MargardKazuki/SessionTwo

Prologue

In the week following the events at Dunleavy Hall, Kira takes time from her lessons to speak with Chancellor Crow in order to find out more about the Memory of Glory and the poltergeist activity surrounding the area. Crow is unconcerned about the goings-on in Dunleavy and does not believe the place to be dangerous. She all but admits to having left it alone all these years to give the students a chance to learn from the experience.

Rector Danic continues her rigorous physical education training every night following their academic lessons. On the last day of their fourth week of classes, after one of her sessions, she brings the freshmen together for an announcement: a mysterious transfer student will be joining their class. Mizugami volunteers to take on the role as her mentor to assist in her orientation.

The Arrival of Princess Ranka

Long before the arrival of the baggage train, the buzz of excitement has already spread through the Colleges of the Fivefold Paths’ campus. Moro, the rumormonger of Len Occam, interrupts lunch as she barges into the dining hall to announce the approach of the entourage to a mostly apathetic crowd. A small group consisting of Mizugami, Kazuki, Kira, and the Three Stooges (Moro, Miyako, and Reflections) gathers up to meet the newcomer anyway.

As the three carriages stop at the gate, a servant swarm converges on the middle car to assist its occupant, a young girl of 14 who has yet to fully blossom, dressed in layers of silk finery revealing skin tinted in a pale orange hue. She greets the welcoming committee and introduces herself as Princess Ranka from the realm of Gem. Mizugami welcomes her and directs his servant to guide the Princess’ entourage to her quarters while he escorts her to the Chancellor’s office. Kira and a bodyguard hefting a small gem-filled chest accompany them, while Kazuki stands transfixed by the riches being carried out of the wagons.

Waiting in the Chancellor’s office, other than Crow herself, is Virtuous Cloud. Mizugami excuses himself from the room, and after a round of introductions and bribery, Crow provides Princess Ranka with a brief description of the people that are most involved with the Dragonblooded students. Most of the meeting is centered on Virtuous Cloud, who will be her personal tutor in the sorcerous arts through at least Ranka’s freshman year.

Rector Danic is left wondering where the student she was expecting has gone off to again.

Mizugami leads Ranka back to the Palace to meet with Rector Danic. After brief introductions, Danic asks the same questions that she posed to the other students: “What do you see yourself doing as a Dragonblooded?” Princess Ranka envisions herself as someone who will be overseeing and organizing the logistics and financial support of her nation’s armies. She is recommended classes in bureaucracy and military theory, joining Mizugami and Kazuki in a few of their lessons.

Kazuki misses dinner that night, having never moved from his spot by the gates.

The Sparring Scrimmage

Rector Danic wastes no time to induct Princess Ranka into her physical training sessions by testing the combat skills and abilities of the class that evening.

The students are encouraged to go all-out in their sparring matches. Besides Danic judging over each bout, Chead is on hand to help in case things get out of hand and Incomparable Ebony Comet is there to heal the inevitable wounds. These contests are supposed to help highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each student so that the rest of the class will become familiar with each others’ abilities.

The first match pits Judas, a defensive powerhouse, against Kazuki’s offensive strengths. As the match starts, neither side activates their powers; Kazuki is hesitant since he doesn’t want to hurt his allies, and Judas, because he knows that Kazuki will not use the full extent of his abilities against him. Kazuki has not specifically trained in unarmed combat, but he still lands a number of very solid punches and kicks that would have instantly felled even trained mortal soldiers. Judas, however, is unhurt and unfazed, and threatens Kazuki with bodily harm if he doesn’t take this fight seriously. To accentuate his point, he forces Kazuki to retreat by swinging his massive fist and activating his armor abilities.

Realizing that his fight is going nowhere fast, Kazuki finally summons his Dire Lance. He is still reluctant to use its razor edge and swings the flat of the blade at Judas, who catches the weapon out of annoyance and spins the blade to angle properly. Kazuki follows through with a wide sweeping swing and manages to finally land a hit against Judas. The Jade weapon and Judas’ mystical armor erupt in a shower of sparks, but Judas remains unharmed. He grabs Kazuki’s head and knocks him back with a staggering blow that causes the referees to sit up in alarm.

