GAME MASTER
Wandenreich - Soldat
Memories broken, the truth goes unspoken...
Hibano
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Post by Hibano on May 31, 2022 7:30:30 GMT -5
Hibano Location: Japan
Status: Alive This is insane. How could you react if two people you've never met before suddenly approached you, one declared that they personally know you and the other began casually spilling information that even an ordinary member of Red Lotus wouldn't know? Morgan was on edge, but he was left baffled how to even react. This amount of information held by an outsider required them to take measures and prevent information leaks, and yet, this woman genuinely didn't sound like she was being malicious. It simply did not make sense, why would someone with such a vast level of knowledge about Red Lotus casually approach a member of the Zodiac? Listening to Niji, Morgan lowered his hands from her shoulders. Hibano sensed the tension between them as well, and instinctively reached towards the grip of his sword - in spite of this, the Zodiac remained calm as well, and did not attack. The rabbit hole was being dug deeper - this time, Niji revealed the Rosé card. Judging from her lingo, she very clearly knew about the events that transpired in Tendo Shoten, and wanted to extract information about what he knew. Yeah, she was clearly a spy. " I'm not going to tell you confidential information," Morgan shot back, narrowing his eyes. Hibano was, of course, even more confused. New names and events he was unfamiliar with were being thrown around, further messing up a situation that was already overly complex. " Why are we talking about wines..?" " If you two are spies who came here to gloat about everything that you gathered for whoever you serve, then you have already slipped up," Morgan explained. He still had some doubts, but still, he didn't know what to make of this situation if not for espionage. " The entrance of the Akai Hasu temple is always monitored, so both of you have already been recorded, and so won't be able to escape anywhere." |
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Player
Fullbringer
I have nothing to say.
Niji
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Post by Niji on May 31, 2022 8:14:26 GMT -5
The way he phrased that, did the Red Lotus know what had happened? Maybe the Red Lotus that had existed in that false life was truly an illusion, and Val’s goal of destruction really was shared by the organization. Clouds were beginning to roll in, betraying her calm expression. Niji shook her head, her voice remained calm and firm, betraying none of the frustration she was feeling. ”We are not spies, we serve no secret master.” She gestured to the surroundings, where presumably the hidden recording equipment existed, ”If you trust the people monitoring the recordings, I will tell you everything I know, along with exactly how I learned it."She locked eyes with Morgan again, trying to discern the truth in his statement, hoping that it was just a bluff and he did not actually know what had happened. Her memory of Morgan was that he was, fundamentally, a good man; if he had been involved in the events that happened last week... "That being said, I hope the ‘confidential information’ you are unwilling to say does not imply the Red Lotus was willingly involved in what happened to Rosé.”There was a rumble of thunder in the distance, and she sighed heavily, ”I am not here to threaten; and I detest speaking in riddles. Simply put, I had to deal with the results of the Shinigami experiment on her, and I believe the lost memory of this man is another part of the collateral damage.”Hibano |
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GAME MASTER
Wandenreich - Soldat
Memories broken, the truth goes unspoken...
