CHAPTER 441: ARC 6, CHAPTER 57: THE SHOW ALWAYS GOES ON

"She’s fine; she needs a lot of rest, but fine," Hotaru wiped the blood off of Jotou’s unconscious face.

Ben looked down at his friend and back to the rubble that once was a labyrinth. "Jotou just... Damn. He could give the gods a run for their money for sure."

"Considering the circumstances, I’m sure she could manage," Fumeko crossed her arms and looked down at the blonde with a slight hint of concern.

The air around was crisp and sickly sweet as it drifted past their hair and through the leaves. Asobi tiptoed forward, leaned down and picked up her wand before hopping back a step to place the armite sword in Jotou’s lap—the trade was complete!

"One now inquires of all of thee how, pray tell, do we progress?"

Hotaru fumbled the sword into Jotou’s sheath and patted her coat. She stood, "To the guild presumably. After that, I’m not too sure..."

"We’ll figure that out once Jotou wakes up. For now," Fumeko pointed to the side.

Approaching the scene was an elf with a corpse in his arms. He beheld the rubble and their brief respite—all with a glare and an unforgiving scowl...

_

’Euhgh...’ Lash by lash she opened her eyes to a familiar ceiling. She shot up from bed and inhaled deeply, "Where am I, what time is it!?"

Hotaru jumped out of her resting daze and put her hands out, "We’re in the guild, it’s okay, relax."

Jotou took in her surroundings... "We’re in my room?"

"Yes."

The blonde sighed. That is when she felt sharp stings in her joints and the soreness of her limbs; her skin felt like sand and the loose strands of blonde hair were like rough bristles against her shoulders.

"It’s nine-twenty-seven p.m." Hotaru checked her watch. "It’s remarkable that you woke up so quickly, compared to last time," she smiled. "You’re improving."

Jotou held the side of her head and rubbed harshly, "Yeah, I don’t know if it counts if I had to be powered up by that much energy and used Sobi’s wand."

"Improvement’s improvement."

"How’s your magic doing?" Jotou stretched an arm out towards the redhead by her bedside.

With a gentle touch, Hotaru pushed her arm down, "Better, but I could still use the rest. You’re going to have to let your body heal itself; especially with the absurd amount of rejuvenation you absorbed."

"Mmh," she grumbled. "Time’s short; we need to follow the cult’s trail."

"What trail?" Hotaru said with a chuckle.

"I need Meko’s help with something Ceridwen said to me- Augh, Cough-ugh-cuf." She coughed persistently into her fist till the fit came to a stop.

The wolf-woman patted and cradled the blonde’s back. "Some honey and lemon with hot tea it is."

Jotou conceded with an exhale.

"...I always worry to what extent you’ll use your magic..." Hotaru blurted out. Once the words left her lips, there was no taking it back. However, she accepted and stood by the sentiment, "Just think about if it’s worth it... If not for me, at least for yourself."

"Well, if I’ve got you by my side," the blonde gave a cocky smirk.

Hotaru played with Jotou’s fingers and rubbed a thumb over her palm, "And if I’m not there?"

Giving it a quick ponder, she looked back to the redhead and replied, "I always end up making my way back to you."

The two shared soft smiles. Hotaru brought Jotou’s palm up to her face to rest her cheek against it. Jotou’s fingers idly brushed a strand or two of crimson hair away.

"...Colwyn," Jotou muttered.

"You should apologize."

"I know."

Putting Jotou’s arm down, she pushed Jotou’s back up, "Then let’s get you outside."

With Hotaru’s support, the blonde got onto her feet. The torn white dress portion of her adventuring attire was laid on the wardrobe for her to leer at.

The yellow coat and much of the black inner garments were fine and functional. "Maybe if I just cut the fabric below the chest, I can still wear it?"

"Good luck cutting enchanted fabric," Hotaru’s ears flickered. "You might as well still use it even if it’s torn."

Jotou pinched the dress, "I was just thinking about aesthetics." She lifted the dress and overlaid it in front of her body. The thin tear already revealed her navel and inner thighs; a slight wind would surely reveal whatever else.

"I’m sure the guild at least has something that can patch it up temporarily."

The blonde got dressed in her usual adventuring attire, substituting the dress for a short black gown she had. Over it, she threw on her yellow coat which she affixed at the chest with two blue brooches, lent to her by Hotaru.

Out the door and down the tavern steps she proceeded, with a redhead by her side playing caretaker-

"There she is!"

"The Thundering Blade!"

A chorus of cheers met her ears. Her eyes snapped to attention and surveyed the adventurers across the entire tavern hollering and applauding. "Three cheers for the Blade!"

