Screenshot Dakota's War Journal (Semiblind Fire Emblem Fates RP/LP) (Send me your castles!)

[Alastor15243]

Right, I'll be back to a regular schedule tomorrow. Thanks again to everyone who's been visiting my castle, I really appreciate it.

Edited April 8, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Entry 11

Laslow: Azura... how are you holding up?

Azura: ...How do you think I'm holding up? “Father” learns I've been “rescued”, and literally the first thing he does is send me on a mission where... oh gods... all those people... even the civilians... I... I wanted to look away, but I couldn't... why... why did he...?

Laslow: ...I don't know what to say, other than that I'm sorry you had to see that...

Azura: ...Well... I guess you understand now.

Laslow: ...Understand what?

Azura: Why you should give up on this mission you're on to make me smile. It's not going to happen. Not as long as I'm in this wretched country.

Laslow: ...

Azura: I thought I had escaped this place forever. I thought I had found a new home. And then the war hits a fever pitch and they kick me out and force me back into the hellhole I came from! How do you stand living in this place, Laslow? Take one step outside West Dakota and look around! This damned kingdom is as ugly as its ruler's soul! I hate everything about it! I hate the barren fields, the eternal night, the poison swamps and hostile wildlife, every part of this kingdom oozes malice from its every pore! There's no kindness! No warmth! No-

Laslow: …

Azura: ...Laslow... what's wrong with your eyes?

Laslow: I... didn't get any sleep last night.

Azura: ...You too? What we saw hit you that hard too?

Laslow: I fear you are giving my subconscious too much credit, milady. My night terrors were of something far more selfish. Now if you'll excuse me, it looks like you wish to be alone.

Azura: ...Laslow...

...

Dear War Journal,

As you could probably tell were you capable of any independent thought at all, morale is not high. The attitude expressed in the above conversation was quite typical around camp. Most of my soldiers are horrified by the absolute slaughter we saw the other day. The ones who approved of my no-killing policy were severely disheartened to see that our victory still came to spill untold gallons of blood.

...Thankfully this discontent is not aimed towards me, which means I may be able to use it to my advantage. But I must report to Garon first and weigh my options. However, I still have a few errands to take care of.

In an effort to make Nyx less creepy, I outfitted her with a bear hat. ...I'm not exactly sure the desired effect has been achieved.

Strangely, I visit one of my trade partners' castles, and the castle has been renamed, and the demeanor of the castle's master has changed. It's hard to tell since his message was so cryptic, but it seems like he's trying to set up some sort of business transaction with his neighbors. I... believe he wants me to give him an accessory?

I've got like three of these things I'm not likely to use, so sure.

…That's strange... I still have them. So wait... accessories also work like resources? Dimensional phase duplication or whatever? I can give people gifts without any personal loss?

That settles it then:

EVERYONE GETS TO BE A PRINCESS.

Upgrades all around, most importantly to the two main shops!

In addition to the modest increase in our allowance of the various seals, we now have a much wider selection of fancy Nohrian staves to purchase.

No rescue rods though.

DAMN YOU PERCY.

On the weapons side, we finally get access to killing weapons!

Just a little longer, or possibly longer than that if I choose to save the arms scroll, and Arthur will be a critting machine.

I try out the new kitchen by having Mozu combine fish and milk to create a double-decker speed bonus, but sadly it was wasted when I discover my soldiers would've gotten the +2 anyway, and the third speed point does not apply. Everyone got 1 more skill though, I guess.

Benny asks for my help to be less terrifying to everyone, and I suggest this ridiculous hat I had lying around. Much better!

Right, time to speak with Garon. Ooh! That delightful theatre again! Maybe I'll actually get the opportunity to watch a nice show this time. Time to put on the ol' game face.

Perfect.

Garon: Dakota. You have returned.

Dakota: Yes, Father. I suppose you'll be wanting my report.

Garon: There's no need. I heard about what happened at Cheve from Hans. He has told me great things about your performance.

Dakota: ...Oh? And what might he have said?

Garon: He told me you aided him in the execution of the rebels and civilians. That you relished in the bloodshed and the opportunity to bring about my judgment.

Dakota: Oh! Well then I'm afraid Hans has exaggerated, Father. I did not actually personally take part in the slaughter. I felt no need, what with the army there to do it for me. I saw nothing to gain and only potential losses from joining in.

Garon: ...Dakota... why would you tell me this?

Dakota: Because that's what you would do.

Garon: Explain.

Dakota: Surely, Father, you know better than to give blackmail material to a man who tried to kill you. Better to be upfront than to give Hans any power over me.

Garon: ...I see...

Dakota: One more thing, Father. I doubt Hans noticed this to report it to you. There's something odd about the youngest Hoshidan prince. Even odder than him being a filthy Hoshidan dog, I mean.

Garon: Oh?

Dakota: Yes. There appear to be forces at work on him. I think there might be somebody trying to control him. Somebody Nohrian, judging by the feel of the sorcery. I suspect a traitorous group within Nohr is at work.

Iago: ...Hmph.

Garon: ...I see. But traitorous? How can you be sure? They're controlling our enemy. How do you know they are not on our side, or perhaps even working for me? Under orders I have not deemed you yet fit to know of?

Dakota: Oh I seriously doubt that, Father. This... party... whoever they are... is no friend of ours. Or else surely they would not have had Takumi fire his bow upon Elise, unprovoked. Rest assured, Father, should you but say the word, I would happily bring this putrid maggot masquerading as a human being to justice.

Iago: ...

Garon: And what would you do when you caught them?

Dakota: I would shift into dragon form, pin him to the ground, and eat him. Piece by piece. Dickfirst.

Iago: (Uncomfortable wincing sounds)

Dakota: Oh good heavens, Iago, that squawking of yours sounds quite unhealthy! Should we have the servants get you something? A vulnerary? Some water? A cracker?

Iago: I... I am quite fine, princess.

Garon: Iago. The show is about to start. Leave us. I would speak with Dakota in private.

Iago: ...Of course, my king.

Garon: ...Dakota.

Dakota: Yes, Father?

Garon: I will be frank. Hans gave no such report.

Dakota: Yes, that possibility did occur to me as well.

Garon: Explain yourself further, child. Why did you not join in?

Dakota: I have culminated quite the reputation as an equally ironclad but more... shall I say... approachable face of the glorious Nohrian empire. A “good cop”, if you will. An extremely valuable negotiation tool should the need arise. I suspected this would be a good way to form out my own useful niche to be of service to you.

Garon: Then you have critically misjudged the situation, child! I expected far better from you than this blindness! I don't need another “good cop”, I already have four of them! Four children, all failures in spite of my best efforts. You are supposed to be my last chance to raise a successor properly!

Dakota: ...Successor?

Garon: Take a look behind you, through that window into the hallway. Do you see those four guards stationed at the entrance to this private room? See the berserker? She's a convicted serial murderer. The sorcerer across from her is the mother and the wife of two of her victims. The dark knight? A pacifist. The paladin? A former priest who has abused his position of trust in ways that would freeze the blood of lesser beings than I. Now tell me, Dakota, how do you think I got them all to stand next to each other and fight for me? Do you think I did that with compassion? Do you think there's a creature alive who possibly could?

Dakota: ...Of course not. The notion is ludicrous.

Garon: Correct. I didn't do it through inspiring love, or respect, or admiration. Nobody could unite an entire nation unanimously without inspiring one and only one thing: fear. For you see, Dakota... fear is the one price that everyone has. Everyone is afraid of something. Better still... everyone, when you get right down to it, is afraid of the same thing. Death. There practically isn't a soul alive who truly holds no fear for death. And the thing about the truly rare individuals who really hold no fear for it... is that they don't tend to live very long. Don't believe anyone foolish enough to claim there are many ways to unite a country. There is only one way, Dakota. There is only one way to truly unite a country, and that is through fear. This whole country is terrified of me, Dakota, and that is exactly how I want it. For there is no other way to unite the forces necessary to conquer the world.

Dakota: ...I see.

Garon: Now tell me, child... why do you think I want to conquer the world? I'm guessing that in all your years living in Nohr, you have never gotten an answer to that question from anyone.

Dakota: No. And hearing you explain it, it makes perfect sense why nobody knows. They don't need to know. They don't need reasons. They obey. They obey or they die. And yet still, I think I know.

Garon: Oh do you now?

Dakota: Yes. You seek to conquer the world simply because you're one of the precious few who can.

Garon: …

Dakota: …

Garon: (Slow clap) ...Bravo, my child. Yes. Of course that is the reason. It's the only reason worthy of us. For we are the descendants of gods! No, we are gods, Dakota! And pray tell, Dakota... What have we to show for this!? In ages past, the gods moved mountains, parted seas, rent the sky in twain and molded the stars out of fiery molten light with their bare hands! They willed the earth to rise from the seas, and then willed that barren earth to feed and amuse them! They filled the earth with lesser beings for no other reason than to have creatures to marvel at their achievements! And what have we done with this world, this grand legacy our distant ancestors handed to us? What did my father do? And his mother before him? And her father before her?

Dakota: ...We have ruled over it, Father.

Garon: EXACTLY! We have merely ruled over it! Maintained it, like lowly custodians to greatness we could never hope to replicate! The gods have not lived like gods in centuries, Dakota, and we have come to find this somehow acceptable. But I refuse, child! I am a god, and I will never live like a mere man! I will perform my own great work, one our predecessors never even dreamed of accomplishing. I will take every creature on this earth capable of rational thought, and I will teach them to bow to me. All over the world, simultaneously, all the lowly creatures of this world will face Castle Krakenburg and the gods who dwell within it... and kneel in unison like the unworthy dogs they are!

Dakota: …

Garon: ...Or at least that was the plan. Years ago. That naive fool Sumeragi and his impudent bitch of a queen opposed me at every turn, not to take the glory of world conquest for themselves, I could have at least understood that... but to deny that glory to anyone! The idea of gods living like gods offended their pathetic dulled ambitions, and... so many years of my life... squandered in my efforts to end theirs. I have succeeded, and yet... look at me, Dakota. I am not going to be here forever. I have no doubt that Hoshido will be mine in my lifetime, but... I am not so foolish as to think that this continent is all that there is of this world. Beyond the vast oceans surely lie other lands I may never see bow to me. ...Lands I may never see at all. But if I must die, I must die with the knowledge that I have set the gears turning. I need to die with confidence in my heir. And I do not, yet, have that confidence.

Dakota: ...You don't?

Garon: No, of course not. It infuriates me, all of my children turned out more like those filthy Hoshidan royals than like me. Xander is ruled by delusions of chivalry and honor. Leo fights for order and safety. Camilla is a terrific force of nature, but one only stirred into fury to protect those she loves. And Elise... surely I need say nothing more. I'm frankly shocked that saccharine ball of pacifism could bring herself to wield a blunt object. I took you in out of a moment's superstition that perhaps if my own children were too much like the Hoshidan ones... perhaps I could raise a Hoshidan one to be more like me.

Dakota: Father, I am honored-

Garon: Do not misunderstand, Dakota. You are the closest I ever got, to be sure, but you are nowhere close to making me truly proud, child. Were I not so incredibly desperate for an heir I would have had you executed multiple times over by now. But I can tolerate disappointment no longer. Do so again at your own extreme peril. Am I understood!?

Dakota: Perfectly, Father.

Garon: Good. Now be quiet. The performance is about to begin.

… What... What the...? Is that...?

HELP ME PLEASE I AM SO CONFUSED MY EARS ARE BLEEDING BUT MY NIPPLES ARE HARD!

...Damn it all. I had a perfect opportunity. Garon was knocked unconscious by the power of Azura's music. I had my blade at my side. And yet... I heard Iago give the order to chase after Azura, and... I could not allow it. I had the chance, and I didn't take it. Even though everything would have been fine if I had. Azura escaped, got back into her white outfit, and everyone was somehow fooled by this.