Hibano
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Post by Hibano on May 31, 2022 14:27:11 GMT -5
Hibano Location: Japan
Status: Alive Morgan remained stern against a brief display of Niji's power. The bolt of thunder in the distance had a Reiatsu signature connected to her, and a brief gust of wind rushed past after the rumble. If it was an attempt to make a warning to the Zodiac on where her allegiances stood and what she would do if she heard the wrong answer, then it did not intimidate him. It did get him to consider the situation in another light, however. " What are you two even talking about..." Hibano mumbled under his breath, growing increasingly frustrated at everything told that he had no clue about. That he was basically treated as an unwanted walking consequence of some event in the past did not leave a good taste in his mouth, either. Suddenly, the door of the Temple opened yet again. Having descended down to the headquarters of the organization and informed the staff about the surprising arrival, Simone returned to the surface and witnessed that her peer was in the middle of conversation with the two Fullbringers. " Whatcha doing here?" she said, walking down the steps. From the first impression, the situation appeared a bit tense, but nobody was brawling with anyone yet, so, maybe Morgan managed to resolve it? The dark-haired Zodiac immediately pulled out his smartphone instead and quickly typed up a message, then showed it to Simone behind her back. " ...Right. On it." From under her sleeve, she pulled out an old postage stamp, and flicked it as she held it with her index and middle fingers. In a flash, all four Fullbringers now stood in a different location, several kilometers underground. Morgan waited for a few seconds, letting the two outsiders they brought to the room to get used to the new surroundings and realize that this was not a trap. " Do ya need anything else? I could bring our lie detector..." Simone spoke up, but Morgan answered her calmly as he sat down: " Nothing for now," Instead, he flicked a switch in the center of the table, activating a device of sorts that released a very faint hum. " This switch surrounds this room with an aura that prevents any Fullbrings from manipulating any soul imbued in the matter around them. Essentially, it disables any Fullbringer powers as long as it's active." To show an example, Simone flicked the postage stamp between her fingers again, only for nothing but a slight fizzle to happen. Now that he activated his assurances, Morgan began to speak: " I assume I do not need to clue you in on the basic facts, that there was no worldwide auroras or any other conspiracy during that day. Rosé was killed there, during a battle with the Shinigami, after having received a level of power far greater than normal through an experiment. That's basically it in a nutshell. Now, explain yourself." |
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Player
Fullbringer
I have nothing to say.
Niji
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Post by Niji on May 31, 2022 16:50:06 GMT -5
While the shift was jarring, it was progress. She listened calmly to the explanation, then nodded. The device was curious, and Niji glanced at it, then over to Hibano, wondering if he could still feel the soul inside of him with it on. She could still feel the spirits around her, and she wondered if it would truly work on her pacts. Better not to test it, no matter the result. She nodded once, then continued, as if she had not been transported to an interrogation room. ”From the beginning, then." She moved over and took a seat, allowing herself to be front and center for the camera setup. "I had heard of the Red Lotus twice before ever meeting one of your agents. One of the people that had mentioned the organization thought I might have been interested in joining it, and gave me a contact to reach out to.”Once again, she looked over to Hibano for a moment, before looking back to Morgan and the other Fullbringer, ”Rosé. We had a brief conversation about the spiritual world and your organization, and she treated me to dinner. I believe she paid with a Red Lotus account, I can give you a rough date and the name of the restaurant, if that would help.”Niji shook her head and continued, ”Anyway, during that conversation, she led me to believe that the goal of the Red Lotus was that of worldly destruction. That is to say, she told me that the balance of souls was a Shinigami myth, and the goal of your organization was to destroy it and, if reality survived the result, rebuild the world to your own desires.”She paused here, allowing the others in the room to respond. This was the first and most important thing she needed to learn from this expedition. The false memory implied that their goal was not this, but was distinctly more noble and beneficial to humanity; one that she could even support. But she was not going to feed them the lines they’d need to convince her. Hibano |
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GAME MASTER
Wandenreich - Soldat
Memories broken, the truth goes unspoken...
Hibano
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Post by Hibano on Jun 1, 2022 6:23:57 GMT -5
Hibano Location: Japan
Status: Alive Morgan knew Rosé relatively well, or at least he believed he did relatively well. What this woman detailed about her did seem to fit. Partially. " ...do you think you are the one interrogating us here?" Simone shot back as soon as she realized the purpose behind Niji's statement. She was trying to get them to reveal their organization's goals, by placing down something she had heard and then waiting for herself to be corrected. Morgan understood that as well, but took it in stride. He leaned back in his chair slightly and answered: " Then you must have misunderstood her. Rosé only ever used to speak of her own ideals, not anyone else's. She was always a maverick who never truly fit in, and so stayed a common agent in spite of being able to match her superiors in strength. It was coded in her ideology - seeing herself as the only person who understood the world's suffering, as a hero in a world of slaves, who found that the only solution is annihilation of everything." Morgan sighed. " Though, I suppose her being someone's first contact could give a lot of wrong impressions about the organization," he said, then, suddenly leaned forward. " Now tell me the true story, please. Rosé would not have told you half of what you know." |
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Player
Fullbringer
I have nothing to say.
