File: ami.png (725 KB, 3264x1417)

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>>5521817
You can't believe it. Sailor V dropped you like a wet squishy sack of potatoes. You feel a little indignant about that even if she dropped a very important clue before she booked it.

She knows your name. That means you encountered her before or she heard your name somewhere. This was exciting information! Also, it's flattering to learn that such a big hero learned your name somehow. Particularly one as pretty as Sailor V...

Oh wow, is this how Aya feels when she crushes on all the boys she finds attractive? You feel your cheeks heat up the more you think about it. It's only Minako and Sailor V so far though, maybe you have a preference for certain types of girls? Maybe this is all just a delusion. If it's a delusion, then you like how it feels. It's like a floating cloud of happiness.

You catch Mizuno looking at you curiously. She's seen your reaction and you can sense the gears in her genius brain moving as she attempts to tease out the reason for your reaction. This speculative look plunges your mood back to earth. You know that Mizuno isn't under the influence of the strange Black Hand anymore and is not going to plot anything evil.

It's a struggle to regain control over your face and blush. No one else is paying attention to you. Why is the genius girl the only one looking at you? People would be more interested in the fleeing Sailor V and Sailor Moon, not you!

>Mizuno rolls to... ahahaha, who are you kidding?

It's too late.

Mizuno's look of realization causes her face to break out in a blush.

She knows. You know that she knows. She knows that you know that she knows.

Having someone realize you fancy another girl in a non-platonic manner sends your mood digging into the chilled depths of panic. Outwardly, your face reverts to a cool, controlled look but within your stomach is tight with anxiety. You need to seize control of the situation!

"Usagi! Where's Usagi?!" You blurt out to Mizuno; the other girl is taken off guard by your question.

"Oh yeah, that's a good question. There's also that Mamoru guy missing too." Tomio looks around and tries to peer into the crowd for the missing boy.

"There's a girl named Minako! I'm worried about her too. She was my partner for the competition. Let's split up and look for them."

This is the trigger to cause your group to jump into action. You just need to grab someone and go search but you're too slow. Aya looks very miffed about her abandonment by Chiba Mamoru and grabs Tomio by the arm before you can react.

"Come on Tomio, we'll look for Mamoru together!"With that, the petite girl drags the reluctant boy with her to search.

To your dismay, Masato immediately latches on to Yuuji as his search partner.

"Let's meet up at the lockers after 30 minutes. Even if you don't find them." Masato calls out as he dashes off with your other childhood friend.

>>5521819
'Shit! Don't leave me alone with Mizuno damn it!' You mentally beg, but it's too late. Your brilliant idea to get away didn't go according to plan.

Awkward. The word sums up the atmosphere between yourself and Mizuno as the rest of the group goes off. Somewhere in the park, Azul is laughing at you. You can feel the penguin snickering through your link. He has hidden himself behind some bushes.

'Not funny! Not funny at all!' You mentally scream. It is mortifying to be hanging around someone who knows your dirty secret of crushing on Sailor V like an innocent maiden.

"We should probably start searching for Usagi. I'm very worried about her. Also..." The blue-haired girl trails off, unable to finish her sentence. She coughs lightly and looks down at the ground embarrassed. It takes a few seconds but she rallies once more to speak.

"I also want to apologize. I did something so terrible to you. The letters about your medication to the teacher and principal must have been greatly distressing. I don't know what came over me at the time."

Wait.... Mizuno also sent a letter to the principal implying you were abusing pain medication. She sent 3 letters, not 2? You tune out the rest of her apologies, you can't even bring yourself to listen.

"... The principal?" Your laugh, it's a broken despairing sound. It's not as if you could get mad at the other girl. The Black Hand possessed her and induced her to make your life full of suffering. It's in this broken state that Mizuno takes you by the hand and guides you through the crowd to begin your search.

>roll 3d6+2, dc ???

Rolled 3, 6, 3 + 2 = 14 (3d6 + 2)

>>5521820

Rolled 5, 5, 1 + 2 = 13 (3d6 + 2)

>>5521820
Oh shit I knew I forgot something, welcome back Crescent

Rolled 5, 3, 4 + 4 = 16 (3d6 + 4)

>>5521820
Need to roll for Ami

>>5521841
>>5521975
I arrived home late but I'll get writing the new post!

>>5521841
>>5521975
>>5522480
Mizuno leads you back into the park itself rather than wandering through the crowd. There are two teams checking the crowd for your missing friends already. It makes sense to search the park itself instead.

It's odd to see the usual obstacle course standing once more in their accustomed locations. The old favorites are where they should be, there's no sign of the gigantic edifices populating the strange dimension you were in. The crowd is staying well away from the inner regions of the park, leaving you and Mizuno to wander about alone.

At one point, the other girl wavers where to go due to her unfamiliarity with the area. That's when you take charge, you smell something in the air. It's the scent of smoke. Something was on fire when you had made your escape. What had been burning returned with you.

Correction, it's still burning! The old administration building is on fire and partially in rubble. Small tongues of fire lick the wooden beams and through the open window. The place looks like a bomb went off. Through a tear in the wall, you can see the shattered remains of the empty office within. There's debris everywhere around the place too.

Mizuno kneels down to pick up a piece of scorched paper scattered around and looks at it.

???