Kazuki falters, but manages to shake out of his momentary torpor. As he wipes the blood from his eyes, he takes several deep, calming breaths, and whispers an apology to Judas while lowering himself into a combat stance as he calls upon every ounce of ability within him. In one moment, he is standing several feet before Judas, and in the next, Kazuki is standing far behind him. At first, it is difficult to tell what has happened, but then a bloody line reveals itself on Judas’ abdomen. Judas forfeits the match in his usual cryptic manner, and pats Kazuki’s shoulder as he walks off the field.

The next matchup has Kira facing off against Jahanna. As Danic calls for the fight to begin, Kira does something unexpected. Instead of arming herself with her bow and keeping her distance, she closes into grappling range with Jahanna by darting behind her and attempting to pin her to the ground.

Jahanna deftly sidesteps the amateur maneuver, shrugs, and says simply, “Big mistake,” before grabbing the stunned Kira in a bear hug and activating her fire aspect abilities. Their fight ends as quickly as it started as Kira’s smoking body collapses to the ground, with Jahanna walking away as the victor.

Incomparable Ebony Comet recites a spell over Kira and feeds her a draught, which instantly heals her burns, but doesn’t do much for her clothes. She is draped in three layers of cloaks and jackets courtesy of Kazuki, Ranka, and Mizugami as the final match is announced. Danic comments that she had expected Kira to take advantage of her Air Aspect abilities and archery skills to keep her distance. It seems that Kira still has a lot to learn about combat.

The final contest is a faceoff between Ranka and Mizugami, a simultaneously mismatched yet best-matched pairing for the group. No one is sure how a contest between a diplomat gifted with powers of persuasion and a fire aspect sorceress is going to turn out, so the students watch with interest as Danic gives the order to begin.

Mizugami gets the jump on Ranka, and he charges her with a quick jab to the face in an effort to end things quickly. He doesn’t quite have enough power in his blow, however, and Ranka manages to recover before Mizugami can follow through. She returns the favor with a burst of fire magic, which staggers Mizugami, and she doesn’t take any chances in following up with another fiery cone of death. Mizugami is barely able to activate his Water aspect abilities in time to quench the flame before it consumes him, and he staves off the worst of possible outcomes. He forfeits the match, knowing that he can’t afford to take another hit like that.

Danic is impressed with Mizugami’s unexpected resilience. Kazuki is terrified of Ranka’s power and comments to Danic that he never wants to be pitted against her, though Danic’s only response is that he and Ranka would probably end up annihilating one another before anyone could stop them.

As the final two contestants heal up from their injuries, Danic declares the test over, and gives the rest of the night to the students as free time.

A Rare Respite

Ranka suggests meeting back at Len Occam in order to get to know her classmates better, though Judas and Jahanna have already wandered off to do whatever it is they do when they go off alone.

As the group returns to the palace to clean up, Pimp Rector Cynis Norrin approaches Kira regarding her performance in the combat training. Since it was obvious that she has deficiencies in tactics and technique, he offers to personally train her with one-on-one combat tutelage. Never minding that it is Danic who is responsible for the class’ physical training, he asserts that Crow will never be able to teach her properly in the ways of battle. Kira brushes him off and postpones her decision in order to speak with Crow first, but not before he oh-so-helpfully removes two of the three layers of jackets and offers to return them to their rightful owners.

Meanwhile, Kazuki is also waylaid before he can go anywhere as Ferem Quintero pulls him aside to talk. He’s come to find out what Kazuki has learned about Jahanna. Kazuki reveals some of the events of Jahanna’s past that he was told during the Dunleavy outing, and Kazuki demonstrates why he is both the best and worst person to ask for favors of this nature when he suggests that Quintero invite Jahanna to a sporting event. Quintero happily runs off to extend an invite.

Ranka visits her suites for the first time and finds them… quaint. Her servants bemoan the limitations of the palace, especially Chef Huey’s dining schedule. At least her chef is allowed in the kitchen. Mizugami, Kira, Kazuki and Ranka have a fireside chat in the dining hall to learn more about one another. Ranka seems especially curious about local life while Kazuki is fascinated by stories of how royalty live. The group exchanges stories all through the night.