Niji
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Post by Niji on Jun 1, 2022 16:26:03 GMT -5
Well, the reaction of both the woman and Morgan was enough of a giveaway that what Niji had learned in reality wasn’t accurate, at least. Even if she didn’t know the true motives, she at least knew the organization did not share Val’s nihilistic goals. Morgan’s accusation frustrated her, but she did her best not to let it show. ”Obviously. I had no interest in having anything to do with an organization that sought the end of everything. And I am giving you the true story; and if you are having issues even believing the easily verifiable information, then this is a pointless exercise.”It was not much of an outburst, but Niji needed to keep control of her emotions. This wasn’t the Morgan she knew; that man was from a false reality, and might have very few similarities to this one. She quickly looked at him, really looked at him; eyes passing over his neck, his waist, and looking into his eyes. Then she closed her own eyes and took a deep breath; as she exhaled, she mentally listed the differences. No scar. The man’s neck was unblemished, unmarred by the flaming hangman’s noose of a shinigami’s release. No katana. In the other reality, she had never seen Morgan without his blade. He is older. The two of them had met Morgan when he was maybe her age; this one had several years on him. He is distrustful and uncompassionate. The man had been eager to assist them in helping humanity, and was more than willing to share information on the Red Lotus with them in order to offer assistance. None of that kindness or trust was in this man’s eyes. He had no interest in helping Hibano with his lost memory, this was not the same man she knew. It had only been a few seconds, and Niji was unaware she was wordlessly mouthing the thoughts as she exhaled, This is a different Morgan. She had to remember that; it had already been a miscalculation to trust him. She had been happy to see him come out to greet them, but that was because she thought he was a man that didn’t exist in this reality. She shook her head as she collected herself, ”My words are not going to convince you; if you find the background information unbelievable, then you will dismiss the rest of the story out of hand. If a lie detector would help, spiritually enhanced or otherwise, feel free to go and fetch it.”Hibano |
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GAME MASTER
Wandenreich - Soldat
Memories broken, the truth goes unspoken...
Hibano
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Post by Hibano on Jun 2, 2022 13:02:58 GMT -5
Hibano Location: Japan
Status: Alive Niji went even tougher on her line - rather than bend to the request to tell the true story of how she learned about Red Lotus, she deflected it by accusing them of being too stubborn to be convinced by her story. It was a defensive response, one which didn't leave Morgan and Simone more trustworthy of her intentions. A criminal pinned to the wall would have a similar reaction to her, after all - throw out a story of half-truths and then get defensive whenever it is questioned, to deflect the blame onto the accuser. So, Morgan answered, seeking to address that: " Do you realize what you sound like right now, Gaia?" The Zodiac took a breath, and continued. " You casually arrived to the entrance of the Red Lotus headquarters, revealed that you know about the Zodiac and about Rosé, even though a person like you could never possibly know that - and when we brought you here to ask you how you know all that, your first instinct was to try to squeeze even more information about our organization from us. By providing us with a story where you invite us to refute Rosé and so reveal our organization's purpose. Before anything else - before telling us how you know this location, before telling us how you know about the Zodiac, or how you know about the events in Tendo Shoten." " We have a lie detector, I can bring it if you want," Simone offered, but Morgan waved his hand and shot back: " If I am going to be convinced by this woman, then I am going to be convinced by my own eyes and ears. Not by a machine that can't understand nuance." He waited for her to finish the story. While all this was happening, Hibano merely watched - though, frustration over being entirely left out was still simmering in his mind. He had yet to realize how, in what possible way, this conversation was related to the reason they came here. |
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Player
Fullbringer
I have nothing to say.
