...Now then, let's turn back the clock a bit...

[Well then, now we have an entrance to the underground secured....]

While Alice, Antonio, and Olstenna were busy chatting up Smoking a mirror under false identities, Hurricroak and the Doll Twins were busy following the men that Smoking Mirror had ordered to escort the thieves that were causing trouble moments ago.

The kaijin had partially hoped that Smoking Mirror's men had secured some form of passgeway to the underground that was quick and easy, like a big and obvious door, or a teleportation circle with very little security attached to it.

Evidently, they were...partially correct in hoping for such a thing.

Smoking Mirror's men had been dragging around the captured thieves for a little over an hour and a half, ducking into weird alleyways before leaving them and then moving underneath various gates and doorways that were definitely thrown in there for the sake of confusing pursuers following on foot.

Thankfully, Hurricroak and the Doll Twins were following via rooftops and floating. That, and the former was very tuned to the idea of sensing people's aether and how said aether moves.

[They're over there; move!]

As such, they were able to find the exact entrance these guys were using to exit in and out of the underground.

The entrance in question was actually located inside of what appeared to be a glassware store that sold mostly glass sculptures and vessels.

[Hiding the entrance someplace obvious to camouflage it. Clever, ]Hurricroak commented as she watched the group enter the shop one by one.

[Clever, whatever; how are we supposed to get inside without them noticing us?] Corpse Doll asked. [Because if you want us to pretend to be merchandise, I think only PD fits that bill.]

[That's not wrong… wait, why do you suddenly more mature?]

[I do?!]

[Ah, its always heartwarming seeing a protokaijin on the road to developing a full core.]

From what the trio could see, this glass shape was transparent enough that one could literally be inside admiring the glassworker while looking out into the city streets and entrance. Not only that, but the entrance that they were looking for was located further inside the shop.

They couldn't see the formation, doorway, or whatever was the means to enter the underground, but the trio could at least sense those fluctuations of energy that indicated that the power source used was anything but ordinary.

[Now, we could just walk in in our human disguises and see where that takes us,] Hurricroak suggested before noticing movement out of the corner of her eye. [Or we could play the following the leader.]

Before they could do anything reckless, a rat that was about the same size as they were right now had run across the street, climb up the side of the building and entered via a hole in the roof that the Kaijin hadn't noticed yet due to it being covered by the tiles. Now that they had an entrance in mind, Hurricroak knew what to do.

[Corpse Doll, Porcelain Doll, follow me. We're going deep into that rat's hole and confirming the existence of the entrance. Once we do, we're going to inform the others and go from there.]

[Okay!] Corpse Doll readily agreed.

[Wait, shouldn't we be trying to go through that entrance and confirm where their base is in the Rainbowden underground?] Porcelain Doll asked.

[Normally, yes,] Hurricroak agreed. [But something like this is definitely going to be an affair that requires all of us. Just...call it a feeling.]

[Okay.]

And with that short exchange out of the way, Hurricroak and the twins proceeded to enter the rat hole.

[I hope the others are making progress as well...]

...Back to the present...

'Alright, since I already know what went down in the Carved Dreams Auction house, I just need status reports on what happened in the Cyan Stone Auction House and the riot that happened in the city streets,' Zhen Liu declared to his kaijin once they had all gathered around him. 'Lets see who needs to go where and what kind of bullshit we'll be expecting to deal with.'

[Of course, producer,] Razorstella answered for all of the kaijin. [In that case, allow us to answer first.]

At this point in time, Zhen Liu and his allies had returned to Axer's forge to begin preparing for...well, multiple things really.

Axer needed assistance getting the shop up and running so that he could start working on those commissions he owed, Alice had made arrangements to meet with Smoking Mirror in order to see how well she got along with the latter's soldiers, and in that same vein, Hurricroak and the Doll Twins found the entrance to the underground that Smoking Mirror's flunkies used to move people. And to top off all of this insanity, Jinju Ren had a date with Alain, that Grafted warrior from the Radiant Feather continent.