The Day After

During her morning lessons, Kira takes some time to talk to Crow about Norrin’s statements. Crow assures Kira that those lessons will come, but she needs to be patient. Crow wishes Kira to emphasize training up her defenses before moving on to training in offensive techniques. She is welcome to take Norrin up on his offer if she wants, but Crow insists that Kira not forgo lessons with her.

Jahanna pays Danic a visit, finally exhibiting an interest towards her future. She has learned of a competition called The Tournament of the Scarlet Grace, which takes place annually, pitting the graduating classes of all of the Dragonblooded schools in the realm against one another, and she wishes to be appointed as the team leader for the contest in order to relive the heyday of her mortal life. Danic appreciates Jahanna’s enthusiasm, but she outlines several goals that Jahanna, and the rest of her class, must first meet before she is considered for the role.

In order to excel in the contest, each student must first individually pass academic exams in four areas: Law, Bureaucracy, Religion, and Occult. They must also demonstrate exceptional aptitude in several physical tasks as well, including archery, riding, swimming, and fencing. Only those that pass all 6 exams may continue to the final round, a team competition that pits all of the schools against one another. The Colleges of the Fivefold Paths has never had a champion, and it is obvious that Danic is grooming her charges especially for this contest. Well, obvious to almost everyone.

Ranka is quickly adjusting to her new life at the school. Chef Huey personally comes out during breakfast to learn Ranka’s meal preferences. She also begins her training with Virtuous Cloud and learns that Virtuous Cloud will teach her everything except demon summoning. Mizugami has also convinced Ranka to see to it that Kazuki remains awake during classes, mostly by engaging him in thought-provoking discussions. During some of her off-hours, Ranka becomes acquainted with both Haining and Lasha, the only other sorcery students in the school. They don’t think very highly of each other.

The Next Meeting of the High Student Deliberative

That week, the next meeting of the High Student Deliberative is held. Kira presents her report of the Dunleavy Expedition, but to Mizugami’s dismay, Kira brings up Saiki’s involvement and puts Chead on the spot to answer for his involvement in the original incident. Chead continually dances around the issue, and is unwilling to provide any answers other than reiterating his desire to raze the hall.

Based on the collective knowledge of the occult within the Deliberative, Kira presents a plan to purge the poltergeist and return the dorms to a pristine state. Cleansing the poltergeist activity requires the destruction of the spirit anchors that basically empower the psychic residue. Even after the anchors are destroyed, the dorms will need to be repaired and rebuilt. Returning the building to its original form and function will eventually eliminate the spiritual activity there once and for all. It is argued that this has the added benefit of leaving a legacy for future generations of students to observe as they take the time to restore the building.

The plan is passed with an overwhelming majority. The Operation: Dunleavy Purge Committee is formed, and a plan is put together to be presented before the Lower Deliberative.

Next on the agenda is the upcoming Student festival. It is the responsibility of the Higher Deliberative to propose a theme for the festival, and all of the students of the school work toward decorating, prepping, and setting up the school grounds to fit the theme. In previous years, the themes have been Foods of the North and the Haunted Campus, so the Vice Minister, Elin, asks for something different. Judas suggests The Designs of Fall without blinking. Lasha wants an event highlighting the great history of school and of Cherak. As an aside, Reflections recommends Foods of the North and Moro submits the Haunted Campus. Kazuki puts forth the Haunted Foods of North Campus.

Ranka attempts to dig further into the reasoning behind the two serious suggestions. Judas explains that since the festival is to be held at the end of summer, that activities welcoming the fall would be aesthetically pleasing – the campus could be decorated in fall colors, the foods served could be autumn favorites, there could be rooms converted into haunted houses for All Hallows Eve, and it should be easy for the school to come up with different ideas to suit the theme.

Lasha wants the school to recognize and honor the great heroes of the North, especially those that have come from the Colleges of the Fivefold Path, and what better way to do so than to celebrate their distinction throughout the entire school. Unfortunately, as some of the more astute history buffs point out, is that this particular roster of heroes is painfully short, and most of those heroes are still alive.

