Time to find higher ground [Open]

    Korin Forest was among one of the most mysterious places on Earth to Fend, all due to this tower. Korin Tower, the tribes below called it. It was the first landmark she had found on Earth with Erebos. She and the Oni had taken it upon themselves to tidy up the tower- before, the penthouse of Korin Tower had been a dilapidated mess, but now it was starting to take shape as a cozy living space. The outside was still in disrepair, but she'd get to that mess eventually.

    Senzu plants were beginning to sprout in the plantbox mounted beside one of the windows, some of Fend's cloaks were hung to dry along the outside. She'd carefully organized and tucked away the old tomes, cleaned and dusted the walls and floors, and even was finally getting a start on bringing in some new furniture!

    Fend lied back in the bed huddled in the corner of the interior. She could see clouds brushing past the window nearby. The forest looked so small below. And there was that looming bowl-like thing still lingering high above them...

    Whatever it was, Fend wasn't sure if she should approach it. It was too cloudy to spot it when she'd first arrived with Erebos a few weeks ago. Perhaps once the demon returned, they could explore it together? She could sense a faint, yet eerie magical signature from whatever was up there. Though she was curious, Fend felt wrong just heading up, like she would somehow disturb it.

    That was, until Fend felt a powerful ki signature ascending the tower. There was an odd, familiar feeling to it... Fend's blood ran cold. She knew her brethren when she sensed them. It was another Shinjin.

    "ffffFFUCK--" Quickly suppressing and masking her energy and frantically grabbing her cloak, Fend ducked down as the energy signature was moving by. Fend was tightly gripping Palibur, shaking somewhat as bullets of sweat formed on her forehead. What was another Shinjin doing here?! Was this another one looking to collect her bounty for taking Palibur? Did they want something with the ominous magicky thing up there?!

    When the Shinjin had sufficiently passed the top of Korin Tower, Fend cauriously headed outside to the balcony. They had headed up, up, and up, to the Lookout above... The thought of just letting this person waltz around that eerie place didn't sit well with her thanks to the bitterness Fend held to her species. Hopping into the air, Fend took flight to head up to the ruined structure far above...

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    Fend wasn't sure what she expected to be so high up. It was some sort of large, bowl-like structure that looked to be frozen in time in the middle of an explosion. Half of it had been lobbed off, revealing ruined rooms inside. The cracked tiles on its circular surface and gardens full of dead, withering plantlife made it evident this place had been just as abandoned as the tower below.

    "Oi, you there!" Tiamat would hear a stern, snappy voice call out from behind. Fend dropped from the skies, landing firmly atop the roof of the temple in the center of the Lookout. Her sharp, golden eyes glared suspiciously from beneath mask, cloak and hood flaring in the wind. Her fingers were wrapped around her sword's hilt, though it remained sheathed for now. "What's brought you all the way up here? Don't 'ya think there's a reason not many people come up here?" There was an obvious, accusatory tone to the masked swordfighter's voice. Was it mere innocent curiosity that had brought one of her kind up here, or something more dubious?

   

Fend's Utility Technique, Ki Masquerade is in effect. This hides her Ki from feeling like that of a Shinjin!
Ki Suppression is also used to reduce Fend's PL from 34,000 to 1.

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Total Word Count: 628

    Fend narrowed her eyes at Tiamat as the other Shinjin continued to question the sword. "Ma'am, you have literally only seen its hilt somewhat from its sheath but 'aight, cool." She rolled her eyes, calling into question just how sure Tiamat was that this was Palibur itself... Sure, it actually was THE Palibur, but Fend was in too deep to say that aloud. Either way, despite all that, the so-called god didn't seem keen on actually reporting the lost sword. "Wowee, thank you for your mercy, your Holiness." Fend sassed back in the most unenthusiastic voice she could manage.

    Thankfully, Tysco was much more fun to talk with. Fend suppressed a snicker at his brief joke about uncommon sense. "True that." The three of them were all up here after all. "Both my uncommon sense and my ki sense saying 'howdy, there's a suspicious large power level going alllll the way up there, i should check that out' brought me here." She explained with a thoughtful hum and nod.

    Tysco had headed to the tower to broaden his understanding of magic- a fair and respectable enough purpose. Tiamat's on the other hand, while acceptable in a vacuum, made Fend's skin crawl when accounting for her prior interactions with her kind. "So you want to repair this place- which is cool, but... to eavesdrop on the entire planet?" Fend questioned from where she stood beside Tysco, eyes narrowing in growing suspicion. "Lady, I don't know about you, but that sounds like a serious invasion of an entire people's privacy. I don't care what a Kai is and why they think that's an okay thing to do, if you're gonna do that then I'm gonna have to say no thanks." What were the Shinjin going to do with all that gathered gossip, anyways? Write it down and shove it in a dust old bookshelf in Otherworld that nobody that could make use of it was ever going to read?

    Moving on to the safety of the structure, Tysco remained firm in being cautious regardless of the power of flight and teleportation. "Yeah, I had no plans of goin' inside for that reason. I'm pretty sure the gravity spell is hella unstable right now." She turned around to gesture to the suspended rubble in the air. Regardless, Tysco tossed Fend and Tiamat copies of his notes detailing the structure. "Oh dang, thanks!" Fend quickly got to work sticking her nose in the book- though the Lookout likely was hiding a lot of its secrets, a basic understanding of what it was would be important to safely navigate it, should the need ever arise.

Total Word Count: 1,671 (+440)