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>>6207932
You nod. “Yeah, so I was thinking about something. With your hypnotic powers… why are you here?”

“What do you mean?” That frown is an honest one – she doesn’t seem to quite understand your implication, and so you make it clearer.

“I mean,” you continue, “that I see no reason why you’d be stuck here – if your powers worked on Boro, but not on Ōtsutsuki, then you should’ve been able to walk away at any time and an Ōtsutsuki shouldn’t particularly care.”

“So… why didn’t you? Sure you’d be defying them, but defiance without offensive power to back it up? Really not much of a concern.”

“I have no desire to do so,” she answers.

“Yeah, and why not?” you press for an actual answer.

“Because what would be the point?” she finally answers, a response a little closer to a ‘snap’ than anything you’ve heard from her so far.

You wait for a moment until she continues. “Let me ask, you have a family, correct?”

“A wife and two children,” you reply, humoring her.

“Do they love you?”

“I can’t…” you consider your words. “I don’t look into their heads to check, but all signs indicate that they do.”

“And do you love them?”

“More than life itself.”

“Why?” Eida asks you. “Why do they love you? Why do you love them?”

You consider the question. “Yeah, I guess it all boils down to bonds we formed for various reasons. Humans do that given the chance.”

“So how would you feel if your partner, if your children, had no choice but to love you from the very start?” Eida continues. “Regardless of whether or not you had done anything to justify forming any sort of ‘bonds’, as you say?”

“… I guess it would feel empty,” you answer.

“Now extend that feeling to every single interaction of your waking hours, every single day, for the rest of your natural life.”

“… I see.”

>If I could somehow help you with your problem, which I’m assuming I now understand, would you be willing to help me with mine?
>I’m not sure I completely follow. It seems inconsistent to not give you any powers for direct combat, like every other member of Kara.
>Then I guess the question I have to answer is ‘what to get for the girl who has everything whether she wants it or not’.
>Other?

>>6207933
>>Then I guess the question I have to answer is ‘what to get for the girl who has everything whether she wants it or not’.

>>6207933
>I’m not sure I completely follow. It seems inconsistent to not give you any powers for direct combat, like every other member of Kara.

>>6207933
>>Then I guess the question I have to answer is ‘what to get for the girl who has everything whether she wants it or not’.

>>6207933
>>Then I guess the question I have to answer is ‘what to get for the girl who has everything whether she wants it or not’.

>>6207933
“Then I guess my problem is getting something for the girl who has everything,” you muse with a slight frown, “whether she wants it or not.”

After a moment, her frown matches your own. “You mean, in terms of offering me some manner of enticement?”

“Yeah no, that’s one word for it,” you agree.

“What are you considering?”

“There are a couple of responses I could see as reasonable,” you observe, watching for her reaction. “Revenge against the one you deem responsible. Suppression or cancellation of the effect that you seem to feel robs your life of meaning. Or, offering you something to focus on that isn’t affected by that effect.”

… it seems that you may have spoken in the wrong order, as revenge seemed to appeal to her but so did suppression of her hypnotic, obsession-inducing effect. The fact that she took so well to your first suggestion makes it a little harder to tell exactly how she felt about the second, though you do feel as though the third and final concept was her least favorite.

>1d6, best three of four

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6208486

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>6208486

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6208486

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6208486

>>6208486
Eventually, she voices her thoughts.

“I have to admit that the idea of revenge is tempting,” Eida answers truthfully. “Amado took real relationships from me – killing him would make me feel better, for sure. But how much wanting that comes from having no alternative, I can’t tell you.”

“Would you like to know the answer to that?” you ask her.

She considers you for a moment more. “That’s not just talk?”

“Yeah, so I don’t know yet,” you admit. “I’ve always believed that there’s no such thing as a technique without a weakness. Expanding on that, no change can’t be reversed. It’s always just a question of knowing how it was done.”

“And you don’t know that,” Eida frowns.

You nod. “Precisely.”

“And if you knew how it was done?”

“Maybe I could do something,” you answer. “It could take some time though.”

“Try not to inspire too much confidence here,” Koji frowns.

“I understand,” Eida nods. “I may not be much help in direct combat, but I will do what I can to assist you.”

“… really?” Koji narrows his eyes. “What brought this on, and how can we know it’s genuine?”

“Yeah, I’m sure we can come up with something,” you rub the back of your neck. “Is there anything you need?”

“That easy?” Koji turns to you.

“We can’t know anything,” you shrug. “And neither can she know that I can deliver. But we’re both being honest about it, so that’s way better than it could be.”

“My brother is the fighter,” Eida tells you. “He’s still in ‘storage’ – I can’t release him myself.”

>I can do that. The more the merrier.
>Why is he in storage and why can’t you do anything about it?
>That can come second, after we establish some trust.
>Other?

>>6210081
>>I can do that. The more the merrier.

>>6210081
>>Why is he in storage and why can’t you do anything about it?

>>6210081
>>Why is he in storage and why can’t you do anything about it?

>>6210081
>1d6 taking the first three

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6210648

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6210648

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6210648

>>6210648
“Why is he still in storage?” you ask with a frown. “If you could release him yourself you would’ve done it, right?”

Eida nods. “There’s a reason, yes. While Jigen doesn’t really pay attention to humans and most of Kara doesn’t understand them, Amado does at least have some sense when it comes to security.”

“What sort of device is your brother in?”

“It uses some kind of cold, high-pressure gas and genjutsu,” Eida tries to explain as best she can. “I don’t understand the process.”

You nod, considering what you’ve heard. “Yeah no, that makes some sense – low temperatures can slow vital functions, and genjutsu can be used to immobilize a target, so combining it all is actually kind of clever. If it plays with the victim’s sense of time I’m gonna sue someone though.”

“What?”

“Forget it. Where is he?”

…

You approach a large machine, one seemingly built around a chamber about the size of a wooden coffin if the access hatch is anything to judge by. The rest of the machine is at least a few times that size, built into the wall of a basement on the grounds held by Boro’s remaining cultists – who universally gave you a wide latitude.

“So you have a plan?” Koji presses.

The fingers of your left hand cover your left eye as you unseal a handful of folded origami birds, which flatten themselves and slide into every visible gap between wall, floor, or roof and machine. This lets you see the surroundings of the origami as they make a complete survey.

“What did you find?” Koji asks you.

“The power supply is probably self-contained,” you reply. “The parts built into the wall seem to be a cooling system.”

“And so what does that tell us?” Eida asks impatiently.

>Not enough, unfortunately. The last thing I want to do is gamble with a life.
>Genjutsu I can break, and gradually withdrawing the cooling gas should reverse its effect.
>Other?

>>6211858
>>Genjutsu I can break, and gradually withdrawing the cooling gas should reverse its effect.

>>6211858
>>Not enough, unfortunately. The last thing I want to do is gamble with a life.

>>6211858
>Genjutsu I can break, and gradually withdrawing the cooling gas should reverse its effect.

>>6211858
>1d6 taking the first three

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6212412

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6212412