OOC: "Hmmm...I see your point. I figured Koyuki was decided on what she planned to do."
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Blue Kimono (Kiyomi Matsuraba)
Kiyomi marveled at Takin's airship. It was simply incredible, and though she was sure she wouldn't have free reign to pry into all the little things that kept it together, she was enchanted.
"I'd better tag along. I'm sure there's something important I can learn for the others if I stick close by."
The girl in the blue kimono strayed only far enough to pluck her spear from the ground, left a quick "you're in charge" for the squad captain, and joined Kurama for what sounded to her like quite an event.
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"What's going on, there?" the captain asked one of her subordinates. The soldier in particular was the one who opened the hole in the barricade and was now having trouble with her mecha.
"I don't know. Damnit, it's malfunctioning again!"
The captain sighed. Ever since the degeneration of magic, various necessary components of the mecha became worn and damaged more easily. The captain was pretty knowledgible, and could tell from her distance that the mecha wouldn't make it back to the facility.
"Abandon it here," the captain replied. "Switch to Lady Kiyomi's mecha and let's go home to report to Lady Mika. Let's move it, girls. We can't let ourselves be followed by anybody who means us ill will."
The soldier quickly dismounted from her mecha, hurried to Kiyomi's vacant machine, and the squad alligned on the captain. They made progress back in a single column, varying their course to pass through several areas where they're tracks would become hidden, given enough time.
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Fallen Wing (Yuna)
Yuna was just having the worst time. She had managed to keep Tsubasa from extracting her revenge, but it looks like her ninjas were on the chase. They would never find her, of course. All her tracks were either burried or never made in the snow in the first. The thick fog and heavy snow made flying somewhat difficult, but only a novice would somehow fall out of the sky even in these conditions.
Yuna had managed to find a cavern. She wasn't alone though she did feel kind of lonely. Homunculi weren't particularly fun to chat with. Leaving all the Chiyo-bombers she had out in the snow plains to stop Tsubasa's forces from getting close to finding her, Yuna surveyed her situation and her new surroundings.
She had a homunculus of Kurama, one of Shizuka, and one of a monk she never met named Yaburu. Not the much more useful rare kinds that were all defeated in the final confrontation, either. The simple-minded, barely proficient, colorless kind. It depressed Yuna even more. She had lost one of her guns in the snow as well, giving it up when Tsubasa was in very hot pursuit. Yuna didn't risk backtracking to reclaim it when Tsubasa was hit hard by a carefully concealed Chiyo-bomber. She probably wouldn't find it if she did go back, anyways.
The cavern was cold, but the deeper Yuna went inside, the hotter she felt. It didn't take long for her to find out why. A stream of hot water, possibly being heated by a deeper stream of magma, created a notably pleasant atmosphere underneath all the snow.
"I guess I should rest here."
The fallen angel sat down, ordering her homunculi to keep watch. At least they excelled at that function, for they never tired out. It was that latter quality that Yuna really believed in during the big battle. She obviously underestimated the power of the human spirit, not to mention the spirits of the demons. She looked at her gun, whiping the snow off of it.
"Who am I kidding? There was no way I could defeat Talkatz after all. I was a fool for even trying something so soon."
She was then thankful that the homunculi weren't human or emotional. It made it easy for Yuna to give in to her frustration in that cave, pointing on the ground and walls and crying pathetically. After a few minutes, she stared at her bloody hands. "I'm going to get my revenge," Yuna growled. "There will be no forgiveness...no mercy for what they've done to me."

Kurama was about to enter the ship when he turned and looked back. It seemed that Joukei was a little antsy about having Koyuki leave. Kurama sighed.

"Koyuki, if you wish, you may join us on the ship. You did help us get out, after all. It's the least we could do."

Kurama felt Kiyomi brush past him and into the mechanical airship. Kurama stood by Takin as the kimono looked eagerly around the inside of the ship. Kurama whispered to Takin.

"A young lady, extremely interested in invention and higher technology, has just wandered into your ship. Makes you wish you were 10 years younger, huh?"

Takin smacked Kurama hard on the leg with his cane.

"I can still take out YOUR scrawny ass. Now get inside, the boiler room is working overtime as it is getting this place heated, and you're letting it all out through the door."

Kurama rubbed his leg and whispered under his breath.

"We could always use the hot air you keep spewing out."

Takin smacked him in the head with his cane, and began to walk deeper into the ship.

Koyuki stopped, and turned her head to reply to Joukei, "I've lived places far worse than this, human." which was true. Although, the extent of her dislike was based on him believing she couldn't take care of herself.

In the back of her mind, she felt bad, also. They had appreciated her help, and had helped her in return, but yet she still hated them. "Old habits take time to die", she thought.