...There will be other opportunities. I didn't need this chance last time, either.

Thank your lucky stars, Garon. You will live to see a few more days.

You can offer me the power to rule the world, can you? Dominion over all the land, sea and sky? The knowledge that every rational creature is bowing to me at once? That sounds absolutely fantastic.

One problem, old man:

You killed my parents. I will not take a single step up in this world that comes from kneeling before you.

But for now, you have my permission to keep breathing. I'm going to deal with this assassination force. The window of opportunity is gone. They are fools if they think they can succeed as they are. I might as well stop them for the training and reputation boost.

Leo's joined us in fighting the enemy now, which is fantastic, first and foremost because Leo is fantastic, and secondly because it means I can awaken the Grim Yato when I get a few minutes.

I've been neglecting Peri and Kaze. While I've discovered that Peri's skill sadly does not stack with rallies, she will still be incredibly useful if I can get her to exploit that skill. The first key to this is getting her replicate so she can activate it and still attack. The other is to get her one of Dread Fighter's abilities, which will make it easier to make multiple non-counterattack kills. Besides, having another pseudo-promote can't hurt.

Laslow also got enough training last battle, so I'm having Selena start training too, and then...

...then...

DOGGY!

This magnificent creature must be persuaded to join us immediately! Those vile archers will not touch a hair on his magnificent body!

TO BATTLE, MY SOLDIERS! PROTECT THE DOGGY MAN!

...Oh, and also our glorious and awesome leader who they so brazenly attacked yadayadayada.

BEGIN!

The first and most objectively inherently obvious order of business is to recruit Keaton.

War Journal, I believe I have found my future husband.

WE MUST COMMENCE BONDING THROUGH VIOLENCE IMMEDIATELY.

I send Mozu out to see if the silencer shrine maiden will waste her silence staff on her, and I bait out the first sky knight duo with Silas in the hopes of feeding Selena a kill.

I wind up in this unfortunate predicament. Those fliers are really inconveniently positioned.

Thanks to careful formation and obstacle exploitation I manage to protect Azura in spite of this samurai's ability to pass and the sky knights' ability to fly, but a miss on Silas's part means Camilla must get in on the action to keep Azura from being attacked by the flier Silas was supposed to kill.

I finish off by retreating my northern group of Elise, Mozu, Kaze and Peri, and then having Keaton edge into range of this samurai to start his training.

Keaton is noticeably slower than Kaden for now, but a lot more powerful, and once he gets his speed up a bit, he should be devastating.

BEHOLD OUR MIGHTY MONSTER FORMS AND DESPAIR!

With the initial wave finally cleared out, we have a bit of breathing room to tackle the remainder of their forces.

Best bait that freeze staff user (their shrine maidens are being supplied with Nohrian staves. Do the Hoshidans not question how Kaizo-Kotomi got its hands on Nohrian weapons!?) before any ninjas come to take the... treasure... strewn... about... the theatre?

This assassination attempt has been shockingly pathetic so far. The northern half has been secured, and Kaze unlocks the first chest, getting a seraph robe.

My southern force prepares to take on the mild danger of this enfeeble staff user. After deliberation and examination of movement ranges, I've determined that Keaton can handle it with my assistance.

I wait until the rhythms of the universe grant Keaton better, ahem, “odds”, and then send him to take out the enfeebler in one shot, with two chances. He'll then be able to tank the nearby archers and attack the sky knights no problem. Should this fail, I have Leo on hand to assist.

But nothing goes wrong, so I simply continue the advance.

...Oh dear. This... could be a problem.

I have my troops move back to face this threat while Leo deals with the incoming archers.

I heal up my wounded units with vulneraries and have everyone brace for impact.

The results are...

...Manageable.

I clear out the remaining sky knights before advancing. Arthur gains another encouraging level of speed.

Keaton definitely isn't super fast, but he's really strong and tough, which is very welcome.

Our minimum budget is now 21,500. Damn, I'm building up quite the nest egg.

The leader is guarded by an entrap staff shrine maiden positioned so that the only viable teleportation spot is right in the leader's attack range.

He has darting blow, certain blow and magic counter, but none of these are a significant threat to Keaton in the worst case scenario. And the risk of Keaton getting too far away to be healed is not an issue either when he's with me and my supply convoy.

And Keaton takes the victory! Right, let's see how Garon's going to respond to the “mysterious singer”.

...Oh. I suppose that's one way.

...Yeah, this is a problem. I obviously can't actually follow his orders, mostly because Azura is obviously the singer, and also because that would be a nasty blow to the chances for a lasting peace after the war. And yet any further apparent mercy on my part will have severe consequences, and my siblings do not yet have the courage to defy father...

...Openly?

Leo, you magnificent bastard, those are brilliant ideas! Right, let's get on that. But first... I have a feeling I'm forgetting something.

...Of course.

Excellent! I have a fancy new sword and a fancy new future husband, and an exciting day of political subterfuge ahead of me. Better get a good night's sleep!

Edited April 8, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Guardian]

For some reason, the image on the first page won't load for me, so if you want, here is mine: 16230-24740-81292-20208.

I'll still visit you if possible.

Also happy late birthday

[Nintales]

That was brillantly executed.

I love how you "rewrite" the story to be honest.

And that Keaton part was hilarious.

[BaconBuster]

I'm loving this so far...great work!

Also, you may have noticed a visit to West Dakota by a guy named Jackson...I have beans and lapis if you want, plus a decent challenge if ya wanna fight.

15270-28483 24639-22890

[Alastor15243]

Entry 12

Dear War Journal,

Leo's plans for how to not follow Garon's orders while appearing to follow them seem excellent, but then, Leo had never seen West Dakota when he told me about them. I have confidence he can come up with something even better now that he's in here and working with us for real. I've introduced him to Lilith in the hopes that she can explain to him how these dimensional spacetime forces work, and that he can find some way to harness them to find an awesome magical solution to our predicament. My hopes are high. This is Leo after all. Ideally we need some way to appear to the outside world to be killing people when we really aren't. And then hide these allegedly dead individuals en masse for months on end. A tall order. Venti even. But Leo is Leo, and Leo is extremely excited by this challenge and the opportunity to work with interdimensional forces.

On to other business.

Jakob and Camilla's relationship has been... “progressing”? From what Jakob's said, they're mostly arguing over Camilla's attempts to steal his job. But my intuition tells me they're getting close to starting a real relationship. Somehow.

But more importantly...

Oh Keaton, you magnificent stallion of a wolf of a man. Fortune has smiled upon us both and granted us the tremendous privlege of meeting each other. It is fate, inescapable fate, for us to become one.

COURTING TIME!

I'll let you know how it goes in a bit, War Journal.

Uh... well...

Attempt number one had... less than desirable results. Jakob tells me that, apparently, pinning Keaton to the ground, rending my clothes, and screaming

Dakota: BREED WITH ME FOR OUR CHILDREN WILL BE GLORIOUS!!!

was in fact not the best way to make a first impression. I simply cannot bring myself to believe him. Keaton was faced with the opportunity to father dragon werewolf babies. How does the mere concept of that not set his loins ablaze!?

KEATON! WHY DO YOU SPURN YOUR DESTINY!?

...Thankfully this “faux pas” was surprisingly easy to patch up. Keaton absolutely loves smelly stuff for whatever reason, and thus is the easiest person to get gifts for that I have ever met.

The accessory shop, smithy, prison and hot springs have been upgraded. Just in time, too, as far as the smithy goes.

For you see, I just analyzed my new Grim Yato, and it's just like the Noble and Blazing Yatos, except instead of boosting strength and speed, it boosts defense and resistance, just by carrying it around. That's excellent.

Problem: it's still a katana, and thereby reduces resistance and defense by one when actually equipped. Which means that if I truly want to take advantage of its defensive bonuses, I can't actually use it. That's annoying as hell.

So behold my new weapon: Mahnkschtall. Odin was hanging out nearby while I carved the name into the thing and he made a bunch of bizarre groans and squeaks as I did it. I also bought a levin sword because my magic stat is decent and I don't like being meleelocked.

Our minimum budget is now 20,000. I broke the bank a tiny bit to do this arsenal upgrade, as I've got this odd feeling I'm going to need it. This thing cost me 8,000 gold to make, but it'll be a worthy investment anyway. When I don't particularly need it, I can give it to basically any other sword user on my team. It'll also be a much better weapon for Kana, once she's born again. The Kanato... did not work very well for her in the end.

And no, I'm not saying that I'm just going to name my daughter Kana, although I will. I mean I'm absolutely positive that the exact same child will be born to me, like the dimensional castles I visit indicate happens with everyone else.

...Then again, maybe something will be different. I am a woman this time after all. Maybe Kana will be a boy? ...Kana's still a good boy's name, I'll just wait a few “years” before naming them and work out which one looks more like me.

Oh, and with axe forging on sale, I saw an unused steel axe and forged Camilla her own special weapon because she totally deserves one.

I experimented with multiple meals, but sadly it seems only the effects of the most recent meal have any impact, even among those who don't even eat the second meal. Odd. Well, I have a feeling the strength will be important.

It occurs to me as I'm walking around the outskirts of Cyrkensia that I haven't really talked to Azura since that incident. I haven't confronted her about the song yet, mostly because for whatever reason she doesn't want me to know it's her. Either she's a transparent, terrible liar, or that really wasn't her. Somehow. Like, maybe she has a twin? Or something? Whichever explanation it is, I trust her, and I assume she has her reasons for her secrets, so again, I will not confront her as of yet. Especially since such confrontations could be overheard.

Oh! There she is! I wonder what she's doing out here in the middle of-

…

...The lake is glowing like some kind of... portal...

...Where the hell is she going? Is she going into uncharted territory on her own!?

WITH HER PATHETIC HP AND DEFENSE?

HELL NO, WAR JOURNAL!

Brace yourself, we're going in after her!

...Wow... where the hell are we?

My magical map gives... decidedly confusing answers to that question.

Dakota: No way, Azura. Absolutely not! If this place is dangerous, it's the absolute last place you should be on your own. I'm coming with you.

Case in point! Well then, let's just-

...Hm?

Gunter! You're still alive? But you fell into the bottomless canyon!

...That two other people I know of fell into.

...Without dying.

...I guess if there's no bottom, you can't really die from the fall... maybe...?

But in any case, War Journal, it would appear that this is the lair of the Purple Ones. Their homeworld. And Azura just walked straight into it and expected that to be okay.

...Something's going on here, but there's no time for that.

We've got a battle on our hands. Gunter, a support unit, and me against an army. Ah, this brings back memories.

But there are two twists this time around, War Journal.

First off, the three of us will be able to use this dragon vein to temporarily grant ourselves the power to use Replicate, to deal with this other island. Curious. I wonder if this has anything to do with how Kaizo-Kotomi imbues skills.

The second twist is that this time our support unit can't actually heal. So I send a message back to base to have everyone send all their healing items into the dimensional pocket convoy for our use. Hopefully we won't burn through all of them.

Anyway, there's really not much preparation to do here other than to tonic myself up with HP, strength, speed and defense.

Begin.

I set up the replicas posthaste.

While Gunter has improved far more than I would have thought, I have no intention of using him in the long term. I think he's earned his retirement, so he's just gonna help buff me up in guard stance and maybe assist in some dual strikes when necessary. But between him, the tonic, Grim Yato and my Nohrian blade, I am pretty much indestructible.

...Apparently there is one thing that cannot be replicated by the replicate ability, and that is Azura's ability to sing to reinvigorate. This other island will have to be conquered without that power, which is... unfortunate. But it does vindicate the fact that I ultimately decided not to pair her with Kaze to get replicate, so I'm glad I found this out. I just wish it could have been at a less dangerous time.

