Miaki

They arrived on scene to see Shanok already engaged with the field boss. "Well looks like someone didn't want to wait on us and got the party started. This shouldn't be that difficult at all. Ready?" He said with a nod to Hikari. "Battle routine. Set. EXECUTE!" Miaki drew his katana and dashed forward towards the <>.

Battle result: Hit! 6 DMG!

With a clean swing Miaki slashed at the Queen Wasp and cut deeply into the monster.

Party status:

Shanok: 27/27

Miaki: 73/73

Hikari: 17/17

Wasp Queen: 15/30

On the fourth floor Miaki was working with Nikki and his new secretary Hikari on organizing joint guild matters. Nikki helped with the matters that would concern the Ebon Vanguard and Hikari helped in keeping record of it all. They had been at it for a few hours until their work was interrupted with a message Nikki received from one of the officers of her guild. It was with great reluctance that she had to leave. Not leaving her leave quite yet Miaki got up and hugged her side before giving her a kiss on the temple. She giggled before leaving him and Hikari to the rest of the work. Not much later Miaki received his own message, at first he thought it was from Nikki but instead it was from Shanok mentioning something of a field boss on floor 2. Sharing this intel with Hikari they decided to join Shanok and mentioned that they should meet out in the fields to save time.

HI Miku! Good seeing you around the site! If you ever need anything dont hesitate to ask. Maybe I'll even see you in RP.

The blade shimmered in the light as Yunah held it up for him to see. It was a finely crafted piece with small, regal looking fixtures on the hilt. It looked sturdy and ready to cut through anything it came into contact with. Miaki placed his hand above Yunah's on the handle and gently took it out of her hands to feel the weight. Stepping back he swung it around a few times at invisible targets. The weight of the weapon seemed just right. "This is a good blade." He walked back over to Yunah and held it out to her with both hands. "It will serve someone well."

Miaki hugged Yunah and rocked her back and forth a little as she leapt for him in excitement. She was always a delight to see and spend time with. Ever since Miaki found her in the streets of <> he couldn't get rid of her. Nikki had grown this attachment for her as well. She held a special place in their hearts and he would make sure she stayed there forever. After Yunah accepted the materials she looked up at him and asked, "Was there anything else you needed before you leave?" The sound of her voice made him want to suddenly stay for a bit and spend time with her. He couldnt remember the last time they had time together.

He thought quickly for any excuse for him to stick around for a while. His eyes darted to the furnace Yunah used for crafting. "Actually, Id like to stay for a bit and watch you at work if its alright. Im in need of some gear for myself and a couple people." He patted himself on the back for his sudden idea. "I'll pay of course. Can't expect you to be at all successful if I didn't."

Miaki looked at the list and gave it a little more thought. He knew that Hikari and Ruri would work well together as they were getting along like best friends recently and that Shanok would be more comfortable with people he knew so after rearranging some of the listings he put up the final groupings. "This should do the trick I think and unless there are any objects we can get ourselves ready for the next fight. When should we meet at the boss room?"

-Head 1- : Saix, Lisbeth, Eléssar

-Head 2- : Vandal, Shark, 9Lives

-Head 3- : Raidou, Ruri, Hikari

-Head 4- : Nikki, Miaki, Shanok

-Overwatch- Ayane, Charlotte

Floor four, lately becoming a popular favorite to noobs and l33ts alike. But long as Miaki had some peace and quiet in the inn he shared with Nikki that was distanced a little way from the main traffic of the floor he was fine. Today's agenda was visitng the ice sheets where Sea Lions roamed. He would accompany HIkari out on a material hunt. The <> waited on the property of a small farm very close to the flat ice sheet field for the one starting to make a name for herself as the <>. His brown trenchcoat wrapped around him he looked around the unused farm for any signs of life.

The final man had arrived and introduced himself as the new leader of the former group called the <>. Miaki hadn't heard much except they were still structured like the Ebon Vanguard. Whether they were still a sub guild to them he didn't know. The young man started placing a nice assortment of colored vials on the table for different types of players in the boss raid. SO the man was an alchemist and a rather successful one at that. Miaki himself had his luck but laziness combined with business kept him from booming success. Fortunately, Clarence was a non-stop supplier and was helpful in making buffs for the last raid.

"Good to see another alchemist in the group." He said to the new guy. "I'm Miaki Murakami of the Azure Brigade." Looking back at the hologram he pointed to some of the key points and brought Raidou up to speed with everything. "Now moving onto the squads. I completely agree with Saix on this about getting a smaller group. I think too many people would overcrowd the room." Opening a notepad he started jotting down some names that came to him regarding the raid.