Instead of trying to argue the point at this time, Ranka suggests that the vote be tabled so that people can think on the ideas more and present better arguments for and against each idea. The motion is seconded and carried, and thus ends the second meeting of the High Deliberative for the year.

The Deliberative disperses, though the committee members of Operation: Dunleavy Purge stay behind to discuss strategy. Ranka joins in this time and invites Lasha and Haining to stay to provide magic support for the mission. The group tries to get Chead to stay in order to find out more information about the incident, but after some offhanded accusations are thrown about, he leaves without answering anything.

Judas asks if there’s any significant risk in not knowing the nature of the anchor or its location, and learns that not knowing one or the other could become dangerous to the group as the more time they spend searching for the item, the more they are likely to be attacked. Judas seems satisfied and leaves the meeting.

Unrepentant Jade comments that Quintero may be the ideal person to speak with regards to the rebuilding of the dorms, but further discussion is tabled until the resolution has been passed in the Lower Deliberative.

Mizugami calls the freshmen class together, and manages to also get a Reflections, who happens to tag along, inviting them into his sitting room where he gives them tips on tact. Saiki's name and involvement should not have been brought up, and Chead should not have been needlessly antagonized in a public arena. Kira is unconcerned about politics since she’s not in the Blessed Isle. Kazuki seems clueless... as usual.

Meanwhile, Judas confronts Chead in the training dojo in an attempt to get information about the anchor from him. They make a deal: If Judas wins, Chead tells him what he wants to know; if Chead wins, Judas must unconditionally assist Judas in a mission some time in the future. With that agreed upon, the two begin their fistfight. During the exchange of blows, Judas gets Chead to talk more about the incident and gradually gets the information he wants anyway. Though he is outmatched and getting badly beaten, he learns that Chead once loved the girl that became Glory. In the end, Chead declares that he will be the one to kill Glory when the Hunt finds her. Judas “wins” by throwing Chead out of the ring, but he has been beaten badly enough to lose consciousness. Unrepentant Jade finds him and takes him to the infirmary for treatment.

While this fight is taking place, most of the committee goes to research at the library while Ranka talks to Virtuous Cloud about the ways to use her magic most effectively for the purge. Based on Virtuous Cloud’s answers, it starts to become obvious that she too wants students to learn from the experience. Rather than provide the answers, she redirects the questions back to Ranka to encourage her to find the answers on her own.

The group is informed that Judas is waiting to impart the information he has learned back at the Deliberative Hall. Unrepentant Jade shows the freshmen to an underground passage that leads directly from the library to the hall, and comments that sometimes “creatures” pop up in the passageway.

All the information that has been collected is passed along. It is discovered that the anchor is most likely a book of poetry, and it should be in the third floor room with the rattling door. A decision is made to proceed with the mission next Sunday morning should everything successfully go through the red tape.

The Week Before The Purge

Mizugami presents the plan to clean out Dunleavy Hall to the Lower Deliberative, and the resolution passes. Chead signs the final order without argument.

Jahanna begins trying to convince her classmates to train for the Tournament of the Scarlet Grace. Kira shows some interest, while Kazuki is distressed that it would mean he would have to put more effort into his studies. As it currently stands, he only stands a chance of passing one, maybe two categories at most. When she presents the idea to Judas, he asks her a simple question: What is my family name? She cannot answer the question, so he berates her, and tells her actually build a team before coming before him again.

Ranka hunts Kazuki down in the cafeteria during Monday’s lunch, while he is eating (and clowning around) with his friends. He is surprised by her sudden appearance, but perhaps not as surprised as his companions. He pulls her aside and begs her to keep his identity as a Dragonblooded secret from his friends and to make it look like she is ordering him around or something. She reluctantly agrees to his odd request.

There are two reasons Ranka came looking for Kazuki in the cafeteria. The first is that she wanted to try the cafeteria food, to which Kazuki responds by plucking a piece of cornbread from his buff jacket and offers it to her. After politely declining, she mentions that she also wishes to speak with Saiki, and apparently Kazuki is the only means of contacting her, so Kazuki agrees to help arrange a meeting. Ranka thanks Kazuki with a shove and walks away in a huff. Of course, no one is fooled by the act, other than the Idiot 4.