This obviously means the bottom half will have to be tackled separately, with attack stances, in order to minimize the enemies who can attack us. I'd also like to take down the ninjas before getting hit by their shuriken.

It's to this end that I exploit a dual guard to get the counter-drop on this incoming Ninja on the top half. Thankfully with Gunter's pair up bonuses everyone can outrun everyone here so we can retreat a bit if we get swarmed.

Step 17 on my path to greatness.

I manage to find uses for Replicazura.

...This is a bizarre feeling. It would appear I've taken the 18^th step on my path to greatness.. through my replica. Odd. But I can't complain about the results.

Anyway, it seems that I failed to avoid getting hit by the ninjas, but as their debuffs don't stack, I can still handle them on my own with little danger.

...Yep. Definitely approaching retirement time.

...I will admit I'm not liking how non-tanky I'm shaping up to be. I'll see how it works out when I switch to some other classes soon, but I'm not shaping up to be as amazing as I was last time at the moment, particularly in the defense department. But enough about the negatives.

Let's see what the Nohrians have in store for my promotion!

…

Oh.

...Oh.

...Oh YES!

FRIENDS! ENEMIES! MEN! WOMEN! GODS! MORTALS! ALL OF THE COSMOS AND TIME AND SPACE! BOW TO YOUR GLORIOUS PRINCESS OF DARKNESS!

Oh I am going to miss this outfit so much when I reclass to learn some new techniques.

All that remains is the leader. And while I can't have Replicazura sing for Replikota, I can have Azura sing to me and that passes on the stat bonuses at least.

Just as I suspected, the Purple Ones have access to special weapons of both Hoshidan and Nohrian styles.

Too bad none of it can save them from me.

Nice, this will definitely be a high-demand item for anyone not me.

And with that, victory!

Alright Azura, let's talk.

Uh-huh.

Fascinating. So then, I have to wonder, why did she never share any of this with me when I was fighting alongside Hoshido!? Garon double-crossed Gunter almost as much as he double-crossed me, surely he wouldn't refuse to fight alongside me (not that I would've used him, but still, it doesn't logically add up).

...Oh... Oh... I... I see... that's... well...

...Right. I see. Well, apparently we had to choose between going the long way and leaving Gunter behind.

...After much deliberation I decided to use the bottomless canyon.

YOU DON'T SAY.

...Right, enough of this secrecy about my origins. Suddenly having so many secrets between us has made that seem kinda silly. I tell her everything. About the first attempt at ending the war. About my trip back through time. About my existing plans. Everything I remember. Which is... most of it.

Azura: Your... your plan has been to kill Garon this whole time?

Dakota: Uh, yeah. Pretty much. Actually, killing Garon is, amazingly enough, the easy part. The real problem has been to do it cleanly.

Azura: ...How many people died?

Dakota: ...Do you really want to know that?

Azura: ...No, I suppose I don't.

Dakota: The point is, I want to kill Garon without losing any of my siblings, and I want this idiotic war to be over as soon as that's done so we can simply live in peace.

Azura: What can I do to help?

Dakota: I'm not sure at the moment. I need to come up with a plan. Mostly I just need to stall for time until I'm strong enough to kill him, and then do that when he's at his most vulnerable.

Azura: ...What did you use to kill him last time?

Dakota: The Yato, after being empowered by both the Hoshidan holy weapons. And Ryoma's Raijinto, he used that on him too. ...Oh, and a silver shuriken. But that didn't actually weaken him like I hoped.

Azura: ...No, really, what did you use?

Dakota: That is what I used.

Azura: Oh... oh no. Dakota. Please. Tell me. When you fought him last time... did I say anything about seeing a purple aura emanating from his armor? Anything at all?

Dakota: ...No... ...Why do you ask?

Azura: Dakota, how did you go back in time again?

Dakota: Lilith used some special dragon veins in my castle to-

Azura: Oh no. OH NO. Dakota, this is very, very bad.

Dakota: Oh come on, out with it, how bad can it be?

Azura: (deep breath)

Fuck.

FUCK.

FUCK.

FUCK!

WHY!? HOW!?

This...

Azura is absolutely right. This is very, very bad, War Journal.

Remember my rapidly-vindicated theory that the Purple Ones had something to do with the Hoshidans being stronger in this timeline?

My theory is absolutely correct.

But that's not the only party they've been empowering.

Remember my other theory, that Garon has been in league with the purple ones this whole time?

That other theory also appears to be correct.

Garon's got new armor now, War Journal. Powerful armor. Extremely powerful armor.

As in completely and totally and in all conceivable ways indestructible, War Journal.

The Purple Ones... Azura knows something about them, War Journal, but for some reason she can't tell me. I don't know why, but I have to trust her. But importantly, Azura thinks that, while they don't know who has gone back in time, or what happened in the previous timeline, they know somebody has, and they, or rather the few among them capable of rational thought, are taking some rather extreme measures to keep history on its original grisly course.

...Of course. Of COURSE! The weapons and skills I've seen haven't been a concerted effort to spite me personally, it's just been a brilliant effort to cover their bases to deal with this mystery time traveler with what little knowledge they have about the threat to them!

They've supplied the Hoshidans with powerful weapons, skills and strategies to stymie the efforts of any Nohrian time travelers...

...And they've supplied Garon with indestructible armor to make the help they've given the Hoshidans not hinder Garon at all in the end, and also render the efforts of any Hoshidan time travelers useless.

...It's perfect.

...It's foolproof.

...I... I never believed in the word “impossible”, War Journal, but now that I've actually been introduced to the physical manifestation of it...

...I still don't believe in it.

I am Dakota Waterstone Vendelgate of Nohr! I have beaten dizzying odds, won flawless victory after flawless victory, slain dragons and gods, and sailed through the fabric of time and space itself! There is no such thing as impossible, War Journal, only the pathetic, shallow illusion of it, and I will prove it once and for all!

I will find a way to kill Garon, War Journal. I swear it here and now!

...I will need some serious help.

But I know where and how I can get it.

I just need to wait for the whole family to get back together.

[spoiler=Out of character comments on the chapter]

Oh goodness.

Oh gee.

Uh... that's an ...er... unexpected plot twist and all...

But, y'know, my efforts to make Garon more interesting last chapter have kinda rendered this part of canon impossible to stick with.

...So... yeah... not gonna do that.

Stay tuned to find out what I'm actually gonna do.

Just letting you guys know, there's going to be a significant surge in my workload for the next week or two, so I may not be able to update daily for a little while, but I'll complete stuff when I can.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Entry 13

[spoiler=West Dakota Preparations]

Lilith: ...An heir? He wants you to be his heir?

Dakota: That's the gist of it.

Lilith: But... but that makes no sense! He's tried to kill you multiple times!

Dakota: Lilith, that's how he does things. Every punishment Garon gives out is a risk-reward assessment trial calculated to perfection.

Lilith: ...I don't follow.

Dakota: Whenever somebody does something he doesn't like, Garon's thinking to himself: “how useful does this person have to be to me before they're worth the trouble?” His punishments are brutal, draconian... and specifically designed based on the answer to that question. He makes a lethal example of those who defy him while still getting to make use of anyone who proves to still be worth his time.

Lilith: How do you know this?

Dakota: He said something to that effect... one time when I was eight... and the pattern has held true ever since. But the point is, I defied him by refusing to kill Kaze and Rinkah. His response? Send me on a suicide mission to Hoshido to simultaneously get rid of a loose end and kill the one person truly standing in the way of his ambitions.

Lilith: ...But you survived.

Dakota: Yes. Truth be told, I don't believe he was truly considering that outcome this time. He wholly expected me to die, and with me his dreams of ever continuing his imperial legacy. So imagine his shock when I came back to him alive. Still apparently loyal to him.

Lilith: He didn't believe it for a moment.

Dakota: Of course not. And yet... what choice did he have? Give up on his lifelong ambition to propel the Vendelgate name into the realm of world domination a second time? The only tolerable outcome to him was that I was willing and able to do what he wanted of me.

Lilith: ...So he tested the “able” part.

Dakota: Yes. I'm still quite certain he doesn't trust me any further than he can throw me. He's going to make me personally do as much of this conquest as possible to see if I have the nerve.

Lilith: ...This isn't sounding pleasant.

Dakota: Oh I haven't even told you the worst part.

Lilith: ...What?

Dakota: The Purple Ones have given Garon some shiny new armor he didn't have in the last timeline. As far as we know, he's completely invincible now.

Lilith: That... is not good, Dakota.

Dakota: I'm well aware of that, thanks.

Lilith: No, I mean it's even worse than you already think.

Dakota: ...Don't do this to me, Lilith.

Lilith: You know how I sent you back in time? ...There's a reason why I didn't come to you at the moment it became clear that world had become FUBAR.

Dakota: Oh no.

Lilith: Yes. Even in the previous timeline, Garon had been gaining power from his alliance with the Purple Ones. He's absorbed energies... not of this world. Energies of a similar yet wholly alien form to those of the Astral Plane this castle is in. His very being functions as something of a temporal anchor, and for as long as he breathes, the temporal veins are useless. If you fail to kill Garon, I can't give you a mulligan on it.

Dakota: …

Lilith: ...I'm sorry. I didn't mention it before because it was your entire objective, I didn't think something like this would happen.

Dakota: It's... not your fault...

Lilith: Dakota, I have to ask... what are you going to do?

Dakota: I'll come up with something.

Lilith: ...You always do, I suppose.

Dakota: I just need a little more time.

Let's move onto some... marginally good news, shall we?

...Wasn't... she... supposed to be covering for Jakob at the castle? And I've been in Nohr most of this journey, why the hell would she have to...

...Never mind, I don't have the time to understand this.

The point is, Felicia's back. This wouldn't be that much cause to celebrate, except that with Camilla and Jakob slowly becoming an item, she's the only magically-gifted single woman in my group who neither looks nor is twelve. As such, she's basically the only option any male magic user has for a genetically viable wife. I've outfitted her with my magical hidden weapons since I might as well, nobody else can make any real use of them. She should actually be fairly strong until she caps out, and hopefully by then I can bring in whichever child she mothers to replace her.

I gave Azura an accessory when she asked for one. She looks okay, I guess.

I met two new trade partners, one of whom spoke a language completely and totally alien to me.

The arena's been upgraded, and Peri won us four sapphires, which is pretty nice I guess.

Maybe the next battle will help me clear my head.

I prepare for it by having Elise cook some poached fish, and the effects are excellent and affect most of the planned important star players of this upcoming battle.

I've also ditched Mahnkschtall for the time being, as it would probably be more useful in the hands of one of my weaker sword users I need trained. I'm instead using the inventory space to start practicing with tomes. Damn I forgot how weak these things start out. Whatever, I'm well ahead of my soldiers, I won't be doing too much heavy combat ideally, I'd like to train the others.

Speaking of which, I should probably assess my long-term soldier options, as I'll probably need to settle on them soon.

I, of course, am a given. I may not be as tanky as I used to be, but I have a few dracoshields to patch that up if necessary, and I plan to go through great knight for Luna which should help a bit.

Mozu too is a shoo-in. I mean... fucking look at her. She's an unstoppable dark engine of vengeance and justice and vengeance again. To even suggest dropping her would be as comprehensible an action as shitting into one's own hand and wearing the resulting payload as a hat.

And then there's her husband. Objectively inferior in just about every respect though he may be, I'm kind of stuck with him, and I still have... a reasonable amount of confidence that if I train him up a little bit more and get him to promote and gain C rank in bows, he'll be an offensive force to be reckoned with. Fuck their son though, he won't be seeing much action at all.

Jakob is... not shaping up to be remotely viable long-term. He's close to learning the level 15 strategist skill, “inspiration”, a very useful aura, and I'll at least get him that far. Forget my plans to class change him into Wyvern Lord, he's not going to last that long. I'll have Camilla do that to get Rally Defense and then their kid can just inherit stuff.