-Head 1- : Nikki, Miaki, Hikari

-Head 2- : Saix, 9, Shanok

-Head 3- : Vandal, Shark, *???/Elessar

-Head 4- : Raidou, Ruri, *???

-Overwatch- Lisbeth, Ayane, Charlotte

"Of course this is just a rough draft but it's a start."

Turning around to see Shark walk in Miaki waved. "Sup Shark, how's it goin'?" Miaki say the food placed on the table and upon seeing it realized he hadn't had anything to eat in a while. "Some of that for us?" He said pointing at he food on the table. "Don't mind if I do." The man said reaching for it and making himself a plate. While they waited for their last attendee the three men exchanged stories and causal chit chat. Current trends, rumors, quests, and the usual guy talk. Some time past before Miaki checked the time in his GUI. Their last man hadn't arrived yet. Probably got lost trying to find the meeting room. With a sigh Miaki sat up and produced a small yellow sphere and placed it on the table.

"No offense to the other guy but I think we should get started." He said pressing the top of the device. "Thhis gentleman is a <>. Very useful for meetings like this one. And... This is a map of the dungeon leading to floor ten." He said as a 3D hologram appeared displaying the pillar leading up. A red line showed the route taken to the boss room which was naturally at the top of the tower. "Here is the boss room. The room is smaller than the last floor and is edged with a pool of magma. Ever seen that 20 year old movie with the short people and the ring? Picture the place at the volcano room at the end of he movie but not so high up."

He pointed to the edge of the projected room. "This boss is called <>. A four headed serpent with a seriously hot headed attitude." He said with a little joke. "I only noticed one primary form of attack which was a fire blast. Did I mention each head has its own health bar? No? Well they do so we need to spilt up I reckon. We'll also need to watch the ground. Being in a volcano floor it seems safe to say the ground is unstable." Sitting back in his chair he let the other two give input. "What do you gents think?"

A quarter of health left on her. This shouldn't take that much longer he told himself. Only a couple more hits from each of them. "Looks like we almost have it down." Darting right and out of the statue's sight Miaki rounded around behind and rushed her from behind.

Battle result: Hit! 6 DMG!

Miaki stabbed the monster in the center of it's back right between the shoulder blades. "HIT HER CAPTAIN!" He yelled with his blade still deep in the flag boss.

Ryujin: 20/31 - 1 bleed damage

Rosalia: 9/9

Miaki: 57/57

Saix: 19/19

Repentance: 13/80

Nikki lead the charge into the room and used her howl skill to draw the attention of the boss. Nothing happened at first and he simple looked around quickly for a boss to appear. The room was stifling. The heat made it hard to breath and the sweat made his eyes sting a little. Then the ground vibrated as the serpentine head emerged from the molten magma. Now it was time to get business done and analyze the boss.

A name appeared over the creature's body it read <>. Miaki started darting around the room first learning more about the terrain. He needed to be able to describe the room in detail. Unstable ground that could easily break from attacks and the possibility of fire shooting out of the magma. The ceiling could also maybe drop rocks on them. 'Okay, what are you monster?' He thought running closer to the beast. '<>... Four heads with their own health bars... Probably spews fire out as a main attack. This'll be interesting.'

Checking on everyone he saw the last of the party teleport out and vanish from his party list. All that remained was himself and Nikki who was egging the beast on more keeping it's attention. "EVERYONE IS OUT NIKKI! We're clear! Ready when you are!" He yelled as he jogged away from the boss. Getting close to the bluenette tank he looked back and suddenly had an idea of Nikki's intent. "I've gathered everything I can. Ready to leave on your signal." He informed her while reaching for a blue crystal he had ready in his pocket.

Miaki entered the meeting room from they used before. It really was the ideal location being out of the way high above the normal traffic and seemed to be designed for just the very thing they were using it for. Rounding the table Miaki shook hands with Saix having not seen him since the dinner after the battle against the <>. "Good to see you Captain. Thanks for booking this room for us." Looking out the large window that offered a view of a large portion of the floor he crossed his arms. "This meeting shouldn't take too long I think. We can cut right to the point once the other two get here."

Miaki's composure slowly changed as he stroked his chin with one hand while his other arm was over his stomach. "So Sakuri huh?" He began in a neutral tone voice that made it difficult to gauge his attitude. He paced a couple of steps then looked over at the boy. So Clarence found someone, in their own guild no less. Miaki had noticed Clarence's face going red more often lately and wondered about it but kept it to himself. "This relationship wont cause any problems or issues now will?" He asked, turning his head to face Clarence. THe boy shook his head and said no. "Good, cause if it does then I'll have a problem. Dont give me one." He shifted his path towards where they were originally going.

