Kirumi Tojo's Palace | The Ultimate Maid's Failures

[kandata]

By now everyone may be used to find themselves in bizarre locations, between going into palaces and visiting Nekyia. It might not come as a surprise that it has happened again.

What might come as a surprise, though...is how empty this place is.

All around you there's nothing more than a large, gray, featureless expanse. In the distance there seem to be bars, curving upwards to gather so, so high above you, possibly hundreds of miles above, so high it’s hard to distinguish.

It’s a cage. So unfathomably large. You could escape, were you to get to the edges of the cage, but...it would take forever. No matter how you look at it, you're trapped. The atmosphere is so...hopeless. Devoid of anything even remotely positive.

Not that you want to hang around for long, do you? After all, this is someone's palace. Not a place to stick around at. What to do, though?

It’s all so...empty. Silent. Featureless. A flat expanse of hard gray tiles.

Gather together, everyone. Gather and choose a direction. North, East, West, South. All directions look completely identical, but could it affect your time in this place, somehow? Probably not. But all treks start with the first step. Perhaps, if you get moving, you'll progress?

Comments

[bloodweapon]

[Okay, well between Sayaka's retaliation and the poor girl's confusion, it seems pretty clear that this is not Mafuyu, just something that looks like her. Fray can roll with that! He can also dodge the bottle of lye, wtf. Thankfully it doesn't hit Sayaka either...

Anyway, he retaliates with Thunderous Rage, aiming to take this shadow out quickly (11).]

[destage]

[Oh, Sayaka positively sees red when Mafuyu tries to throw poison at Fray. She attempts to follow up Fray's attack with another Giant Slice (9)...

And misses, but hey, it's at least better than the 2...??? She's learning!]

[kandata]

[Thunderous Rage, effective! Mafuyu is struck, and she's stamped onto the ruins of the shelves. Gritting her teeth, Mafuyu stands up, axe held, and decides to do a dangerous physical move.

Rampage!

Mafuyu throws herself onto them, swinging the axe around recklessly. She's not even trying to hit with the blade, she's just trying to hit with the axe, whether it's with the head or with the handle. The axe hits the wall, hits Fray, hits a shelf that's sticking at an angle, smacks Sayaka, and spins around.

Mafuyu is going berzerk!

.......

Bearzerk!]

[bloodweapon]

[not the bear puns..... they're unbearable........

Anyway, ow? Ow. Very rude of her to go bearzerk on us like this. Fray's going to slam down another Thunderous Rage on her to hopefully put a stop to whatever's going on here before they can get hurt even more (17)!]

[destage]

[The state of affairs is pawsitively unbearlievable. Sayaka glares, but does her best to focus. Trying to get a good gauge of when to attack...

Come on, Sayaka. Just like Fray!

And this time, her follow-up attack manages to land true, attempting to outright stab Mafuyu (15). Time to stop this bearzerker by force!!!]

[kandata]

[It's for sure that Monokuma has seen the way everyone has fought facsimiles of their and Kirumi's mutual friends and acquaintances and having a grand time, because this sure is quite the sight. Fray's Thunderous Rage hitting, and then Sayaka using her recent stabbing skills to hit Mafuyu.

That's definitely enough to stop this rampaging Shadow! The axe fall to the ruins, and Mafuyu explodes in a puff of smoke, instead...

...there's this weakling. No more axes for it!]

[bloodweapon]

[Fray doesn't sheathe his sword, but he does pause, head tipped to the side.]

...What is this?

[Sayaka, do you have any clue what this is, because he sure doesn't.]

[destage]

[Sayaka doesn't sheathe hers either, though she seems highly confused herself. Uh...]

This isn't something that's ever existed where we come from. Should we finish it off, or...?

[...It looks kind of pathetic, she almost feels bad for it...]

[kandata]

[Wow, it's so unimpressive it even made them stop to ponder what they were even seeing! Rude! The demon just slumps over, flat and demoralized, although not without grabbing a stray sponge with its paper tendrils and lobbing it at Sayaka's face.

Well, at least it hit, it was an 11 roll, but also it's a sponge]

[bloodweapon]

[..............

You mess with Sayaka, you get the sword. Fray wastes no time in slamming his sword into that poor demon to put an end to it. (20!)]

[destage]

[...

Sayaka does not even put that 10 she rolled to use, she just kind of stares at what's definitely a very dead paper demon and gives Fray a Dia for his troubles. Holy shit, rip in fuck little guy.]

Fray, are you going to be okay?

[...wait...she thinks for a second...]

Weapon...maybe that axe was the weapon that note was talking about...?

[bloodweapon]

I'm fine, yes.

[Here's a Diarama as well for Sayaka!]

Do you think so? Let's take a look at it.

[Now where's that axe... is there anything to note about it?]

[kandata]

[The axe looks like a run-of-the-mill axe. Doesn't seem like anything special.

...that said, Kirumi has been using an axe during excursions into Nekyia, hasn't she? And into palaces. Maybe nowadays she associates axes with weapons, first and foremost...

While they hold the axe, Kirumi and a boy appear nearby. They don't seem to notice a thing about the storeroom. They have to talk to each other, after all.

They're having a conversation.

When it ends, Kirumi and the boy vanish. That's when Fray and Sayaka may notice something written on the axe, with Kirumi's neat handwriting.

'A maid like myself is not a weapon for anyone's behalf, but lately, I have started to think that if it is for people I care about, fighting is the least I can do. For them.'

There's...also a key carved on the handle of the axe. A bit of a curious thing, to have a carving on this wooden axe handle.

Looks like you're done here!]

[bloodweapon]

[Kirumi the supermaid... She certainly is quite impressive, isn't she?

Fray takes notice of both the words on the axe and the key carved into it, pointing them out to Sayaka.]

Look, these seem important.

[So Kirumi wants to fight for the people closest to her... Well, they'll make sure to fight for her too.]

[destage]

[Sayaka listens to that memory and honestly, she's genuinely shocked by it. The idea that Kirumi could fight so effectively for the sake of her master, getting his daughter back so effectively...honestly, Sayaka can't help but go a little starry eyed, though she tones it down a little bit.]

Tojo-san...you've always thought about how to best help everyone else, never even once selfishly thinking of yourself...

[She pauses when Fray points out the handle and the words on the axe. Were these Kirumi's true feelings? She can't help but smile a bit.]

Do you think we should bring these with us, then? I'll help you carry it if you need to...hopefully the others haven't run into any trouble.

[bloodweapon]

Yes. I wonder if they had to deal with other facsimiles of those we know...

[Yeesh. Only one way to find out! Ready to take that axe along, Sayaka?]

[destage]

That's a good question--I doubt Monokuma would've just done it once. Let's get moving, then.

[To the catherd with axe in hand!!!]

not interrupting

[kandata]

[Not interrupting their discussion, but just like with the other three fights, there's the sound of a camera taking a picture, and from the ceiling a bundle of cloth falls.

But turns out not to be a shirt, instead it turns out to be a bill. The reason marked there is 'wanton destruction of storage room'. The amount specified is outrageously high.

As if anyone will pay this bill, knowing who this likely came from]

[destage]

[Sayaka takes one look at that outrageous bill, pauses, crumples it, and elects to put it in her pocket.

She'll throw this at Monokuma's head later!]