You kneel down too, pick up a different scorched piece of paper, and read it through more thoroughly. You can barely make out the writing but there are names on it. It's a registration sheet! You can see Usagi's name listed on this particular sheet of paper with Mizuno's.

"Someone deliberately set the building on fire. Look where the fire started, there are cans of kerosene tossed there to accelerate the spread of the fire." Mizuno points out a number of blackened plastic cans, faint writing can still be seen on it.

Other strange details stand out. The gaping holes in the walls of the building are unnatural; the edges are too smooth and clean. The desk drawers and file cabinets within the administration building are all open to allow the fire to burn the paper within them. Someone wanted to do a very thorough job burning everything within.

Unfortunately, not everything got burnt. There are scattered pages of registration sheets that are almost wholly intact. There's also other things that are wholly intact too. Mizuno pushed aside some ashes and picked up a 1000 yen bill.

"SQUAWK!" Loud joyful trumpeting rents the air and Azul dashes out from his hiding place. If this was an anime, his eyes would be full of Japanese Yen symbols. Despite the fact he knows that Mizuno Ami can see through his normal invisibility shield, he runs directly to the shocked girl and grabs the money out of her hand.

His greedy mania had only begun. He begins digging through the ashes and starts picking up coins and bills scattered everywhere. Anything that's not money, he tosses into the fire to burn.

>>5523382
"It's that penguin! I mean, not the same penguin from school but the very first one I saw! Ruka, you are seeing this, are you not!?" Mizuno's eyes are wide with shock and she looks at you to confirm that you are seeing what she is seeing.

You know exactly what sort of face you're making right now. It's a look of disbelief and annoyance. It's too late to hide from Mizuno that you can see Azul too. Heck, he couldn't hide himself when he guided Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask to safety and so Mizuno saw him. And now he's gone and allowed her to see him because his greed blinded him.

"My policy is to try and ignore weird stuff in the hopes that they will ignore me. I like to think it works," you state to the other girl, and toss the registration sheet you have into the fire. While you're doing this, you can't help but send a short message to Azul.

'Seriously!? Right now?! Right at this instant?! You decide to come out and start looting even when you know someone could see you!?' You scold your buddy. Azul is chastened. He runs back to hide but with an armful of money in his flippers. Some of it spills as he dashes away right before Mizuno's astonished eyes. There's a money trail leading to his hiding place, completely undoing his attempts to flee scrutiny.

You decide to start conspicuously gathering the registration sheets and start tossing them into the flames as a distraction. You're pretty sure the true identities of Sailor Moon and Sailor V is on one of the registration sheets or, rather, was written. Now all the pages are destroyed.

"Let's get moving. Standing around here isn't going to help find Usagi and the others." You mutter and start walking away.

"You are right..." But the other girl couldn't help but look back at the bush where Azul is hiding and gleefully counting his money. He plans to get right back at it as soon as you're gone.

The search for your missing friends continues for only a few more minutes. Mizuno is sharp, she notices the familiar dumpling hairstyle of Usagi before you do!

You realize Mizuno is faster at noticing things than you.

Usagi is with Mamoru! You aren't quite sure why the two are together, but it's clear that Usagi is childishly upset against the older boy. Mamoru is clearly teasing the shorter girl, he has a grin on his face as he pokes the distinctive hairstyle to emphasize his point.

>Run over there right now and get Usagi away from Mamoru... (roll 3d6, dc 12 vs KITTY CAAAAAAT)
>They're having a moment, wait for Usagi to get it out of her system... (roll 3d6, dc 12 vs KITTY CAAAAAAT)
>Send Mizuno over to get them, you need to look for Minako... (roll 3d6, dc 12 vs KITTY CAAAAAAT)
>They're safe! Hurray! But where's Luna?... (default option)
>write in (roll 3d6, dc 12 vs KITTY CAAAAAAT)

Rolled 6, 5, 4 = 15 (3d6)

>>5523383
>>Send Mizuno over to get them, you need to look for Minako... (roll 3d6, dc 12 vs KITTY CAAAAAAT)
Based Azul, hopefully he’ll be able to keep what he grabs and we won’t be broke anymore we are currently broke right?

>>5523387
You are fantastically broke, completely out of cash. You only got on the train to get to the park because dad provided the transit funds. He even threw in the cash to pay the entrance fee to the park too.

>>5523387
Well it seems you are the only player at this time to vote.

And I only just got back right now which isn't supposed to happen. I was to return with enough time to write something and post it.

I think it's safe to say that interest in the quest is at a low point and I can't make my schedule work with the quest. We had a good run of it.

Thanks for playing everyone, I hope you had fun.

>>5524121
It was fun, yeah

>>5524121
Sorry to hear that Crescent, didn’t think to check for a thread until today. Thanks for everything. Hope everything works out for you IRL.

>>5524121
Damn, finally able to check up on the thread again only to see this. It was a fun quest, thanks for running it Crescent, it’s a shame it had to end like this

>>5524386
>>5524551
>>5525015
Yeah, it's a shame but I don't want to continue a quest with such an erratic post schedule. Stretches of days with no post is no fun for the players and for me the QM.

>>5524121
Damn, I really liked this quest. Would have visited the threads more often but life has been hectic. Thanks for running anyway and I'll miss our Tomboy Ninja