Elise is great. Her defensive ability has saved my sexy ass on multiple occasions, and she's also a fantastic healer. The only real downside is that I can't get her married to anyone because she's twelve years old and nowhere near physically or emotionally mature enough to be subjected to pregnancy, warp or otherwise, under any circumstances. She's got a solid place in this army.

Azura is an obvious keeper. Her music is absolutely crucial, and I've already used those magic boots on her.

Camilla too is obvious. Once I promote some of my weaker soldiers she'll be seeing some serious active use.

Selena is not the best at the moment, but that speed stat is quite promising, and she has plenty of room to grow. Plus, she's a member of a cool class I'd like to have among my ranks.

Silas... I don't know if I'm feeling him this time around. Mostly because literally everything he can do, Xander will be able to do better, and I want to have a diverse team with a wide variety of niches. I can only bring so many soldiers to battle after all.

Yeah, Laslow definitely stays.

My wildest hopes have been realized, War Journal. Just when I thought I couldn't be any more enamored with Keaton, I discover that he has the subclass and social chemistry to give Laslow access to berserker, and therefore Rally Strength. Laslow will promote to bow knight to get Rally Skill, then partner seal with Azura into her sky knight subclass for falcon knight's Rally Speed, and then friendship seal with Keaton to get Rally Strength.

When I'm through with this training process, his dancing will imbue everyone nearby with +5 speed, +5 strength, and +4 skill, which is fantastic.

But better still, I can then finish off by having him don the mighty mantle of the Giant Mechanical Lion and have him be able to rally in two places at once, or rally while still getting in on combat. There's no way I'm dropping this guy, War Journal.

Speaking of Mechanists: Kaze and Peri, while in severe need of training, have bright futures ahead of them as a Replicate strike force towards our journey's endgame scenario.

Oh, Keaton. Keaton, Keaton, Keaton. Need I say literally anything more?

No. No I need not.

Leo, while not quite practical to train yet, will definitely be seeing future action.

...Odin... looks like he'd shape up to be decent... it's just a question of space. I can't currently field all of the units I want to train, and I don't want to spread my forces too thin... but then again, I want a dedicated sorcerer to use the S rank tome I'm sure to find on my travels.

...Admittedly it's a crapshoot whether I'll actually get that tome, and then it'll be another crapshoot if it'll be like the incredible Pursuer and Chakram or the nigh-useless Hagakure Blade and Waterwheel, so should I really be basing my use of a soldier on that distant gamble?

...No. No I should not. If it turns out to really be that good I'll have Leo reclass to sorcerer and use some arms scrolls to get him the weapon rank.

Due to some awesome donations from extradimensional trade partners, I've now given Elise both an adorable fox tail and a new rescue rod! Excellent! Speaking of which, time to spread some more accessories around!

Yeah yeah that's wonderful to hear and wait what.

I wait what why.

...Ohgodsit'shappeningagain. What is that sky voice talking about!?

So, uh... these... things... apparently I... made them? With the power of... “f r i e n d s h i p”? I just... I just gave some people some cute accessories at no personal cost to myself...

...Maybe that's why these “friendship babies” are so... how shall I put this...

...Touched in the head?

They seem to be perfectly competent in a fight, or as competent as a level one unit can be expected to be, but whenever not given explicit orders related to combat, they just kinda... flop around. That's the only way I can describe their movements. They're like something decidedly non-human... I'd go so far as to say non-mammalian... wearing human skin. And the fact that one of them appears to basically be my male form with slightly different markings just makes this all the more surreal. Just a few minutes ago I ran into the three of them by the cabbage patch stacked up in a three person pile blowing spit bubbles and wriggling like fish.

...They royally creep my real soldiers right the fuck out. I have absolutely no idea what to do with these things, War Journal. They don't appear to require food or water, or even sleep for that matter, so I'm thinking of just stuffing them in a closet somewhere until I need them.

...Not that I really expect to.

Bizarrely, they seem to have a wide collection of useful skills (one of them even somehow has a soldier skill as a personal one), but no real means to get more of them. And unless I can somehow find a way to harness these skills without actually training the units, that's not really that much of an asset.

...Ugh. Let's just get on with Garon's next mission for me.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Entry 13

[spoiler=Battle]

Garon has apparently occupied Cyrkensia during my trip and plans to launch the invasion from there. The locals are, of course, too terrified to refuse. Really, the political stance of Nestra seems to generally be “Appease and entertain Garon and maybe he won't crush us like bugs”. I deflected questions from Iago regarding my long absence by telling a series of half-truths about being attacked by a hostile army.

Anyway, we're on our way to Hoshido as we speak. I still haven't worked out how I'm going to get out of this situation, but I know I'm going to need Xander's help, so I must continue this facade for a little while longer, at least long enough until I can get the moment to speak to Xander without him distrusting me.

We're being granted some sizable war funds, actually, from Iago no less. I'm... suspicious, but-

XANDER! AT LAST, THE WHOLE FAMILY IS BACK TOGETHER! Now nothing can stop us!

Alright, it looks like we're in for a bit of good luck. While Leo still hasn't figured out how to deal with the whole “killing people” thing, we have a bit of a rain check before that's necessary. Our current opponents are a band of random Nohrian pirates after our war chest, and it's doubtful that anyone will complain if we get rid of them.

Our objective is to protect the war chest and defeat their leader. But the problem is that their leader hasn't shown up yet.

There are also some Nohrian lancer mooks scattered at the corners of the boat, and, let's be realistic here, War Journal: Look at them. They're fucked. I simply can't save them without doing anything hilariously suicidal. It'll take a miracle for even a single one of them to survive the first few seconds of this battle. No, I'll have to be pragmatic here.

Anyway, as I said, XANDER IS HERE! His speed is... less than fantastic... but holy shit War Journal behold that defense! He just does not give a shit, he's like Ryoma, but more stable, and that's always good to hear. I'd like to see what his subclass is. If it's not mercenary, I want to get him that class eventually, because I think he'd benefit greatly from a few mercenary line skills.

As for this battle: we seriously risk getting swarmed if we don't rush for shelter, so our first priority is taking the west side and clearing it out ASAP so we can use its bottlenecks for cover. The fact that we can't find the boss means there should be more reinforcements incoming, so we'll want to secure a position quickly.

Begin.

Xander and Leo seem to think these pirates are actually Hoshidans in disguise, as is one of our lancers. I've seen stranger things in this timeline, to be sure, so I suppose that's possible.

I see a handful of Hoshidan skills learned by their soldiers, further lending credence to this theory.

There are some Nohrian skills too, but then, the Hoshidans have access to basically all skills, since they have the backing of Kaizo-Kotomi.

At any rate, the pirates are already at the war chest and attempting to empty it completely even as we speak, so we have to work fast and get rid of them. I suppose it's worth our time to talk to the lancers. If they're still alive, that is.

I begin my three-tiered assault on the stem of the ship. Keaton, assisted by my pair up bonuses and special ability, as well as Elise's Demoiselle skill, prepares to take out the fighters and tank one of the dark mages.

Arthur, backed by Mozu, prepares to take out these defense-sealing dark mages on the balcony before they can become a problem. Demoiselle is active on him to help further minimize damage to him, and he's been buffed by Azura's song to bolster his luck since he needs to use a non-bronze bow to one-round them.

Peri, meanwhile, prepares to take out the two dark mages to the north.

Damn it, I can feel them stealing our precious gold even now.

Everything goes off without a hitch... except that the dark mages don't even bother with Peri. Guess I overdid the defensive measures with her.

I see a fantastic opportunity to both train Laslow and build up his relationship with both Azura and Keaton at once.

To the north, I decide to try Xander out since time is literally money right now, and either Selena or Kaze should get the killing blows anyway so it won't be a total waste of experience. Plus having Selena and him develop a relationship would be pretty damn awesome.

We manage to force our way through. I can't decide whether I want the battle to drag out for experience and socializing, or end quickly for money. I suppose I want to kill these guys quickly either way.

Right, Elise, why don't you do the interrogating? We'll come help if anything nasty happens.

...Nothing. But the fact that the enemies haven't bothered attacking any of the lancers basically proves Xander and Leo are right. Obviously they can't kill the commander, but if they killed all the others that would be really suspicious. But then it's still suspicious to leave all of them alive. Right, let's move on.

With the stem basically clear, it's time to send the northern bulk branch of my forces after the stern.

...

I CERTAINLY AM, KEATON.

The baiting attempt attracted more enemies than expected, so a little bit of a retreat is in order.

As for the attack on the stern, I decide I really don't have time and see if sending in Xander will work.

...That's odd. I didn't get my resistance sealed despite that resistance-sealing fighter joining in battle with the sorcerer who survived. I could have sworn...

Anyway, stem clear.

Laslow got a master seal off the sorcerer.

Also, coincidentally, and wholly unrelated to the fact that he just killed a human being, Keaton found some meat.

Lacking any middle-ground between Xander's ludicrous defense and the others' insufficient defense against that unmoving formation, I just send Xander in to start offing people, enfeeble staff user first, and see who attacks him. Not many do, but it's a good introduction to get my other units in there.

Progress on recapturing the stern goes surely but infuriatingly slowly.

So... close... I can almost taste it... Arthur, you'll be amazing soon, I just know it...

Round 2.

Nothing. Again.

It's up to the B team if we can't make it there in time.

Oh don't be such a baby, Selena, this is perfectly safe, you'll win on the counter-attack.

Round 3.

Gods. Damn. It. But it's over now. I've got you, fucker.

YOU!?

Right then, time to take care of this.

NO! NO! NO!

YES! YES! YES!

Right, no screwing this up. No time to fuck around with this one.

I CALL IN THE MOZU... for... surprisingly unimpressive results. Damn he has good speed.

I... I really hope this works.

THANK YOU, XANDER!

Well... that was stressful as fuck.

Damn it.

Knowing Shura is moderately more valuable alive than dead, I elect to spare him. Xander expresses concern at how Garon will react to me sparing and enlisting the man who was apparently Azura's kidnapper. A good concern on paper, but two things:

1: I've yet to see any evidence that Garon gives a single fuck about Azura, and

2: Garon won't know, because I probably won't be using him much, if at all. He'll mostly be an information source.

I asked for the gold back. Not happening, it's already gone.

...Right. Time to the real business. Now that the whole royal family is back together, I have to come up with a way to convince them that Garon needs to go down. If only I had some pr-...

...War Journal... I think I love you.

Elise: Mmmm! This food looks delicious! Who made it?

Dakota: That would be Mozu.

Elise: Oh! ...Her? ...Gee, never would've thought her a good cook.

Leo: Live and learn, Elise.

Xander: I propose a toast! To a delicious meal, a victory most glorious, a family reunited for good at long last!

(Dakota, Elise, Leo, Azura and Camilla all cheer)

Dakota: It's so good to see you all again. And now that the meal is done with... I'm sorry to say I must kill the mood somewhat.

Camilla: Dakota, sweetie, really? Right now? Can't this wait?

Dakota: No, it can't. It can't wait a moment more. What I am about to tell you is probably the most important piece of information you will ever hear in your lives.

Leo: Well, out with it, then! What's this big dark announcement you have to make?

Dakota: Leo... first, thank you so much for this lovely magic journal. It's been of more use to me than you could possibly imagine.

Leo: I should hope so, sister. I made it, I'd expect nothing less.

Dakota: Say, tell me something... You know how you waterproofed it magically?

Leo: Liquidproofed, actually. Oh, and soft-solid-proofed, and then I reinforced it with, oh... about two dozen anti-magic barriers. Nothing can touch or leave a mark its pages but itself. Least of all ink.

Dakota: Ah, I see... so then, it would be impossible to write anything here by hand?