In other words, Zhen Liu and his Kaijin had a lot on their plate right now and definitely needed some time to organize their next move.

[...and we found that the entrance to Rainbowden's underground is a short range teleportation array. However, this array was powered by Chaos as opposed to aether,] Hurricroak finished reporting.

'Really?'

[Really.]

'Interesting...'

Now that all the Kaijin had finished sharing their reports with Zhen Liu, it was now time for him and curators to figure out their next course of action.

Well, a course of action that didn't involve extreme violence...yet.

'Okay, so I definitely need to send someone to go with Alice, which actually overlaps going through that entrance in the first place...I guess we can send Hurricroak and twins still?'

[I would like to veto that because none of us are built for stealth,] Hurricroak retorted. [Probably sending the Mysticlassic guys would work better.]

'Elaborate?'

[One can turn into a ghost, one's incredibly graceful and quiet, and one's a magician. All three have stealth and grace built into their non-existent bones.]

[I'm technically made of bones,] Screamira retorted.

[Yes, and you're an incredibly curvy skeleton at that.]

[Razor, not now,] Springerdermain chided his fellow aether puppet turned Kaijin.

[I'm not wrong.]

'Moving on,' Zhen Liu interjected. 'Are you three open to following Alice as she enters the viper den that is Smoking Mirror's underground lair of reprobates and bullshit?'

[Yes.]

[Sure.]

[Going to see if one of my screams is going to be loud enough to shatter him.]

'Excellent,' Zhen Liu sighed. 'I suppose that helps settle things with the other two decisions. Hurricroak, Frosttusk, Nepherage, you three are going to stay here at the forge on guard duty. Doll Twins, you're coming with me and Blazejudicator on date duty.'

[Of course, Caretaker]*2

[Okay...]

[As you command, milord.]

[Wait, what?] Hurricroak piped up. [I thought you passed on the idea of pretending to be Jinju Ren in order to seduce and get close to Alain.]

'I am not doing that,' Zhen Liu answered. 'However, I still need to get close to the guy in order to get access to the [Rainbow Forge Manual]. Thankfully, we don't have to steal it.'

[Oh?]

=Allow me to take over,= Logos interjected. =The Rainbowsmith wrote the manual while outside of the library, but using its resources. As such, if our current Lord manages to come in contact with the book and touch it against the hand bearing both the ring and seal of the Kaijin Lord, we should be able to copy all of its information and make a second manual. Unfortunately, any additional energies or mysteries inscribed in the book will not be transferrable.=

In other words, if it came with an aether flame, we can't copy that.

'That's...fair. Blazejudicator already provides me with enough firepower to ignite a city three times over.'

[That's not even an exaggeration,] Blazejudicator agreed with pride in his voice. [Once we get this manual, I look forward to seeing how my abilities evolve.]

'Indeed.'

[Okay, that's...fair,] Hurricroak capitulated. [But wait, if you're not going to be pretending to be Jinju Ren, how the hell are you going to go along with them? As a bodyguard again?]

[I think he's going to be going as an independent visitor,] Nepherage suggested. [Wait, does that mean you're going to have the twins pretend to be your attendants or consorts?]

'Not in this situation,' Zhen Liu answered. 'Since this is technically date, the only people permitted is Jinju Ren,er, Ren Jia and any attendants and/or handmaids she managed to bring with her post-kingdom fall.'

[Okay, so that implies that she's probably going to bring Rianna and maybe some of the other girls if there feeling up to it,] Hurricroak pointed out. [How are you included in all of this...unless...no...are you serious?]

'Yeah...when I mentioned that I could use [Chaos] to change my gender temporarily, both her and Rianna kind of latched on to that idea. Not entirely sure why, though...'

[Huh. And here I thought Alicia was the one with the wild fantasies.]

'She's helping to find a dress that fits.'

[HA!]