'One, two, three, four, five.... six, counting him makes seven not including any information brokers that may have spilled it.' He counted off the number of people with this knowledge in his head. It would be a lot of people to silence. But considering this was a game of death and Miaki wasn't part of the mafia here this was more of a joke in his head. He wasn't gonna beat to a pulp anyone about this but he and Nikki hadn't figured out how to release this information. He was the leader of the <> and she the 2nd in command with the <>. How would that look? He was just glad he already had strong ties set with him and Saix their leader as well as Shark with <>.

Grabbing Clarence's shoulders he again spoke with surprise. "A wedding?!" He'd only just gotten engaged he wasn't even thinking about the wedding. It was all happening so fast, Controlling himself he took a breath and let go of the boy. "I hope yer better at collecting information than keeping it secret." Miaki joked. A big smile formed on his face at Clarence's fanboy outburst. "You think so? Hahaha"

Miaki stopped walking in front of Clarence and leaned in towards his face and began to stare him down. "Who else have you told...." He asked again. He had to know just how far out the information leaked. Was it just a some information brokers enjoying themselves or was it beyond that? He wasn't mad or anything but was not expecting word to get out so soon about him and Nikki. He wanted to get to the bottom of this or have an idea how far it had gone.

Miaki's eyes darted to Clarence with a wide eye'd expression. How could he possibly know about his engagement? They hadn't told a soul. Sure anyone in the boss raid could have seen them kiss Clarence was one of them now that Miaki thought about it but still that couldn't explain the word of marriage getting out. He spoke in a low tone almost with a slight squeak to it. "H-how did you?..... Who have you told?" In his surprise he completely missed the bit about Clarence mentioning possibly finding someone.

Miaki's head turned in surprise. He knew the name of the girl Clarence mentioned. "Lisbeth Senpai?" He said with some surprise in his tone. "I know her. We had a run in with some trouble on the 8th floor which I jumped in on. She recently joined the Ebon Vanguard I heard." He thought about that little fight where he went toe to toe with a minotaur and ended up throwing the beast off the platform to the dangers below. "No kidding... So what about you? When are you gonna find someone of interest? Ehhhhh?" He said while nudging Clarence in the side with his elbow.

Yunah accepted his request and equipped her new armor, he saw a small glimmer of the armor appearing under her cloak and gave a nod. The armor would do her very well but he sensed a little hesitation almost as if she might be concerned. Now that he thought about it Nikki might be wondering the same thing about him going without armor. He looked at them both with a reassuring half smile. "Don't worry about me ladies. I'll be fine and be careful. Besides..." He said with a wink to Nikki that he wasn't sure she'd notice in the small snow storm around them. "I have a strong guardian angel watching out for me." He didn't like to boast about his level outright. Well most of the time atleast. But he was a very powerful level and could eat a lot of damage but he also knew that most of the time he wouldn't have to thanks to Nikki's strength as a tank.

GrrZelda sounds very metal XD I like that! (lol)

Also, that's one very interesting interpretation. Mainly because it could be possible after whole Akihiko incident. By the way, which episode of Dr. Who was this?

It was "Silence in the Library" the first appearance (and technically last appearance..... spoilers) of River Song. Now throwing in my opinion let me first quote from iRobot.

There have always been ghosts in the machine. Random segments of code, that have grouped together to form unexpected protocols....

Now the whole quote is actually pertaining to the freewill of animatronics but the first part which I've used does have some relevance. Once something is stored online it's pretty much impossible to destroy every trace of it. Governments have tried and failed every time. THe internet is just too strong of an entity these days to be stopped. Fragments of data you delete from your hard drive will always be there. You can clear your hard drive but almost everything you do can be brought back by the best of the best. So it stands safe to say the possibility of a ghostly being. After all what about Kayaba at the end of Fairy Dance?

The eighth floor boss was defeated, floor 9 was being scouted, and Miaki Murakami was engaged to Nikki Styx. It was a good week. So when Miaki received a message from Zelrius about meeting everyone on the 2nd floor for something, Miaki wasn't very enthusiatic. Especially considering his last time with him. But he promised himself to remain civil and guage the situation when he met with everyone in the town plaza. Leaving the inn he was living in on the fourth floor he used the town's gate to teleport to floor two.

As he appeared on the floor he removed his winter cloak seeing no need for it on the mountainous terrain of floor two. Standing in the town center he looked around for any sign of the man of the hour. The plaza was rather popular today it seemed with mobs of players running around. After a few minutes of moving through the crowds Miaki spotted his guild mates. He waved to them as he approached and said a simple, "Sup guys."