Niji
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Post by Niji on Jun 2, 2022 18:20:50 GMT -5
Niji’s eyes narrowed, her mind racing when Morgan revealed they knew of Tendo’s involvement. It explained the differences between the Red Lotus in the alternate reality and what she knew of this one. She had been trying to figure it out, but with that fact that he had knowledge of that man, it explained everything. ”Oh. I see now.”She closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head sadly, ”I came here trying to reconcile what I know with what I had hoped. I just could not understand it.”When she opened her eyes again, they smoldered with fury, ”How could the organization that Val showed me be so different from reality. You know who was there to stop Val after Tendo’s experiment on her? Me, her boyfriend, a pair of Shinigami, and a goddamn Arrancar! No other Fullbringers, not a single member of the Red Lotus came to try and help one of their people.”She sharply pointed a finger at the woman who had teleported them all down here, ”Obviously you could have sent people, if you wanted to.” Niji shook her head, ”The last week I have spent wondering, was the real Red Lotus weak, cowardly, or incompetent?”Niji slammed a fist on the table, it was glowing faintly blue, and emanated an energy that didn’t feel like anything like a fullbringer; it would even feel entirely different than any energy she had shown Hibano during his attack. ”No, it is worse. You were fucking complicit.”Hibano |
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GAME MASTER
Wandenreich - Soldat
Memories broken, the truth goes unspoken...
Hibano
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Post by Hibano on Jun 3, 2022 4:37:58 GMT -5
Hibano Location: Japan
Status: Alive Niji continued to defend herself and target the Red Lotus instead of finishing the story - this time, however, her response shocked both of the Zodiacs. She was burning with fury, and that fury appeared genuine, rather than just an act to pull herself out of this situation. To her, everything was now clear - the Red Lotus had let Rosé die. No, not just Rosé. They let Val die. Much like Morgan had revealed his knowledge of Tendo Shoten, she revealed her knowledge of the agent's true name. As soon as Niji slammed her fists down at the table, revealing an emanating power that the Fullbring suppressor seemingly could not control, Simone reached towards the switch in the center immediately - however, inches away from pressing it and allowing her to teleport the furious ginger away, Morgan's hand caught her wrist and pulled it away. " P-please don't fight..." Hibano muttered - Niji's sudden breakdown had caught him completely off guard as well, and let his disappointment with the conversation fade, leaving worry about the situation in its place. Morgan stared the woman in the eyes, in silence. In spite of the threat she posed, he remained composed. " I understand you." Much like Niji was being watched, so was he, and so, he had to carefully choose his words. Even so when there was a fellow Zodiac next to him, hearing everything he said. After a fake cough to clear his throat, Morgan continued: " Is that all, then?" |
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Player
Fullbringer
I have nothing to say.
Niji
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Post by Niji on Jun 3, 2022 16:26:12 GMT -5
Niji’s hand, still glowing blue, slashed through the air, she hadn’t noticed the glow yet, she was too focused on Morgan, she spoke sharply, with more force than the confused man deserved, ”Shut up, Hibano. These people are responsible for what happened to you. What happened to us.”She growled softly at the two members of the Red Lotus command, ”Is that all? Is that all?! That is what you have to say?!" She let out a bark of a laugh that held no joy, ”What was the plan, have Tendo turn her into the hōgyoku and then he would just give her back to you? Or was the plan always to just hand the Shinigami a superweapon so humanity could never move beyond their limitations?”At this point, Niji noticed her hand glowing with the power of the hōgyoku, she had forgotten the wish in the heat of the moment. She considered it for a long second, and muttered quietly, ”What would one more false hour be on top of lifetimes?”She knew it would work, turning back time the twenty or so minutes since she had incinerated that coffee cup was well within the power she held in her hand. It seemed clear that Val had never reported back to the Red Lotus their meetings, and they had no idea that Gaia existed. They wouldn't know her, and the lifetime where she teamed up with them to help humanity was not the only one life she had been forced to live. In the nightmarish timelines that Val had inflicted on her, she had killed thousands upon thousands. Unlike Shinigami or Arrancar, Fullbringers were still mortals, and had mortal needs. Pesky things like air. They couldn't necessarily deal with things like deadly bites from fully physical, natural, and venomous creatures. She could likely eliminate at least a few of the Zodiac before they even figured out there was a threat. Getting revenge for the Red Lotus's betrayal of Val, no, of all humanity, wouldn't be easy, but it would be doable. Niji looked back to Morgan, and her voice became cold, the fury replaced with a dark resolve, ”You may claim to understand me, but I do not understand you. So tell me, Morgan; did you agree to hand Val over to Tendo, or did you just idly stand by while it happened?”Hibano |
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GAME MASTER
Wandenreich - Soldat
Memories broken, the truth goes unspoken...
