Forgotten Girl Quest

By the end of Shuixing’s speech the tone of the crowd had shifted. The anger and confusion at Baphomet’s death gave way to a rapturous clarity about what to do next. Unlike Baphomet’s vague notions of struggle against an ill-defined enemy, Shuixing offered a more concrete picture of what the Yishang were, how they worked, and what could be done. Most of the crowd didn’t quite understand how it all fit together, but those Non-Heroes with abstract intelligence as one of their input parameters explained to their neighbors the significance of what Shuixing was talking about and comprehension rippled outwards like rain on a lake.

Sofiane, initially averse to telling the Non-Heroes the truth, changed his mind watching the transformation in real time. Their work was far from done, and things were about to get much more dangerous with open rebellion against the gods of their universe, but there was something powerful in the truth being out in the air. Vermögenburgh, the backwater town Heroes sprinted through en route to more exotic locales, hummed with electric energy, as though the tired walls could all be torn down and stay broken through the night with the Non-Heroes’ renewed sense of ownership. If the Yishang “owned” Po-Lin, that meant there was something there to be owned and fought over and won.

Seeing the effect her otherwise mild-mannered words had, Shuixing blushed. The question of how much of it was her manipulation of the special event field lingered. It was a question mark over the whole enterprise of rebellion she was dragging the Non-Heroes into. Would they have supported her if a line of code didn’t tell them to?

Right when her speech began to spin its wheels on ideas she’d already outlined, Peng flew over the walls, landed on a nearby building, and melded back into the clay roof tiles. Natsuko and Daisy watched from the rooftop where Daisy was giving Shuixing a small but excited wave. Wanting more than anything to see her old friends, Shuixing wrapped up her speech.

“Organizing all this is… well, it won’t be perfect. And I don’t know everything. So you all… and us…” she glanced at Sofiane holding her hand and then up at Daisy and Natsuko. “All of us. We’re going to figure this out together. Forget about Heroes and Non-Heroes, we have a common problem and we’ll solve it together.”

With no ceremony Shuixing scurried offstage. Sensing her capacity for public speaking was overheated, Sofiane carved a path through the crowd with the help of some students and they were able to get her back to the Mage’s College. Natsuko and Daisy were already standing out front waiting for her.

As though they’d traded smiles, Natsuko flashed her a sheepish grin. “Hey, Shui. Long time no see…”

Natsu’s gravelly voice rang with guilt and awkwardness. Shuixing slammed Natsuko into a hug.

Natsuko winced. “Oof! Agh! Nice to see you too, Shui. That’s my spear-stab wound.”

Shuixing felt something warm and sticky on her stomach and looked down to see a splotch of blood transferred onto her robes from a gaping wound in Natsuko’s torso.

Shuixing broke the hug. “Gosh I’m so sorry!”

She summoned her old bell-rod and ringing it to cleanse Natsuko’s wounds. Natsuko chuckled at the absurdity of this being their first interaction since she'd run off like a spoiled brat. Expecting everything to have changed, nothing really had.

“I’m okay, Shui, really! Just need to eat some food and rest,” Natsuko said.

“O-Oh, right. Let’s go inside then."

“At your command, Ms. Cult Leader.”

Shuixing flushed bright red. “Oh gods, that was too much! I am not a public speaker,”

As the other two walked inside, Daisy and Sofiane sized each other up. As far as Sofiane was concerned, she and Natsuko had only come back because of Baphomet. Having run off once, Sofiane had no confidence in them not to do it again. His guarded expression said as much. Sofiane frowned at Daisy. Daisy frowned back at him. The two frowned at each other for almost a minute before Daisy started cracking up then exploded into snorting giggles. Sofiane continued to frown.

“Go~lly Sofi, when’d ya get so serious?” she said, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.

He folded his arms. “Probably since I had to rescue Shuixing from Baphomet by myself and keep her safe, all on the thin hope she could keep us all from being exterminated. Unlike you, fucking around hasn’t been the first thing on my mind lately.”

Daisy’s expression sobered. “Gosh, Sofi, I’m sorry! Natsu and I have had our troubles too. We had to fight like hell just to get here, y’know. But now that we are, we’re gonna do everything we can to help.”

She moved to put a hand on his shoulder but he brushed it off and walked past.

“I’m sure you are,” he replied.

Daisy made a raspberry and followed after him.

“How lucky for you,” Boulanger said, glaring at the new teammate thrust upon them by the Yishang.

“Yes, how lucky for me,” Cunegonde said with a false smile. “It was very nice of Zhidao to notice both our teams were down a member all of a sudden. I’m looking forward to working with you, Boulanger.”

Boulanger said nothing. All he had to say was contained in the look of disdain fixed upon Cunegonde. Beside him, Koyon was sprawled out across a chair looking stricken with a terminal case of boredom. Behind, Ailing stood with her hands on Boulanger’s shoulders and sporting a tight, polite smile that was neither rude nor welcoming. Cunegonde couldn’t really blame them. No one liked taking on a new teammate, no one liked being bossed around by the Yishang, and no one was happy with the state of things. To them she was a living reminder of all three. But she was also saving their asses from being passed up for another team, so they at least could’ve been grateful for that.

“If you can keep up, things will be fine. If not, we’ll find someone else,” Boulanger said.

Cunegonde scoffed. “I stayed competitive while carrying around three dead weights. Believe me, I’ll be fine.”

“Good!” Zhidao said, clapping his paws together. “Glad to hear it. So, as I mentioned, you’re still going to have abilities and stats and such, but things are gonna work a little differently. Your Use-Numbers aren't that important going forward because, trust me, they'll rise on their own. And forget all the stuff about the Entropic Axis, it turns out the real villains are actually a group of Heroes trying to wipe out the entire world."

Ailing cocked an eyebrow. “Is this quest flavor bullshit or are you serious?”

“Oh, I am very serious,” Zhidao said, using his paws to drag his cheeks down into a mock frown. “Our dear Natsuko and her friends have stumbled onto some things they shouldn’t have and now they want to dimension-jump all of Po-Lin. Not even the two teams we picked will get to go to the new world!”

All of Team Boulanger stiffened at that. They had suspected Zhidao had an ulterior motive for matching them up the moment they were re-summoned. No doubt the Yishang had given them Xian powers with the intent of having them get exterminate Natsuko and her teammates. Not that they needed much of a reason for that. Dying to Natsuko’s Desperation Art and finding out she was trying to destroy Po-Lin before they could escape didn’t exactly endear her to them.

“Won’t they be destroyed too though?” Cunegonde asked. “Surely they’re not that stupid and suicidal.”

“Of course not. What they think will happen is they’ll escape into some spirit world where they can live in paradise and never have to compete or struggle again for all eternity,” Zhidao said.

Boulanger snorted at the idea. All of the forgotten Heroes had that same delusion.

“They’re wrong, of course,” Zhidao continued. “I’m sure you all have learned one way or another about who the Yishang are and what’s happening here, no?”

Cunegonde looked around at the other three who all seemed to know something she didn’t. “Uh…”

Zhidao waved a paw. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not important. Basically, Natsuko and her friends stumbled onto the fact that the Yishang operates a framework, or skeleton perhaps, holding together several different universes. What they’re all trying to do is dislodge Po-Lin from this framework and send it… who knows where! They certainly don’t know. So while their group truly does believe they’re trying to save everyone, it won’t work. They’ll destroy this universe with their misguided, utopian plan, and if you all don’t help stop them, there will be nothing left of you to transport into the new universe. Any questions?"