Mizugami calls Kazuki aside later that night and offers to help Kazuki with his nightly jaunts. He emphasizes the importance of becoming properly educated enough to deal with The Game, and encourages Kazuki to take his studies seriously in order to be able to grow into a better Dragonblooded. In order to do so, he needs to get more sleep at night, so Mizugami suggests that he can take on some of the monster-hunting duties so that Kazuki can get an occasional break. Kazuki isn’t sure what to make of the offer since he enjoys his outings with Saiki, but he tells Mizugami that he will think about it.

Ranka continues to research into the events of Dunleavy Hall four years ago, trying to gather information about the people involved. She learns the identity of the father to Marcus, one of the deceased Dragonbloods, and pays the aging mortal a visit where the information that Glory was an anathema is first revealed, though Ranka misses the reference.

Kazuki meets with Saiki one evening to inform her of all the happenings, and Saiki gifts him with information about the undead Martial Arts cult in return. She wants to do a little more research to ensure that the sensei will be on site before going in to take down the school. Kazuki offers to gather up a small group to go in on the hunt, which Saiki gladly accepts. He also tells her of Mizugami’s offer, which she seems to be fine with; and of Ranka’s request, which she agrees to; and about the next Dunleavy mission, which she will gladly be a part of. Kazuki arranges to contact her later with a meeting time and place with Ranka.

Kazuki spends the rest of the week recruiting the other members of his class, as well as Unrepentant Jade, Moro, and Reflections to join in on the undead martial artist stomp.

After the inefficiency of Kazuki’s message-relaying, Saiki finally meets with Ranka. Ranka learns about Kazuki’s reasons for hiding his identity from his friends, as well as Saiki’s side of the story of what happened at Dunleavy Hall. She tells of how Chead forced his classmates to stand and fight Glory, and that he physically threatened Saiki while she was trying to rescue the mortals and lead them out of the building. It was his actions that led to the deaths of her four classmates and dozens of mortals. She believes that had they shifted their efforts towards rescuing the mortals, many lives would have been spared that day, not the least of which is those of the four Dragonblooded.

As the final step to the preparations, Undefeated Raven and the Black helms are informed.

Operation: Dunleavy Purge

Finally, the day of the cleanup has arrived. The entire freshman class is gathered in the Palace dining hall, accompanied by the Three Stooges, Moro, Miyako, and Reflections; the two upperclassman sorcerers, Lasha and Haining; and Unrepentant Jade. Tevaned is on hand once more to provide the group with spirit draught. After breakfast, everyone except Moro imbibes the smoky liquid.

Kazuki takes an extra cup for Saiki, though Mizugami simply buys the rest of the draught from Tevaned and pours the contents of the cup back into the bottle. Things get a little confusing when Judas asks for the bottle. A fresh cup is poured out to be taken to Saiki, while Judas wordlessly leaves the bottle with Chead after the rest of the group has departed.

The haunting whispers start up again, though once again only Kazuki’s mental tormentor is coherent enough to understand. The disembodied voice prophesizes, "You will kill your companions with your bare hands!" to which Kazuki mumbles in response, "Bah. I know I can’t hurt Judas with my bare hands. I’m not worried about that." He gets a lot of puzzled looks to his reply.

As the group approaches the abandoned dorm, a small group of onlookers has already gathered, though the Black Helms are on hand to keep the mortal students at a distance. Saiki drops her invisibility and emerges in the middle of the group, and Kazuki greets her by handing her the spirit draught. After the requisite half-hour activation time, the purge of Dunleavy is ready to commence.

The group heads straight for the third floor room, where they are greeted by the same ghostly footsteps and the incessant rattling of the door. Ranka activates a detection spell, and notes that the anchor is definitely on the other side of the door. However, to everyone’s consternation, there is another source somewhere in the lower floors as well.

Judas, who had prepared a number of things beforehand, steps to the front and takes advantage of his Earth nature to comb his hair back and cover it with dust and dirt to make him look vaguely bald. Jahanna recognizes that Judas is attempting to make himself look like Chead, and reminds him that since Chead often goes around bare-chested, he should remove his shirt as well.