And three cheers she got, with pints of ale raised to her title and clinks of mugs before they were downed. The cacophony and merriment of a crowded tavern continued, now just more aware of her presence.

"Uh, thank you," Jotou uttered loudly with one eye closed. ’Way too many people, my head already hurts.’ She could not really plug her ears without it seeming rude. "What happened while I was out...?" she whispered.

Over the sound of everything, Hotaru’s bristled ears picked up her voice, "Well the news got out that you destroyed the Ever-Labyrinth and with it a new god from the Deuctus Cult, after we all mostly fended them off."

"This doesn’t feel right..." the blonde pouted. "Where’s everyone else?"

Hotaru took a deep breath; her ears folded to tune out some of the loud atmosphere. "Come on," she led Jotou out of the tavern, shielding her from hecklers and any who reached a hand out to her.

’At least they’re taking it well, like I didn’t just destroy a tradition that gave them a regenerative monthly income. Or maybe they haven’t put that together yet...’

While adventurers did loiter around the outside, the choir of crickets and nightly critters were much louder. Following the wolf-girl’s lead, they made their way behind the Adventurers Guild building and past a few trees.

It was the entrance to the cemetery. Trees were sparces and the graves were countless, stretching across a hilltop and beyond. "Aru," Jotou paused before going in. "Flowers; it rains here pretty frequently, it shouldn’t be hard to find."

Hotaru hushed back, "Already prepared for that, let’s just go in. Besides, the rain here doesn’t have a lot of thunder to bloom them so quickly."

With a nod they followed the cobble path, deeper and deeper, lit only by lampposts of yellow hue. Name after name they went, till they were stopped by purplish-black shadows forming in front of them.

"She’s on her feet already?" Fumeko queried.

"Don’t sound so surprised detective."

"She still needs rest, but yes, she’s fine," the redhead replied.

"That’s good at least. Here," the brunette gave Jotou a few stems of thundering blitzes.

The blonde took them with gentle fingers.

"Time’s not on our side to have a funeral," Fumeko continued. She crossed her arms and looked back at where the others were, in front of a newly covered grave. "I don’t think the people around here even have funerals," she glanced around at the graveyard itself.

"Life of an adventurer," Hotaru solemnly mumbled.

"I’m sure a few minutes to mourn won’t be the end of us," Jotou approached the figures by the grave, leaving the other two. "Or it might; I guess we’ll see," were her parting words.

"Hey, we don’t need more- Oh, sorry dude," Ben blocked the way until he realized it was her approaching.

"More what? What’s been going on?" Jotou whispered.

"Uhh," Ben scratched the back of his neck. "Right spirit, wrong timing sorta thing. After we told the guild what happened and the gossip started spreading, we’ve been getting people wanting to ’pour one out’ over Colwyn’s grave for her being a hero.

It’s been happening all evening and Clyde’s not exactly in the mood, since, you know, she didn’t really drink much other than tea."

"Right, I’m guessing he’s not really in the mood for praise either," Jotou gave a sigh. She placed a hand on Ben’s shoulder and kept moving forward as Ben gave a nod.

On his knees, eyes swollen and staring at the yet-to-be engraved tombstone—he only shifted his head slightly at the sound of her footsteps.

Asobi and Tiffany who stood by the side, gave way for Jotou to get close and crouched down beside the grave. She sat her knees on the dirt and looked over at Clyde.

Clyde’s haunted eyes slowly turned into a glare.

"Sorry," the blonde whispered.

He made no effort to do anything beyond leering.

Jotou looked to the grave and placed the flowers among the few other bouquets and wreaths of them present.

"Missing someone dearies? For some gold I can bring them-"

Clyde’s head whipped to the side where an old hag with a basket approached. He scraped a fistful of dirt and pebbles and threw it at her in rage.

"Gyah!" the hag recoiled.

"Hey, woah, woah," Jotou clutched onto Clyde’s arm in an attempt to calm him down.

"Get your scam revivals shtick out of here!!!" Clyde screamed.

Jotou turned to the hag and glared, "Go away."

The hag muttered under her breath and walked away, searching for other mourners to exploit.

Clyde then wrenched his arm out of the blonde’s grip, to which Jotou promptly let go. The next few seconds were spent in silence in front of Colwyn’s grave.

"...Did you have any sort of religion?" Jotou queried.

"Who in the bloody hells prays to anything these days?" his voice croaked and sobbed as he replied with a glare.

’Would be in bad taste.’ Jotou thought of the cult for a moment. "Well then," Jotou softly placed a hand atop the headstone.

Clyde’s eyes flashed over with suspicion and anger.