Leo: Impossible for you or pretty much anybody else in Nohr, I should say so!

Dakota: Good, good... what about the magic that identifies the voices in the conversations it records? Any way to fake that?

Leo: Absolutely not. It reads the speaker's soul for the name, not their voice. Once again, you'd need an extremely powerful mage to screw with the enchantments I put into that.

Camilla: Only the best for our sister!

Elise: Dakota, where are you going with this? I thought you had a sad announcement!

Dakota: Leo, let me be upfront: How confident are you that all the conversations recorded in this journal actually took place?

Leo: Completely. Now out with it. What is this conversation you don't think I'll believe?

Dakota: ...Here. Just read this bit...

Leo: …

Dakota: …

Leo: ...“Breed with me for our children will be glorious?” Seriously, Dakota?

Dakota: GO. A FEW. PAGES. BACK.

Leo: Fine, fine, fi-...

Elise: ...Leo?

Leo: …

Camilla: ...Leo, Darling?

Leo: …

Xander: Oh come now, Leo, what could possibly be in there that's so...

Leo: …

Xander: …

Leo: …

Xander: Oh... oh gods. No... no, it's not possible...

Leo: You heard my answer, big brother. And I stand by it.

Camilla: What are you two going on about?

Leo: Sister... we've been fools.

...I've done it, War Journal. I've showed them my conversation with Garon at the Cyrkensia theatre. The one he thought was private. And then I filled them in on everything else. ...As well as the abridged version of my previous adventure through the timestream.

Elise: AAAAAAAAAAAANHHHHH!

And that's Elise... in the corner... crying her eyes out. Poor girl. ...I wish I knew what to tell her.

Elise: (Sob) P-papa doesn't love us...

Camilla: Oh, sweetie, come here...

Leo: I'm afraid it's far worse than that, Elise.

Camilla: LEO! HUSH!

Xander: All this time... All this time... Father's aggressive foreign policies... This entire damned war... It's all just been a mad ego trip!? It's never even once been about the food shortage!?

Dakota: No. If it were, it never would have come to war. I've spoken with Ryoma personally, the Hoshidans somehow never even knew about the food shortage. Garon never brought it up. They would have given Nohr food aid if Garon had simply asked nicely. But it's even worse, Xander. Have you seen Garon's new armor?

Xander: Seen it? I helped test that shady merchant's insane claims that it was indestructible! ...It seems like it really is...

Dakota: Which means that if he wanted, Garon could win this war singlehandedly. But he won't. He's not even lifting a finger. He's putting the majority of the burden on my shoulders. Because he's using this entire war...

Camilla: ...As... as a test. A test of your loyalty. Your skill. Your nerve.

Dakota: I trust you all see now... there's quite literally nothing to be gained from fighting in this war. Nothing at all. Father... father has to be stopped.

Xander: …

Leo: …

Camilla: …

Elise: …

Xander: ...Agreed. This whole war... it's a lethal farce. It can't be allowed to continue. Father intends to spill so much blood... waste so many Nohrian lives...

Elise: ...(Sniff) Hoshidan ones too...

Dakota: So we're in agreement? Father must be overthrown?

Camilla: ...Yes.

Leo: ...Yes.

Elise: (Sniff)... Y-yes... O-on one condition!

Dakota: Yes?

Elise: We can't kill him!

Dakota: Elise...

Xander: No, she's right. Madman or not, he's still our father. And even after all he's done, I'd still like to believe there's some humanity in there somewhere.

Elise: Y-yeah, there has to be! We all have humanity! Th-that's why they call us humans!

Dakota: ...Right. That's... that's fine.

Leo: Oh great, we've agreed on what we'll do after we've won. Now allow me to bring everyone back down to Earth: It's already too late! He's already put on the armor, and I've heard him talking about it, it protects his whole body with magic that even I can't even begin to understand, and he told me he is literally never going to take it off! He's going to keep living, and do whatever the hell he wants with impunity for the rest of his life! We can't beat him, Dakota, it's impossible!

Dakota: Bullshit, Leo! Look at the people we have assembled in this room! We have Xander, one of the greatest warriors in the world! We have you, one of the most brilliant magical minds who has ever lived! We have Camilla, who's almost as good as you two in your fields, and tamed a wyvern at the age of seven! We have Elise, a medical prodigy, shaping up to be very much our equal! And I know you don't know much about Azura, but let me assure you, the power she packs behind her music is incredible. And then we have me. And let's dispense with the falsity of humility: I am goddamned fabulous in every conceivable sense of the word! This is an assembly of some of the greatest people alive today, Leo, and let me remind you, we are standing in a magical pan-dimensional castle that transcends spacetime itself. Think very carefully before you say this is impossible for us. For if you speak the truth... you doom us all.

Leo: ...That's all very inspiring, Dakota, but we don't even know what the hell that thing is made of!

Azura: ...I do.

Camilla: Azura?

Azura: The magic powering that armor... it's not of this world. It's an energy... not unlike the celestial energy of the dawn and dusk dragons, but it's neither of light nor darkness.

Leo: How do you know that?

Azura: I... I cannot say.

Leo: Why not!? This is important, Azura!

Dakota: Leo, please, read this page, but do not say a word aloud.

Azura: Dakota, no!

Dakota: It's alright. The words were already recorded in it. If the curse applied to text, I'd already be dead.

Leo: ...I... I see. Very well. Is there anything you can tell us about it, then? Any weaknesses?

Azura: It... it could be neutralized by an extremely powerful current of both light and dark energy...

Leo: A chaos surge? ...Yes, I suppose that is doable... but with the kind of power I felt emanating from that thing... the chaos surge would have to be huge. No, I don't think huge is really the word, it would have to be astronomical.

Camilla: Oh stop exaggerating, Leo. We're royals, we could easily gain access to a few hundred dark crystals... and Siegfried and Brynhildr are so powerful they might be enough on their own...

Leo: Oh the dark energy would be trivial, yes. But the light energy... Hoshidans haven't made any efforts to channel light directly, they think it dangerous sacrilege! It would take years, decades even just to work out how to channel it. You're asking me to master a science that's basically in its infancy! No, for this to work at all, we'd need a raw, natural source of pure light energy of unimaginable power.

Azura: ...Oh!

Dakota: Azura? Do you have something for me? Please tell me you have something for me.

Azura: The Heaven Vein!

Camilla: ...Heaven Vein? ...Oh! Wait! Is that the Hoshidan version of the Earth Vein!?

Azura: Yes!

Dakota: Okay, I hate to say this, but I'm lost. Can somebody fill me in?

Leo: ...The Earth Vein is a tremendously powerful dragon vein of pure dark energy located directly beneath the throne of Castle Krakenburg.

Dakota: ...I'm guessing that's not a coincidence.

Xander: ...No. It's not. The castle was built around it. Did you never wonder why Castle Krakenburg is built the way it is? The Earth Vein is fairly close to... well... the earth... Krakenburg was built like that so our ancestors could access the Earth Vein while still sitting in a throne room in a high tower.

Azura: The Heaven Vein is the same. Queen Mikoto told me it's in Castle Shirasagi's throne room, directly beneath the throne.

Dakota: So that's why she said the throne has powers...

Leo: Oh! Fantastic! Great idea, Azura! All we have to do is drag Garon, clad in invincible armor protecting him from all damage and knockback, to the other side of the continent and force him onto the Hoshidan throne.

Xander: ...Leo, think for a moment. We don't need to force him.

Leo: ...Oh. OH!

Dakota: ...That's right. He'd do it himself. It's his life's ambition to sit on the Hoshidan throne and declare himself ruler of Hoshido. And then when he does... we'll be ready for him.

Elise: ...So how do we get in touch with the Hoshido royal family?

Dakota: Pardon?

Elise: We have to get them in on this plan, right? From what you said about them, they all seem like good people! They can definitely help us, especially if it's to stop Papa! They can help us fake the war!

Camila: ...Oh, sweetie...

Leo: Weren't you listening when Dakota told us about the first timeline?

Elise: ...Most of it... I... I kinda blacked out when he started talking about all the deaths though...

Dakota: Elise, Takumi is a sleeper agent.

Elise: Who?

Dakota: ...The pineapple-headed sniper who shot at you in Cheve.

Elise: ...Oh. ...He's a what now?

Dakota: Iago's got him under mind control, he's an unknowing spy serving Garon. The only reason I'm still alive is because Iago had an absolutely pathetic imagination for what to do with him.

Camilla: But if he got even the slightest hint of this plan through Takumi... if he even saw us trying to cure him with Azura...

Dakota: It would be over. We'd lose our only chance.

Xander: And that's ignoring the fact that this time, you're not around to intervene, Dakota. Takumi might not be the only sleeper agent anymore. Any of the other Hoshidan royals, any of their retainers... Any of them could be compromised.

Dakota: ...Which means we have to do this... without their cooperation. Meaning...

Elise: ...B-but... but...

Dakota: Yes. To get him to sit there... we'd have to win his idiotic war for him.

Xander: ...Yes... it's the only way.

Elise: But... but...

Leo: Agreed.

Elise: …

Camilla: ...Sorry, Elise, but we don't have any other-

Elise: STOP! STOP, ALL OF YOU! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!

Dakota: Elise...

Elise: LISTEN TO YOURSELVES! I thought we just agreed that this whole war is horrible and we can't let it happen! Now you're saying we have to help him win it!? Seriously!? Is that really what I'm hearing right now, you guys!? We can't just kill hundreds of innocent people just to trick Father into sitting on a chair! We just... we just can't!

Camilla: ...

Dakota: You're right, Elise, we can't. That would make ending the war impossible. The Hoshidans would never forgive us. Ever.

Elise: T-then... then how...?

Leo: ...Ah! I suppose this explains why you've had me working on that project with Lilith, then.

Dakota: Yes. Any progress with that?

Leo: Plenty, actually. If I work through the night I just might be able to finish up the test runs.

Dakota: Are you serious, Leo!? You're the best!

Elise: What's this all about?

Dakota: Elise, if everything goes according to plan, we'll end this war and stop Garon, and nobody will have to die.

Elise: ...Really? N-... nobody?

Dakota: Nobody. Not another soul.

Elise: Oh gods... I love you, Dakota! You're the best big sister ever!

...Ah yes. Princess Dakota Waterstone Vendelgate of Nohr. Legendary tactician. Peerless warrior.

...And the best big sister ever.

Dakota: Then it's decided. From now on, we'll only use our most trusted soldiers. We'll exploit Garon putting the burden on us to have as much fighting as possible be done by us, so we can control who dies. We keep Garon's trust... and we take him down.

Xander: ...For chivalry.

Leo: ...For order.

Camilla: For family!

Azura: For freedom!

Elise: For peace!

Dakota: For Nohr!

All: FOR NOHR!

...I won't let any of your down this time, guys.

...I promise.

Edited April 13, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Ignominious Defeat]

I absolutely love what you did to finish up that chapter! It makes everyone much more interesting characters than the canon story does.

[BaconBuster]

Hey, nice to see you checked out my castle! Great work with the last entry!

[Alastor15243]

Thanks! I tried my best to make the objective of Conquest... seem... sane. Because... if I read it correctly... it kinda... isn't? At all?

Edited April 12, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Ignominious Defeat]

Not particularly, no.

[Alastor15243]

Right, well, this increased workload preventing me from doing daily updates is annoying, but on the plus side, it does give me plenty of time to plan out what I'm going to do storywise for the next few chapters. They're just going to come out at a crawl for the next week or so. Thank you for your patience, everyone.

Edited April 15, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Entry 14

[spoiler=Pre-battle]

Dakota: Here you go, Lilith, eat up!

Lilith: Berries! My favorite!

Dakota: Glad to hear that, 'cause I've got tons of them.

Lilith: Mmmm!

Dakota: Say, how's the progress on Leo's project?