Hibano
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Post by Hibano on Jun 3, 2022 17:12:36 GMT -5
Hibano Location: Japan
Status: Alive After Niji's rant, the entire room was left silent. Hibano had wanted to shoot back at her and explain how he still did not understand what both sides were talking about, but he was left silenced by her hatred. Morgan continued to put on a silent, stoic visage, and took in the demand to explain herself she gave him, but did not answer - Simone, on the other hand, was shocked to the core by her accusations and her venomous speech. Once again, she reached towards the center of the table - but this time, she received a faint nod from Morgan to go for it. The two agents of Red Lotus acted quickly. As soon as Simone turned off the Fullbring suppressor, she appeared right behind Hibano and grabbed him by the shoulder while her peer rose from his seat. " Wait-" Hibano barely managed to yelp before he and Simone disappeared off the face of the Earth, leaving Niji and Morgan alone in the interrogation room. " Fine," Morgan muttered and reached his hand out to the side. Suddenly, flying faster than sound, an old sword flew straight into his grasp, pulled by a telekinetic-like force, and then transformed into a deadly, blackened weapon with an infinitely sharp edge. " Interrogation room log: the person has refused to cooperate and presents a clear threat to the Red Lotus as a whole. Zodiac Morgan is on the case to eliminate this threat." However, right as he said that, Morgan focused his Reishi onto Niji directly to establish a brief telepathic link between them. He could not maintain it for long even if it didn't rouse suspicions for anyone watching, so, he just left a brief message: Please, destroy this room, now. |
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Player
Fullbringer
I have nothing to say.
Niji
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Post by Niji on Jun 3, 2022 18:35:39 GMT -5
Niji hesitated for a critical second at the other woman’s reaction, she seemed genuinely shocked at Niji’s accusations. She had assumed the stranger was another Zodiac, but perhaps she was just a subordinate of Morgan, and the betrayal was unknown to her. This moment of analysis allowed the woman to grab Hibano and depart. It didn’t matter. They’d both be back in the Hofgarten soon enough; he’d be fine no matter what happened they did to him. It wouldn't even be a bad memory. She turned back to Morgan, the man having finally decided to call upon the familiar blade. Niji bared her teeth in a vicious grin as he spoke. ”The threat is not clear.”Immediately, Niji’s reiatsu spiked, and the earth around them rumbled as she received the telepathic message, ”But it will be."So he wanted to talk unseen, did he? Fine. The floor immediately erupted with spires of earth, crushing the recording equipment, table, and most of the walls into the ceiling with an onrush of solid stone. The giant spikes grew rapidly, piercing the ceiling and throwing down a shower of sparks as the light was destroyed. The room still remained bright, lit with the auras of the two fullbringers. A half-second after his request, they were surrounded by walls of shifting stone; the remnants of her circle of spires that continued to grow upwards through the facility above them. There was no reason not to get more information from Morgan if he was going to share. Information she could use when she went back. He wouldn't remember anything she told him anyway. She kept an eye on the blade, just because he didn't want cameras didn't mean he wasn't going to to try to kill her. He might have the same goal, information. He just didn't know what she was capable of. She didn't lower her reiatsu. ”She trusted you.” she snarled, barely louder than a whisper, ”So which one was it?”Hibano |
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GAME MASTER
Wandenreich - Soldat
Memories broken, the truth goes unspoken...
