Day 35: Bus 1

[misterprince.livejournal.com]

Sanji woke up groggily to find his nurse already in his room. He gave a sleepy and half-hearted "Buh?" before realizing that nurse meant dayshift, and he'd fallen asleep after dinner.

"Shit!" He sat up abruptly, which gave his nurse a start. "Nami-swan!" How had he allowed himself to sleep through an entire night? What if she'd tried to return to the basement? What if she'd been waiting for him to appear and protect her? He'd let her down!

"There, there. Calm down." His nurse set a familiar flannel shirt down on the bed and Sanji eyed it with confusion. The last time he'd worn that had been... "Sorry I didn't knock or anything, but I was so excited~!" A pair of jeans followed the shirt. "Today is the field trip into town! Aren't you looking forward to it?"

The chef had to admit, the town had been an interesting enough place the last time he'd been. If he could find Nami early on he might even be able to lead her around... So he didn't complain too much as he changed into the other outfit (which he really wished they'd let him keep - anything was better than the regular gray) and was led out to the first of the buses.

He took a seat near the front, hopefully easily visible to any of his crew - especially to a certain member of his crew.

[for Usopp!]

Comments

[byname-bynature.livejournal.com]

"That is a valid point," Artemis said, staring down at the floor and pointing at Haku. "If these seals can be broken and reforged at will, Landel may be a bigger problem than we originally anticipated.

"But what do you make of his promise to see some of us on the buses? Is he really traveling to Doyleton with us? Would he really take that sort of chance if he didn't have some sort of failsafe in place.

"If I were him," Artemis said, steepling his fingers and raising his gaze to the back of the seat in front of him. "I wouldn't show my face if I knew that a patient uprising would kill me--because no doubt another one will happen soon. Dare I say it, he is more powerful than both you," he pointed to Skuld, and then Haku. "And you, combined."

[innovator-skuld.livejournal.com]

Well duh. Skuld's power wasn't all that impressive at the moment and she knew it. If Landel was more powerful than her normally... she still wouldn't be very surprised, but she remained convinced that the power they saw wasn't all his own.

"It doesn't take all that long to put on or take off a limiter, either," she admitted. "With Belldandy we had to do some setup--but it would have taken a lot less time if we had it all ready in advance."

[faithful-frost.livejournal.com]

Thank you. ^^;;;

Haku smiled. "Well, certainly he is stronger or we wouldn't be here. Though, I doubt he is acting alone and the person or persons behind him are the actual threat. This is certainly growing into a much larger situation than many believe."

He frowned, thinking. "Or, it's really quite simple and we are making things needlessly complicated."

[byname-bynature.livejournal.com]

"There really is no way to tell for certain until we find him," Artemis said with a sigh. "By the way, both of you, I made it to a mine at the north of the Institute, but the Captain and our third member weren't able to find anything of note. However it was clear that something was down in the second floor of the mine--something that set my teeth on edge. It wouldn't be a good idea to go down there, I believe."

[innovator-skuld.livejournal.com]

Skuld could name a lot of possible explanations for whatever had made Artemis so scared--knowing the thing's location wasn't much information to go on, but it was still something. He could have a point about the area being good to avoid... but on the other hand, if she was protecting something she didn't want found, any of the creatures she was thinking of would be very, very good guardians.

"It sounds too risky," she agreed, unhappily. "I might be familiar with a lot of the monsters here, but the problem is doing alchemy is so exhausting. If I could get a toolkit, though, robot scouts are easy to build." If they were going to feel like they were in a giant game of chess, then... it was only fair that they get some pawns too.