Lilith: Oh, he's finished it! He's so excited to show you, he's right behind that door!

Dakota: Door? There... there wasn't a door there before, was there?

Lilith: Oh no, I used dragon veins to add it in, it's amazing what you can do with the space-warping properties of this place!

Dakota: I see. Right then, I guess I'll just check-

…

…

Dear War Journal,

HOLY SHIT.

I am currently standing in a massive, massive, massive room that cannot possibly fit inside Lilith's little temple. Lilith wasn't kidding about “space warping”. It's a vast network of shelves stretching up several stories, containing rows upon rows of people-sized crystal pods.

...I think I can guess what goes in them Oh look a monkey! Hello Mr. Monkey! What are you doing here? This place is dangerous! ...I think. Probably.

Leo: Nope, not really, sister.

Dakota: Leo! Good to see you in high spirits again!

Leo: Getting to flex my magical genius will do that. But I definitely need a nap after this.

Dakota: I think that can be arranged. So what's this monkey doing here?

Leo: He was one of my test subjects. Look behind you.

Dakota: Ooh! More monkeys in the pods! Hello monkeys!

Leo: …

Dakota: ...Ahem! Right, so, how did they get in the pods? ...And why aren't they moving, like, at all? Did they die in your experiments, Leo?

Leo: To answer your questions in reverse order, “No”, “They're frozen”, and “I attacked them with Brynhildr”.

Dakota: How'd that put them in there, exactly?

Leo: Quite simple, really. You wear one of these magic rings I designed, and then whenever you attack a living creature larger than your fist with any manner of weapon, be it melee, shot, magical, or thrown... they're teleported into one of these pods and frozen in time and stabilized so they'll be weak but not dying...

Fwoosh!

Monkeys: (groans)

Leo: When we unfreeze them. This way we can fight as many people as we want, as fiercely as we want, without them actually dying or us having to worry about transporting them, but nobody else will suspect they're not being killed. Also, since they're frozen in time, we don't have to worry about food or any other basic needs to keep them alive.

Dakota: This is brilliant, Leo! I knew you could do it!

Leo: Save your praise until after you hear about the two unavoidable problems.

Dakota: Alright, let's hear them.

Leo: Number one: The pods can only be unfrozen simultaneously, so we can't let individual people out once we start doing this to people.

Dakota: That's not a problem, the plan is to let them all out at once anyway.

Leo: And the second problem...

WHAM!

Monkey: (screams)

HURRRRRK! Oh gods, War Journal... that was... unexpected. When Leo attacked that monkey... it... I hadn't braced myself for this... it looked like the monkey was being eaten alive from the inside out by eldritch forces. It was... horrible... that poor little monkey...

Leo: Are you okay, Dakota?

Dakota: Physically, yes... I wish you had warned me before you did that to that cute monkey...

Leo: No, you need to understand: that is what the process looks like. That is what everyone who witnesses this is going to see. I've managed to minimize the pain, but I can't make it look any less horrible than that.

Dakota: ...Good. It needs to look like they're dying anyway, and this way we can tell Garon it's to strike fear in our enemies. He'd eat that right up.

Leo: But the point is... the Hoshidans are going to hate us. You are very quickly going to alienate your birth family even more than you already have. I'm sure you got close to many of them during the last timeline, so... I just want to make sure you're prepared for that.

Dakota: ...Thank you, Leo. And don't worry. I'm fine with that. They can think whatever they want of me. I've chosen you over them anyway. I don't mind too much if they wind up hating me. ...Have you told the others yet?

Leo: No, I figured I'd show you first.

Dakota: Alright, I'll gather the others. There's one more thing we have to talk about.

Dakota: And that thing is who we involve with this plan. Obviously secrecy is top priority. We have no way to force Garon onto the throne, so if he gets even the slightest bit suspicious that we're not really following his orders, let alone that we plan to dethrone him...

Xander: Agreed. We can't have any information leaks. Only our most trusted soldiers can be involved in this.

Camilla: I would trust Selena and Beruka with my life. I vote for their inclusion.

Dakota: Feel free to tell Beruka, but I don't think she'll have much part in this mission. At this stage I don't think she'll be able to keep up. As for Selena, I know she's no friend of Garon, and she'd be a great asset, but she seems a bit too secretive-

Camilla: Whatever secrets she may keep have been disclosed to me in full, little sister. I can promise you she would not betray us in a million years.

Dakota: Very well. She's in.

Elise: Arthur and Effie are the best! I want them in on this!

Dakota: Arthur, definitely, he's got quite the future ahead of him as a sniper. Feel free to tell Effie too, but again, I don't think she'll be fighting much.

Elise: Aw...

Leo: Odin and Niles have my trust, of course.

Dakota: I'll keep that in mind. But I'm still on the fence about using either of them.

Xander: And of course I will vouch for Laslow and Peri. Though... I think we can pass on telling Peri about the pod chamber. She'll be... happier that way.

Dakota: Both of them will be great assets. As for me, I will vouch for Kaze, Mozu, Jakob, Felicia, Silas and Keaton. Gunter also has a right to know, I suppose, but he's well past retirement age, so again, no active combat for him.

Xander: That... is an awful lot of people, Dakota. Jakob, Felicia, Silas and Gunter I agree with, especially since Gunter has every reason to hate Garon, and Silas, Jakob and Felicia followed you loyally when you fought for Hoshido... but Kaze is a former Hoshidan royal servant...

Dakota: I informed Kaze about my time travel plot mere hours after I returned to the past. He is completely on board with our mission to dethrone Garon, and has been since the beginning.

Xander: Yes, but my point is that he spent a good deal of time undercover in Hoshido, and we agreed yesterday that just about anyone with any ties to Hoshidan royalty could be a sleeper agent.

Dakota: If he is, we can easily check and dispel him with Azura under the cover story that we're checking for Hoshidan brainwashing. Even if Iago can literally see through Kaze's eyes, that will not make him remotely suspicious, only annoyed. The same solution applies to Mozu, who is also unfailingly loyal to me and, I assure you, is no friend of Garon.

Xander: Point taken for both, then. But Keaton... we barely know anything about him, and the circumstances of the meeting could easily have been arranged by Father-

Dakota: Need I remind you what Garon did to Keaton in the last timeline!?

Xander: Yes, but that was exactly that: the last timeline. Keaton has no memory of any of those events. Father used Keaton to toy with your emotions in the last timeline, he could very easily be doing that again in this one. Garon knows full well that using a canine man as a spy is exactly the way to get your guard down. And if Garon hasn't tried to put a spy in our group at all, I will be very surprised, given how little he obviously trusts you.

Dakota: Ngh! …Granted, big brother, granted...

Camilla: Xander, are you suggesting we may already have a spy among our ranks?

Xander: I am. We can rule out our retainers, as well as Silas, Kaze and Mozu, as well as that Percy boy... which leaves Charlotte, Shura, Benny, Nyx, Landon and Keaton. I consider Keaton to be rather likely. I vote we keep him out of this.

Dakota: Keaton is an absolutely essential component in my long-term plans for this army. I can confidently say we will be much worse off if he is not included in them. I'm not dropping him.

Xander: You've quite plainly established that you have a serious conflict of interest in this. I say we put this to a vote, Dakota excluded.

Elise: No way, Big Brother! This is Dakota's plan, Dakota's castle, Dakota's rules! If she trusts Keaton, I say we all trust Keaton!

Dakota: ...No, Xander's right, we should see what the others have to say.

Elise: Alright then, I vote that this is Dakota's plan, Dakota's castle, and Dakota's rules!

Xander: ...Why is our twelve year old sister part of this “council”? ...Never mind. I've made my opinion clear. Keaton is far too likely to be the spy to be trusted with our plan.

Camilla: I vote we trust Keaton. I'm good at reading anything with a tail, and I'm confident that Keaton's not a bad person. Besides, Dakota's almost as good with animals as I am. I've never met a non-human that Dakota hasn't been able to inspire loyalty in.

Azura: I... am against this. Though I cannot see Keaton as the sort of person who would betray us, the fact remains that he's too much of a dangerous unknown. And... this mission is far too important to leave up to chance.

Xander: ...That leaves it up to you, Leo.

Leo: Very well...

Dakota: …

Leo: Hm... I...

Xander: Yes?

Leo: …I...

Elise: Out with it, Leo!

Leo: ...I believe we can trust Keaton.

Dakota: YES! ...Ahem... very well.

Leo: I do agree with you, Xander, that if I were to place a spy among Dakota's ranks, I would definitely have chosen a wolfskin or kitsune. ...I would not, however, have chosen Keaton.

Xander: Explain.

Leo: Xander, you clearly have not had so much as a two minute conversation with the man. He is far and away the single worst liar I have ever met in my entire life. He can't even pull off a rudimentary tsundere routine without his body language giving away what he's really thinking. If he were the spy, we would already know.

Xander: That could easily be an act-

Leo: Except Dakota briefly interacted with Keaton in the previous timeline and he acted basically exactly the same then too. Are you suggesting that Garon has somehow planned this infiltration across two timelines and yet still somehow is ignorant enough about Dakota's intentions to still require a spy?

Xander: ...Granted.

Leo: However... the fact that he is a terrible liar does make him something of a security risk. I feel it would be relatively trivial to, were he cornered and isolated from the group, interrogate him and figure out the plan. But if he's as important to your plans as you say, Dakota, and if you're confident that you can keep him safe... then I approve his membership. He must be swept for mind control, of course, we have no idea where he's been, which also gives us a good excuse to claim to suspect Hoshidan brainwashing.

Dakota: That's fine. Alright, that'll be it for now. Meeting adjourned.

Dakota: Thank you, Leo.

Leo: Don't thank me. Elise and Camilla hate it when I make you upset. Plus, I meant everything I said there. But I must stress, Dakota, that you must not let Keaton out of your sight outside of West Dakota. He's a weak link in the chain of secrecy, and there will be dire consequences if he is pressed too hard.

Dakota: Understood.

Leo: Good. One more thing... if you can let me take a look at your War Journal later, for about an hour, I can add some improvements to it that I feel will be crucial to this plan.

Dakota: Excellent! I'll stop by later.

Lilith: ...So the plan is just to dethrone Garon? You're not going to kill him?

Dakota: We're going to have him put in prison. Somehow. Not sure how we'll do that with the whole dragon form thing, but Leo says he should be able to come up with something.

Lilith: I thought the whole point of this mission of yours was to kill him, though.

Dakota: ...Ehhhhh... I got my revenge in the last timeline, and it was... way hollower than I thought it would be. Frankly now I just want to let my family live in peace.

Lilith: …

Dakota: Why are you smiling?

Lilith: It's nothing, Dakota. Nothing at all.

Testing, testing...

Yes! It works! Leo's a genius! Again!

Check this out, War Journal: I can now write notes into you with my miiiiiiiiind! Ooooooooooh! Excellent! As Leo explained, and as I agree, this will be crucial now that we're part of a major conspiracy. He also made your contents invisible to anyone I don't want to read you, in case you are confiscated. He said he could have put those features in to begin with, but he didn't think them necessary back when he thought you were just going to be used as a normal journal.

Oh, how times have changed.

...This is it, War Journal. The plot to end Garon's reign of terror has finally begun. It's going to be long and difficult, not to mention messy and unpleasant, but I'm not worried. This time the journey may be harder...

...But this time I have my family beside me.

Right, let's get down to business. Here are the usual renovations. After that...

Kaze, Mozu, and Keaton were all scanned for “Hoshidan brainwashing” by Azura, and they all came up negative. With that out of the way, all of the Nohrian royals, aside from Azura, sat down with their retainers to explain to them the plan. They're all on board with it, thankfully. Then it was my turn. Kaze, already being aware of my goals, was completely on board with the plan. Mozu said... something to the effect of “I will follow you to the gates of hell and through them, mistress”, and Felicia, Jakob and Gunter all said that they would stand by me whatever my decision.