Of course, Kurama's comment held, to Koyuki, much more weight that someone she didn't know. "However... I could be convinced to lend you my services. Less work finding demons on my part." The ronin turned around, head held high, and boarded the ramp onto the airship, returning Takin's untrusting gaze before stepping inside. It was... "kind" of Kurama, and despite Koyuki's hatred of human "kindness", she didn't fancy being left alone in the freezing cold anyway. At least hell was warm.

The doors shut behind him with quite a thud. Kiro was sweating like a pig, but was just as pissed off as every. He found out that this 'Talktaz' wasn't staying at Talkatz's original castle. Nor could any of the demons in there help him find this fool. Then again he didn't give them time to help. The only thing that pissed him off was that it seemed an entire tribe of demons was living in there now.

He pulled out a waterskin he had on him and took a sip, now trying to figure out where in the world this 'Talkatz' could be. He had no idea where exactly he could be, but there were a couple demons in the castle that mentioned something of a shapeshifter, which would make sense when Kiro thought about it. He glanced around a couple times to see if he had company, and when he didn't notice anyone in the immediate vicinity, he started to walk. Where exactly he wasn't sure, but he didn't feel like staying there.

Joukei let out a sigh...somehow relieved, yet at the same time feeing something was missing. Taking a quick look around him, he shrugged, believing it wasn't that important. Dropping his items, he took out a small bag and placed the demon teeth he had gathered in it. Slinging it over his back, he stood up and walked up to the huge "armor" left behind one of the kimonos. Walking around it, wondering if there was some way to bring it along with him, he got a good view of the cave-as well as the person left behind.

Immediately rushing over to the mage's side, he picked up Garud with a single arm. Unsure if the person was conscious or not, Joukei muttered to himself, "You know...you're more trouble than you're worth."

Then he exited the prison once again and returned to the airship-but not without giving one longful look at the still mecha on the ground.

Blue Kimono (Kiyomi Matsuraba)
Kiyomi decided before she actually boarded that she could be given a tour of Takin's mobile masterpiece later. This left her with nothing but getting to the point.
"While we can deal with the possibility of life bereft of magic, I think a lot of demons would sooner face horrible torture and even death than live out their days without the benefit of magic. We have a general idea of what's happening to the demons as the power of magic continues to wane, and Kirie thinks things will get pretty bad for all of us if we let this continue. So..." Kiyomi frowns, piecing her own opinion together, "...I think we're decided on stopping this deterioration of magic and rejuvenating the worlds we all live in. I guess the reason I'm here is to find out how exactly we might accomplish that."

Melsis listened to the conversation fascinated. In fact almost everything she had heard fascinated, surpsised, dumbfounded, and flabergasted her. She was utterly impressed and awed. She never had a clue that humans could fight this well, that they would destroy the guardian demons with such ease. And then the ship came, it was like something that one would dream about. She knew that there was mighty magic in the world but she had never witnessed anything like it. And the most of it all, as far as she could tell it didn't even run on magic!

Melsis had been shadowing the band since just before the fights with the gaurdian demons. Watching in ever growing wonder as they fought Melsis began to expect that they might have the answers she sought, and even a way to fix it. While she reasoned it most likely would be dangerous, possibly even fatal to journey with and they discovered she was lying about herself. For now she would hide herself and they would most likely not find her if she was careful her thoughts went.

Or so she thought.

At the moment Melsis was listening into the conversation, one that was worth more to gold to Melsis because of what it dealt with. Melsis was leaning against the door with her head facing the hallway as she listened in. And then something strange happened.

Her normally easy invisibility illusion started to drain up her energy, fast. At a rate that normally would occur when she enspelled an army of people. As such she collapsed disengaging her illusion before all her power was gone. She lay there on the ground in a heap unable to move even as she knew the sound of her falling would be heard. The only assurance she had was that the normal illusion around her was still there, and as such no one would be able to tell what she was.

Raze carefully placed his kart into the ship. He had a wagon elsewhere he could unload it onto, but hearing this talk of the destruction of magic could prove useful.

But just as he secured it in place, he heard a thump behind him. It was the little girl from before.

"...You?..What are you doing here?..."

"You're very correct about the extents we'd go to, Kiyomi." Koyuki added, "I've taken up the monstrous prospect of slaying my brethren to maintain my power. If I'm not mistaken however, the kimonos are primarially half-demons, are they not? It would seem you are suffering aswell."

Koyuki didn't know why she had called her practice monstrous. The word simply came to mind. While in truth, she regarded it as cleansing the weak and preserving the strong, something about it made her feel... different. Something she'd never really experienced before. The demoness noted she'd been feeling more of these strange emotions lately, and it was beginning to be difficult to supress them.

(OOC: Raiden, May i please join in? or is it dead or sometin....)