With the deception in place, the group proceeds with the plan, what little of one exists. The door is thrown open and… instead of finding a room torn asunder, what the spirit draught-infused people see is a typical girl’s bedroom, decorated with cute and frilly things. At the far end of the room, a beautiful girl is reading at her desk with her back to the door. As Judas steps into the room, the girl turns around and gleefully exclaims, "Oh, Chead! I’m so happy you’re here!"

Most of the group is taken aback by this unexpected turn of events. Almost everyone was primed for a fight, but not for something as innocent as this. Kazuki and Saiki are both poised to pounce, but without a threat in sight, they’re at a loss for what to do. Judas, however, goes with the flow and steps into the room, triggering the next series of events.

The girl in the room reacts… wrong. Her responses are not to what is happening now, but to something that is left unseen to everyone else. With a exuberant, "Yes! I will!" she clasps her hands around Judas’ and begins to glow. Very brightly. Too brightly.

She suddenly recoils as if struck, and falls back against her desk. Her hand goes up to her face as she questions Judas with a tearful quiver to her voice, "Why, Chead?"

Judas responds quickly by stepping forward and embracing the memory of the exalting anathema and embraces the ghostly figure, "I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t mean to do that." He does everything in his power to comfort the girl and control the situation while Ranka steps into the room to look for the spirit anchor. She finds the object, invisible to the eye due to the powerful illusion, and carries it back out to the hallway where she asks Moro to place a marker on the object, and for Kazuki to pierce it with his weapon. With a single thrust, the Dire Lance penetrates through the book, and the illusion of Glory’s room is dissipated.

The image is replaced by a destroyed room with walls covered in blood and four mangled bodies lying sprawled across the floor. Glory stands in the middle of everything, her anima flaring even brighter than before. She cries out with an expression of confusion to Chead, and Judas takes his cue to begin act two. He reaches into a satchel that he had brought in with him and takes out a book, which he extends to Glory, and tells her, "Here, it’s another book of poetry I wrote. You liked the last one, right?"

Glory tearfully replies, "What’s happening to me?"

As Judas tries to comfort the memory, the group splits, with Ranka, Kira, and Kazuki leading the charge to find the second anchor.

Lasha steps into the room and casts a binding spell in an attempt to delay the ghost, but she realizes that the spirit’s strength is far greater than hers, and she exclaims that she will not be able to hold her for long. Haining casts his own spell on the wall opposite of the door calling on some sort of creature to protect the students. The situation with Glory turns grim, with the ghostly apparition threatening violence, but Judas manages to defuse the situation by suddenly embracing the girl and kissing her. Mizugami tells everyone not to act unless Judas loses his tenuous control.

Ranka, in the meanwhile, rushes down to the second floor where she witnesses a weaker spirit vision of a student just as he is killed by Glory snapping his neck. Ranka senses the second anchor floating in mid-air and pinpoints the signal to a ring on Glory’s finger. She rushes at the spirit and grabs at the ring, but she is unable to extract it from Glory’s finger though the poltergeist appears to ignore her presence.

Kazuki turns the corner just in time to see Ranka wrestling with the ghost, and thinks that she is being attacked. In his typical chivalrous style, he speeds forward, using one arm to gently push Ranka to one side and shield her while he thrusts his Dire Lance through the spirit and destroys it. The ring is now in Ranka’s hand (while her chest is in Kazuki’s).

During the brief, awkward pause, Kira plucks the ring from Ranka’s grasp and carefully places it around the tip of the Ether Slasher. She reminds Kazuki of his duty, and he finally stabs the lance against the ceiling, easily cleaving the ring in two.

Upstairs, the illusion that Judas is tongue-wrestling with finally dissipates.

There’s another awkward moment as Judas recomposes himself. He casually walks out of the room and places the poetry book in Moro’s hands, calmly stating, "I guess I didn’t need this." He exits the scene as only Judas can, and tells Elin and the Black Helms outside to gather up manpower and supplies to start on the reconstruction project.

As the rest of the expedition begins making their way out of the dormitory, Mizugami carefully makes certain that no one who witnessed the events in the room speaks of what happened. Ever.