Then came time to explain it to Keaton. He also, thankfully, was on board with the plan, and said it sounded like fun. It was surprisingly easy to convince him considering his lack of involvement with the outside world.

Then came the petting session.

YOUR TAIL IS WAGGING, KEATON, BECAUSE YOUR BODY ALREADY KNOWS YOU BELONG TO ME!

Time to visit some more places. I got another of these freakish creatures, one that looks almost exactly like me. Y'know, maybe I should stop giving out accessories, what on earth am I going to do with these little-

…

BRING ON THE LIVING SKILL CADDIES!

I keep hoping to get some with two high quality special moves, and in some cases I do, but Ren's Clove and Rena's Thorn remain the best I've gotten, with both Astra and Dragon Fang. By the time I fight Garon, I hope to have Luna, Rend Heaven, Quixotic, Nohrian Trust, and Draconic Hex or maybe Elbow Room, which will then grant me a total of four powerful special moves with a 15% activation bonus to all of them when Clove or Thorn is behind me. Admittedly this only grants me one more skill than I could normally hold, but it includes a skill I wouldn't normally have access to, Astra.

While exchanging gifts with trade partners, one of them, Rena, the one I thought only spoke a bizarre unknown language, manages to muster enough of the common language to give me words of encouragement. At times... it's almost like they know what I'm going through.

...And at other times it isn't.

Right, here's how my supplies are currently looking.

As Shura will not be fighting for us, I take his weapons. It would've been nice to know I'd be getting my hands on one of these before I bought one for Arthur...

...But then that's what forging is for.

Also, Xander has access to wyvern rider, which I don't intend to put him in because then he can't use his amazing sword. Guess that means Selena X Xander is a go. Speaking of whom...

...

Sure thing.

I kid, I kid. There, much better. Though her original shoulder shield wasn't half bad honestly.

More bonding with Keaton, this time in the arena.

Some more found items and presents from my ever-helpful extradimensional trade partners. First, this extremely useful shuriken that... apparently belongs to Kaze...? Whatever, it'll be exceedingly useful both until and after Laslow's dance is buffed with Rally Speed.

I also get a cool critical-specializing shuriken for Kaze and a powerful and accurate emergency axe for Camilla.

Finally, my two favorite non-royal Hoshidan weapons, the practice katana and the guard naginata. I was worried I'd never see these things again. Xander will be able to make huge use of the latter once enemies start really getting power crazy (especially since Siegfried's bonuses apply as long as it's carried, not just equipped. Xander, sadly, does not yet have the lance rank for it, so I give him a javelin to help bolster it up. The low might and lack of capacity for double attacking actually work in our favor for now since it'll help him bait and weaken large crowds of enemies... if his defense doesn't completely scare them away.

I expend most of the funds we got from Iago so that everyone close to promoting can have a master seal on hand. Totally worth it. Minimum balance is still at 20,000.

...Right. Time to start our first real mission in the conquest of Hoshido.

Here we go, War Journal. Now the real hard part begins. We've been instructed to meet up with the ninjas of Mokushu. Yes! Finally! Ninjas I won't have to fight! Gods but those shuriken of theirs are annoying. We've going to meet up with Daimyo Kotaro to discuss the route we'll be taking to get into Hoshido.

Sigh. ...Did that “sigh” transfer properly? I'm not used to this whole mental transmission thing. But anyway, of course there's a catch. There's always a catch. Kotaro tells me his people are being attacked from a nearby cave by Hoshidan ninja, and as they're apparently short on troops, we've been asked to help. I suppose we probably should, they are allies after all, and there's no way Garon would disapprove of fighting Hoshidan soldiers. Our team's all been supplied with Leo's rings, so it's safe to get to work on this.

We've just dispatched all of the Hoshidan forces. It was... alarmingly pointless, to the point where none of us really gained any experience from it, but it was tiresome all the same. And I don't know if I'll ever get used to that...transportation method. The others are visibly shaken by it too.

But also... This is all rather odd. Surely enemies this weak couldn't have been that dangerous to the forces of Mokushu, and surely Kotaro can't be this short on troops. Surely-

...Wow. Nice catch, Kaze! ...Right, I should probably say that out loud.

Dakota: Well done, Kaze.

Kaze: Thank you, mil-... Saizo!

Saizo: Brother... so it's true. You really have betrayed your homeland.

Kaze: I am sorry, brother.

Saizo: Evidently not sorry enough. How could you possibly side with Nohr!? And to use those horrible weapons... my gods... those screams... how could you possibly fight for that evil country, brother!?

Kaze: This has nothing to do with Nohr, Saizo. I have sworn that I will not fail Lady Dakota again.

Saizo: ...So that's what this is about. ...You fool. Think about what you're doing. You're enabling Lady Dakota's psychotic love-affair with Nohr! Failing her is exactly what you are doing!

Kaze: ...Forgive me, brother, but I have nothing further to say. I do not wish to fight you, but I will not let you harm Lady Dakota.

Saizo: Fool! Do you honestly think that's why I came here, brother!? We had no idea she was here! We're after that demon Kotaro! He kidnapped Kagero and is holding her hostage even now! We cannot allow him to live!

Oh dear. An assassination attempt on an ally of Nohr. We can't have that, can we? Right, this will be a good opportunity to demonstrate that we mean business and score some loyalty points with Ga-

...

…

…

...Gods damn it.

...Come on, Dakota... think of an excuse... you can do this... wait a second... is that... yes! That's it!

Kotaro: Surely you can't be telling me you take issue with our methods? Hostage taking is an effective strategy, only a fool would-

Dakota: Spare me. I care not for your methods. Take all the Hoshidan hostages you please. But tell me, Kotaro, for I am most curious... Where did you learn those fascinating skills?

Kotaro: Milady?

Dakota: You may not know this about the royal families, but a few members of them, myself included, are blessed with a very special gift: dragon vision, the ability to see and sense things normal vision alone would not normally suggest. For example, when I look at you right now, I can tell how robust, strong, magically potent, skilled, agile, lucky, durable and resistant you are, how far you can move in a given period of time, what your weapons are likely to do in battle...

Dakota: ...And I can also tell what skills you have mastered. And I see two rather... interesting ones at your disposal. Ones I'm quite curious how you obtained.

Dakota: First, I see you've mastered a discipline learned only by Nohrian malig knights.

Kotaro: Dakota, your caution is creeping into paranoia, we are allies with Nohr, of course they shared some of their training with us-

Dakota: And you've also mastered an ability that can only be learned through transforming into a beast-man.

Kotaro: I... I went up into the wooded hills for days, milady, and wrestled bears...

Dakota: Despite both of these skills being well beyond your training bracket? I'm afraid that's not possible.

Kotaro: Y-you... you arrogant westerner, with your rules, maybe in your narrow-minded Nohrian view of the world it is impossible, but I assure you, if you were to open your mind-

Dakota: Were my mind that open it would be inside-out, Kotaro. Do not try to fool me. You've cut a deal with Kaizo-Kotomi. They offered you power, power you could never hope to attain normally. They even gave you a sample. And they promised you more, if you betrayed Nohr and lured its vanguard into a trap. And you, with your cowardly desire to make the Mokushujin the best ninja in the world by any means necessary, the desire that made you burn so much of your competition to the ground... you accepted, and you lured us all into this cave, spinning a tale of being short on forces to make us fight an entire battle on our own to wear us out. And then you would finish us off and blame the Hoshidans for it so you could continue milking your alliance with Nohr. But you chickened out when you saw how powerful we truly were, and how easily we dispatched with the Hoshidan forces. When you saw the grisly fate they met. But I can still sense your soldiers, lying in wait. I can sense their hostile intent... and I can see their movement ranges... just peeking out of the edges of those tunnel entrances, Kotaro.

Kotaro: I... I-I-I...

He's sweating darts, War Journal. Seems I was right.

Dakota: This is most unfortunate, Xander. It would be a shame to lose such a valuable ally.

Xander: A shame indeed.

Leo: Ah, but what value is an ally so easily turned against us, really?

Dakota: Right you are, Leo. Garon would most certainly not approve of their actions here today. Now, what shall we do with them?

Kotaro: ...SOLDIERS OF MOKUSHU! ATTACK!

Dakota: Oh dear. More soldiers with exotic skills. I guess that answers that question. Saizo.

Saizo: Hmph.

Dakota: It would appear our interests have aligned for the time being.

Saizo: A freak accident. It will not happen again.

Dakota: Of course. A truce until we are out of here?

Saizo: ...Rrrgh. Agreed.

Edited August 13, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

[spoiler=Battle]

Ugh... What have I gotten myself into, War Journal? Ninjas everywhere.

High speed across the board. Everyone has locktouch. Anyone could be going for the chests.

None of my units are capable of doubling much of anybody, and even if they could, the ninjas would wear us down significantly. If we're going to take care of these enemies without suffering widespread shuriken debuffs, I'll have to rely heavily on carefully-placed attack stance strikes to off them before they can do anything in response.

I've decided it's time to reclass Camilla to Wyvern Lord.

...She's... rather annoyed that she doesn't get to wear her favorite outfit, and that Marzia has to go without those cute red demon eyes for a while, but it's for the good of the mission.

Caltrops. Slowing, defense-crippling, wounding caltrops everywhere. Thankfully, this conveniently positioned mechanist tells me that mounted units use up exactly three “movement points” to cross it. That is very useful information.

Then we have these dragon veins. These will be both extremely useful and extremely annoying, as they'll allow us to block off enemies, but it will also mean advancing will be tedious at times.

Saizo... Hm...

Hopefully he'll have the sense to retreat if he gets too injured. If not, he'll die for real unless we're the ones who “kill” him. Though I've come to distrust the intelligence of anyone not following my orders. Maybe I can use the dragon veins to keep him in the starting area for as long as possible.

Here's the group and formation I went with.

Begin.

Right after I give the okay to advance, Saizo gives me some information I could have made use of while planning. Damn it.

My first move is to have Arthur bait these ninja, hopefully gaining enough experience in the process so he can promote and we can get that out of the way. Azura buffed him with inspiring song, Camilla's on standby to double attack, and both of them are buffed by fancy footwork, so they're a pretty hefty offensive force. Not having a dual guard partner means he's vulnerable to dual attacks, but I've calculated he can survive even a catastrophic, “I'm wrong about how the weapon triangle works, Arthur criticals to allow more enemies in to attack and the enemy gets off four consecutive critical hits” worst case scenario.

I have everyone else crowd up in the northern tunnel, except for Xander, who switches Percy in front to prepare to fly over the caltrops when somebody, probably Elise, flips the dragon vein next round.

The enemy doesn't even bother with dual strikes, but does land one critical hit, and Arthur fails to, causing the master ninja, the only one who attacked, to survive with one HP.

With some heavy assistance from Camilla and her extremely useful if dangerous axe, the ninjas are felled, and Arthur is ready to promote.

Saizo cleared the caltrops, allowing Xander to put himself up front for now. His defense (along with several of his other stats) is so absurd that I have a sneaking suspicion nobody in this entire cave is going to even attempt to attack him. I'm thinking this means I can use him as a fear-based stealth unit to secure the southeastern treasure chest without actually wasting any experience killing the guys in advance. Once Saizo moves away from the door, we'll open it long enough for Xander to go through. Just to clarify, Percy's with him to boost his already considerable defense and also in case he needs to fly over any caltrops, but once we get deep into enemy territory mostly only the former will be relevant since I'm not putting Percy up front.

At long last, Arthur promotes, becoming faster, more accurate, and even better at critical hits. Now we'll see some amazing stuff from him.

First let's test him out against this silver shuriken master ninja before the others come rushing in.

...Ugh. The silver shuriken master ninja does nothing, and the mobile units continue to advance.

