she's looking for some. What a go-getter. ]

[Ritsuka yoinks a sharp-ish pencil from inside one of the desks, idly twirling it between her fingers as she searches for some spare paper.]

You know, I don't think I've heard your name? I'm Ritsuka Fujimaru, but some of my friends call me Gudako.

[ Nene's found some! And immediately hands it over, but she sits down in an empty desk. Surely no one would mind. ]

Nene Yashiro! It's nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too. [Ritsuka sits down at the desk next to Nene and begins concentrating intently as she sketches out circles and writes down runes. Is her tongue sticking out a little bit?

...yes. Yes it is.]

Honestly, I didn't expect a nice girl like you would know about magic. You have to at least know a bit, right? Even considering how nuts this place is, most normal people would look at me like I'm a crazy person if I started rambling about summoning a Servant.

Oh, um. Well... I normally don't talk about this. [ But she's magic, and summoning spirits. It's probably fine? But maybe neither of them should just go around talking about this so freely- Minamoto-senpai had been barely understanding and he was one of the nicest people ever! ] But I'm the assistant to a... guardian spirit of a sort. I help maintain the balance between humans and the supernatural forces around them. I'm not really familiar with "Servants" but... well, you're not my first encounter!

[Now we're on familiar ground. Ritsuka snaps her fingers, grinning.] I know a few people like that! Nitocris and Geronimo are the experts, but Caster Cú's a druid so that should fall under his expertise too.

Man, someone your age having to deal with all that must be stressful... although, er. I started when I was sixteen, so I don't really think I have any room to talk, haha.

[SAYING THAT WHILE YOU'RE COVERED IN SCARS ISN'T THE MOST REASSURING, RITSUKA.]

It's not so bad.

[ Aside from the time the Mokke were compelled to try to kill her because of their story, and when Yako almost cut her head off with scissors, and being kidnapped by Tsukasa and nearly killed a few times, and that time Hanako himself kidnapped her, and... ... It's fine. She's fine. ]

Hanako-kun does his best to keep me safe. It's a little scary sometimes, but he always comes for me.

[It's fine in the way Ritsuka's life is completely fine, which is to say, not fine at all. Be prepared for her to be a huge hypocrite about it whenever she finds out, Nene.]

What's Hanako like? Is he that guardian spirit you were talking about?

He is, yes. He's the seventh mystery of the school- and the one in charge. They're supernatural entities who scare the living to gain power, but also protect the living from dangerous spirits, or other spirits from the same.

[ It's so nice being able to talk about this with someone who isn't going to try to kill her. ]

He's... childish and teases me a lot, but he also tries to make me happy and he always keeps me safe. [ She likes him. A lot. But he's also a ghost... ] I keep thinking maybe I'll find him here...

In my experience, it's always the people who keep you on your toes that you can trust the most.

[Says the woman who counts James "Still Calls Himself the Napoleon of Crime Even When He's Next to the Literal Actual Napoleon Bonaparte" Moriarty as among her closest confidantes.]

It's because they probe that line so often that they know when and how you need help.

Man, dealing with all of those spirits sounds like a pain, though. I have to herd a different kind of dead people cat, [Ritsuka that doesn't make any sense,] but at least most of them don't try to actively spook me.

I never thought of it like that...

Well, to stay strong enough to keep existing, they need to be talked about... and if someone encounters a scary but ultimately harmless thing, they're going to talk about it. My best friend would always race to tell me the latest rumors about them, even. A couple times, the day she told me about a rumor wound up being the day I had to help investigate...

I really only hung around Hanako-kun, mostly- but I've met most of them!

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In League with Dragons (OPEN)

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autotranslation might turn that "cu" into "dog" which is hilarious

Re: autotranslation might turn that "cu" into "dog" which is hilarious

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