"May the breeze be her guide," she softly whispered, before she stood up, bowed her head and left the elf on his own. Clyde watched her walk away, before returning to staring at his sister’s grave.

"What was the old woman doing?" Hotaru asked as the blonde rejoined her and Fumeko.

"Selling fake revival magic apparently."

"Yeah that’s the third one tonight," Fumeko crossed her arms. "They roam around this place like banshees." Asobi and Tiffany soon joined the rest in their conversation as well.

"Right, next plan of action," Jotou uttered.

"Is it really a good time?" Asobi hushed, pointing her wand at Clyde by the grave.

"We don’t have the luxury of time. The cult didn’t just flee without reason, they could’ve killed all of us if they wanted to. There’s no reason Forallei or Ceridwen would’ve stopped trying to kill me or Jotou, which is why I’m surprised they did," Fumeko’s gaze fell onto blonde.

"Once that pillar was broken, Ceridwen told me something," Jotou’s brows knitted. "She had every chance to kill me right then and there..."

"They have Feather; she knows the reason you shouldn’t be killed. It’s safe to assume she would’ve told them the why," Fumeko surmised.

Jotou groaned.

"Pardon mine interruption, what occurs when the Blade of Thunder’s mortal shell is annihilated?"

"We don’t know," Jotou, Hotaru and Fumeko all said at once.

"I think we can guess a lot of things, they all have to be super-duper bad for the one trying to murderize Jotou or Daiyu or Crispy over there. But it’s probs something we can count on," Asobi stated.

"Even if they won’t kill her, it doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t in the future think it’s worth whatever the consequences of killing her are," Hotaru replied.

"Whatever the case, what did Ceridwen say?" Fumeko steered back.

"What a spectacle you made before me, perhaps the play found its climax. All your actions have gathered my attention. Enjoy this brief victory while it lasts. And then she whispered in my ear, your presence ought to be elsewhere dear hero.

Do put on a grand show, one awaits your performance with bated breath. Whatever the hell that all means, I’m assuming the cult, or at least Ceridwen, wants me or all of us to interfere as a part of their ’performance’."

"Why would she say that?" Hotaru furrowed her brows. "It definitely sounds like a trap."

"Is it?" Fumeko closed an eye. "We know how the cult goes about business, it’s not strange to think they’d want a ’grand performance’ so they can bolster themselves or their ideology up more."

"Even if the circumstances are as such, one would still most assuredly not play a role in their ploy," Tiffany argued.

"Not if lives are on the line. If they intend to harm people or do something otherwise damaging, we might be sorta forced to try and stop them," Jotou sighed. "That’s assuming people will be in danger, but given their last ’performance’ at the courthouse...

More than that, I can’t quite get insight into it, but there seems to be some amount of internal conflict between the new gods. At least between Forallei and Ceridwen.

There’s a good chance Ceridwen might be doing something to spite her and the others while still having the cult’s plans at the forefront; I wouldn’t put past her at this point."

"What makes you intimately know her all of a sudden?" Hotaru’s ears pricked.

"Oh just the fact that she seemingly can use the affinities of dead people, hence, access all types of magic from any element and probably could win any fight she so wishes, so if she’s hinting us to try and stop what’s coming, she probably has it calculated," Jotou shrugged.

"We’re assuming people are gonna die and there’s gonna be a huge show they’ll put on. Even if wanted to stop it, where are they...?" Asobi brought up a good point.

"That’s why I wanted to talk to Meko," Jotou glanced over at her. "Detective?"

"A location in Burnetrout where they’re gonna commit massive felonies; do you realize how little that narrows it down? They burned half the damn country down last time!"

"I don’t know, Ceridwen’s wording seemed deliberate, maybe there’s a hint there," Jotou replied to the brunette.

Fumeko grumbled, "I guess we can narrow down the possible locations to public areas with high traffic. They’re not gonna put on a ’performance’ in some dark unknown alley.

Which also means there’s a good chance it’ll be during the day and the location may or may not have some significance, like the courthouse or the D.P.D."

"A play... Surely this false deity’s wording was not as such to resemble a theatrical production? Climax, performance, hero— Winnefred Opera House?" Tiffany suggested.

"In Orchid Plaza? I mean, it’s not a bad guess. That place is packed with people day or night," Fumeko replied.

"What reason would they have in attacking an opera house? Are they committing a war against the arts?" Hotaru scrunched her eyes up.

"Well, is there something important or historical there? That could be something," Jotou added.

"Tiffy?"

"None that educes mine recollection. However, if cultural significance and artefacts that inspired theatrical debuts are the key to the spirit-sorceress’s riddle, there is another such locale that sits by a grand view and was the predecessor."