Hibano
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Post by Hibano on Jun 4, 2022 12:10:05 GMT -5
Hibano Location: Japan
Status: Alive Niji's answer to Morgan's request was a bit unelegant, and was not perfect, since it might raise suspicions by being so dome-like - but it worked. Either way, the alarms should be ringing across the entire facility now - Morgan gave it a minute, roughly, before the Red Lotus breaks down the walls and storms in to reinforce their superior. Until then, they are not watched. The facility is not filming them, and voice recorders were completely broken. Moving faster than the eye could track, Morgan suddenly grabbed Niji by the shoulder and pushed her to the ground, pinning her down. " So you want to know the truth, then?" he gushed out. His voice had turned venomous, frustration was gushing out through the cracks. " Virgil sold her." Letting go of Niji's shoulder, Morgan rose back to full height, standing over the woman. " He was the one who decided to offer Val to Tendo and his experiment, and tricked her into coming there. He used to say it was because she had a set of morals that could be imprinted onto the Hogyoku... no... he knew from the very beginning that Tendo's experiment was going to fail, and Val was going to die. He was fine with that. He was afraid that such an extreme prodigy, who grew to almost match a Zodiac in just five years, would eventually take over the Red Lotus herself." Morgan pressed his foot on Niji's chest. " You think I would have let that happen if I could? I learned of Virgil and Tendo's plan a week before it began. I tried to inform Val, convince her to not go, but I got ratted out before I could write to her and explain what's going on. I couldn't reach her anymore, Virgil confronted me personally and-" And... Morgan stepped away, looking away from his opponent, grimacing. " ...I don't know if I'm even still alive..." |
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Player
Fullbringer
I have nothing to say.
Niji
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Post by Niji on Jun 4, 2022 19:42:59 GMT -5
Niji let Morgan manhandle her; the threat was from his blade, not his fists, and he felt the need to express his anger a bit. Fine. She sat up as he stepped away after his version of events, and nodded once; this was the man she remembered. The explanation fit with what little she knew of Virgil from the false life; but Morgan didn’t know the full story. Virgil and Tendo had betrayed each other; the man’s experiment had worked, but Virgil had lied to Tendo about Val’s moral compass. Well, maybe if it had been her Val, it woul—no, there was no point to that line of thought. But then, Tendo had successfully turned the woman into the hōgyoku; and nearly destroyed reality as a result of the false bill of goods. Betrayal begat betrayal, and after Niji and the others managed to delay Val's objective, he found a way to contain the power of the hōgyoku and turned it over to the Shinigami. And, at some point, some chunk of her soul and memory jumped into Hibano. But she was fairly confident she wasn't going to find answers here. She sighed, her golden reiatsu being shaded with the pale blue as her hand began to glow again, ”Morgan, I am going to use the power of the hōgyoku to rewind time to before Hibano and I even arrived at the temple. You have little reason to trust me, and any explanation I can give you would be forgotten. But I will not forget what you tell me. Let me take us out of here, and it will buy us a bit more time for you to tell me everything I need to destroy Virgil, and anyone that helped him betray humanity.”Niji shook her head, "I have seen what the Red Lotus has the potential to become for the world. It will never happen under that man."Hibano |
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GAME MASTER
Wandenreich - Soldat
Memories broken, the truth goes unspoken...
Hibano
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Post by Hibano on Jun 5, 2022 9:42:49 GMT -5
Hibano Location: Japan
Status: Alive After Morgan's defeatist mumble, he remained staring down at the broken down tiles of the floor. For all of his life, he had never hesitated, jumped forth to do the right thing, but now, he's lost and wayward, uncertain how to stop the evil that was festering in their own organization... Suddenly, he turned to Niji again. Shocked. The woman had a plan, but... it was not what he expected. " Time rewind..?" She was not going to offer him an explanation - whether or not it was believable or not, as Niji hesitated, it didn't matter when they had so little time left anyway. But... just the fact that this was on the table, it was hard to grasp, and Morgan didn't fully internalize it anyway. Instead, he focused more on what Niji was planning to do with it - to use the time before the reversal to learn as much as she could about how to kill Virgil from him. This was something he could actually give an answer to. " You are going to die." Morgan turned back towards Niji. " I've seen what he can do, and it's inhuman." While they were speaking, the minute which Morgan guessed they had for privacy finally ticked down. The Red Lotus agents staffing the rest of the kilometer-deep underground fortress, having arrived to the emergency, finally broke through the walls of the dome with their powers. The first audible crack came, then another, and another. " Fight me, if you wish to take on him. He took me down in a single strike - if you can't do the same, then I won't let you kill yourself." |
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