I activate the dragon vein myself, have Azura sing me away, then I have Arthur move in to the dragon vein spot to see if now the master ninja will attack. I also start sending Xander towards the chest to secure it in case thieves come in. Or hell, one of the Mokushujin just snaps and starts taking stuff and running.

DAMN IT ALL, IS THERE ANY VISUAL CUE TO TELL WHICH DRAGON VEINS ARE REUSABLE!?

...Anyway, that turned out to not be wise. Saizo headed straight for the enemy, so I had to split my forces (these damned cramped tunnels are telling me that was probably a good idea to begin with) and trigger another finite dragon vein to seal off three ninja. Arthur will either damage or end the northernmost one of them, and then he, Mozu, Azura, Selena and Laslow will take care of any others that come that way.

...Okay, so, this is my unfortunate situation. A lot of ninjas and those freaky automata are incoming here, and I'm somewhat understaffed to clear them out.

Making matters worse is the fact that Saizo's placement here renders transfer-ferrying Camilla over to help out impossible.

Exactly how this goes depends on how many ~30% chance critical hits Arthur can fire off, both directly and on dual strikes. Depending on how many he gets, I can shift to some more favorable strategies, but I'm going to start off preparing for the worst case, no critical scenario.

First, Selena tries to trigger a critical hit from Arthur, using a bronze sword because Mahnkschtall wouldn't be enough to destroy this thing anyway without a critical hit, and this way she's safe from deadly counter-criticals. I nearly lost Selena last time, I don't want to tempt fate again.

Things go well for me right off the bat.

Then I have Elise move in to give a slight power boost to Laslow and have Laslow put Mahnkschtall back in Selena's hands for juuuust enough power to one-shot.

Next, Mozu takes down this ninja since she's fast enough when and only when paired up. No debuffs because of a dual guard.

Peri comes in to attempt to destroy this automaton, and succeeds, with Mozu scoring a critical.

And then a reinvigorated Mozu finishes the job, even dodging the shuriken so she still suffers no debuffs. Man, this went way better than I expected. I didn't even have to use another dragon vein!

Sadly, the enemies just keep coming.

Wanting to avoid wasting further dragon veins than necessary and possibly sealing off the path to the treasure chest in case somebody makes a dash for it, I retreat a tad, exploiting the caltrop positioning, and bring everyone to bear upon the incoming reinforcements.

Jakob finally gets inspiration, and seeing how long this will take to get otherwise, I decide this is what I'm passing down to his child instead of rally resistance, as that child will basically be replacing him. Elise will be getting rally resistance shortly anyway, and while it'll be annoying to have it split up between units, it'll give me more general options to have such a high-end skill available so early.

Xander picks off that annoying silence shrine maiden who keeps getting in the way of Elise promoting already, while all of her allies avoid eye contact with Xander and pretend not to notice him as he trots about the battlefield with absolute impunity, praying to their eastern heathen gods that they're not the next to fall to the horrible eldritch monstrosity infusing our weapons. Oh the looks on their faces when they wake up months from now. I can see them even now, War Journal.

After some maneuvering and calling in Xander for assistance, as well as Keaton getting his promotion and an extremely sexy shirt...

I reduce the incoming enemies to manageable levels. However, there are more reinforcements coming. They might be heading for the chests, who knows? At this point I think the worst has passed. I've got my full force to send after them as they come in.

Camilla gets her hands on Rally Defense...

...And Laslow promotes!

...And with a careful positioning of an attack with Kaze's needle...

The forces of Mokushu fall...

…before the might of the glorious unicorn death puppy.

Only one of the upper reinforcements remains, and thanks to Camilla's new skill there's no way he can do lasting harm to anyone.

Now that both Keaton and Laslow have joined Arthur in promotion and the tide of incoming forces has waned, I feel much more comfortable splitting up my forces to tackle the rest of this battle. The northern group will be using the debuff and poison immune Saizo as bait to keep our forces strong while giving Elise tons of healing practice so she can finally promote as well (not that I plan on making her fight. I didn't even give her one of those rings).

Using Saizo as bait turns out to not be effective, as he just kills them on counter-attack. So to keep him from stealing too many kills, I flip a dragon vein to assault this cave of enemies when Saizo moves into their range.

This proves to annoy Saizo a bit, as he's trapped and unable to move for the time being...

...But that's nothing compared to Selena's indignant reaction as she suddenly finds herself ten feet in the air balanced precariously on a rock, her head inches from the ceiling. Anyway, we take care of them.

...Dear mother of all the gods, Laslow, that defense is barely better than Azura's. Seems I was wise to use you as a rally bot rather than a frontline fighter.

Elise reaches promotion time. Hm... do I make her into a strategist, keeping and improving her high mobility...

...Or a maid, with access to the best staves the world has to offer?

That is a ridiculous question. No, Elise, you cannot go running around wearing the garb of a servant girl! You are a princess and you are twelve godsdamned years old! I don't care how much you want to be able to use the best staves in the world, it is not fucking happening.

Making use of a special mindgame, I manipulate the enemies into uselessly crowding in a tunnel, attacking Camilla merely because she can't fight back, and wasting all other offensive opportunities while Kaze and Peri slowly reduce their forces to nothing.

With no reinforcements going for the chests despite everyone being capable of it, I clear out the remaining enemies at my leisure. The first, southeastern chest is secured, and we get another master seal.

Xander clears out the stubborn ninja guarding Kotaro who refuse to leave their posts, and gains his first level.

Laudable sentiment, Xander, but I'm quite pleased. Two of the most important stats, one you have a ton of, the other not so much, both went up.

Plus you got a skill that's basically like another, perfect, level up. Nice going.

Anyway, on to get the treasure and then get out of here.

Our budget threshold is now at 22,500.

Time to deal with Kotaro. He's a massive dodge tank, but with enough patience and auras I'm sure I'll prevail.

...Making sure to give Kaze a piece of the action, of course.

He was carrying a speedwing. Score!

And with that, victory!

Kaze: Brother, thank you for your assistance.

Nice gesture, Kaze, but really most of the time he was more of a nuisance we had to keep alive.

Kaze: Without your help, we may never have- GAH!

Aaaaaaand Saizo just punched Kaze in his beautiful face.

Saizo: How dare you call me that, after what you've done!? You betrayed your country, sold secrets to our hated enemy, joined up with the traitor princess, killed so many of your own people with those horrible weapons... and then you locked me in a chamber and executed Kotaro over a meaningless Nohrian dispute! You denied our father true justice, Kaze!

Kaze: Brother...

Saizo: Call me that one more time, Kaze, I dare you! I have no brother, Kaze. Not anymore. ...The truce is over, Dakota. I'm going to retrieve Kagero. Do not dare try to follow me.

Dakota: Oh great, there go all my evening plans.

And there he goes.

Elise: Let me take care of that, Kaze! That looked nasty!

Kaze: ...It wasn't really the impact that hurt, Elise... but thank you.

Leo: ...Well. That was... eventful.

Dakota: Indeed. We just killed 42 of our allies and dissolved an alliance without Garon's go-ahead. ...We'll have to explain that whole Kaizo-Kotomi plot to him right away before this damages our standing with him.

Camilla: I'll send a wyvern rider with a message right away, as soon as we're outside this tunnel.

Dakota: Thank you, Camilla.

Right then, I believe that's our cue to leave. Once we leave this tunnel, we'll be in Hoshidan territory proper.

And then the real battle will begin.

Until next time, War Journal.

Edited May 6, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

To whoever this is:

Thank you so much for your help with that thing I was talking about, this is basically perfect. However... I'm not quite ready to take this on yet, so if you could keep your team roughly like this for maybe another week (maybe making the rest of your team actually have equipment so it's less obvious what I'm going for with it), then you'll see me put my plan into action with your team soon.

Again, Thanks so much for helping, I think you're gonna love what I do with it.

[BaconBuster]

*looks at all the DVP you have*

DAAAAAAANG you gonna spend that?

Also, I finally beat Conquest today, and all I will say is...even with my experience on Casual, it's going to get waaaay harder from here. Enjoy the ride.

[Guardian]

I just had a bond unit formed between me and you because of all the accessories , but somehow 2 female characters ended up with a male bond unit, weird.

Also, if you don't mind, what is your Miiverse thing, cause i might be interested in seeing it. just figured i'd ask.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Guardian

[Alastor15243]

I don't do a hell of a lot of miiverse anymore besides use it for screenshots. But it's RaustBlackDragon.

[Guardian]

Thanks you! ^~^

[Alastor15243]

...Oh dear... this is gonna fuck with pacing.

You see I decided to do all the hero battles off-diary and...

...Ugh. Basically as a result Selena X Xander has basically completely blossomed to A already, and I was planning on doing this big conversation for it, but this is the same entry as another big A rank support conversation I've written out, and this entry will be before a certain event that's supposed to precede this conversation. Basically a whole lot of stuff has come up that I really really don't want to cram into one entry, and I haven't even started this entry's battle yet. What does everyone think I should do? Ignore it and pretend it happens later?

[Moblin Major General]

Roll with it and save the next chapter for the update after.

[sirmola]

Whatever makes for a better story. This LP stoped being an accurate representation when doing so would be bad for the story a long time ago already. That's a good thing IMO.

[Alastor15243]

Alright, the huge work rush is over for the most part, you can expect a new part tomorrow! Sorry again for the broken schedule.

Edited April 25, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

We've got a gargantuan entry to make up for the delay. I just kept adding on in my little free time during the work rush. I hope you enjoy!

Entry 15

Dear War Journal,

It happened.

It finally happened.

It took multiple sidequests with those four mysterious visitors to develop it...

...But Keaton and I finally got married.

...Well... “married” isn't quite the right word. Wolfskins don't really have any concept of marriage. Yeah, what is it, like... “mates” or something? Details, details. The point is...

BABY MAKING TIME.

...Sweet mother of every god under the sun, War Journal, I can't even begin to describe what I just experienced. Okay, imagine being fucked by a steam piston except don't think about it too hard because that would probably be painful for any mere mortal woman though I could probably do it why am I attempting to explain how my first dicking session felt to an inanimate and vaginaless book?

...Look, it was awesome. I was... a bit let down to discover that Keaton's wolf form has no genitalia, but that wound up not mattering because holy shit Keaton is a savage in the bedroom, it's insane. I bet I'm pregnant with, like, all the babies right now.

And I didn't even throw up in his face!

Tomorrow's gonna be a big day, so I better get some rest, because I need to keep up Mozu's good example of taking the warp childbirth like a champ.

Dakota: Oh my gods look at them, Keaton, they're adorable! They have my pointy ears and your... pointy ears!

War Journal, operation childbirth was a resounding success. Keaton and I now have two beautiful children, a boy named Kana and a girl named Velouria, who are in the process of having their rapid aging issue resolved in a Deeprealm as we speak. They have no visible hybridization-induced birth defects, and they're as cute as two puppy-shaped buttons!

I had all the women in camp present to witness me give birth to my two glorious heirs, and I demonstrated for each and every one of them that warp childbirth is nothing that any self-respecting young woman who regularly shrugs off impalement through the gut should worry about.

So that went great.

...Decidedly less encouraging to the other women, however, was the fact that I was found this morning in the middle of the castle square, still naked, fully pregnant, and gnawing on a half-eaten bear corpse.

I have no clue, War Journal.

But if I had to hazard a guess, and I suppose I do, I’d say I went on a feral sleepwalking rampage or something. Whatever. At least it was just a bear. Fuck bears, eating everything and pretending to be dogs. The other women are less pleased though. I don’t get what’s so hard for them to understand! I had a raging storm of baby hybrid cuteness inside me and it hungered for blood! WHAT’S NOT TO GET!?

I'm going to be visiting them regularly, but I'm not quite ready to have them join us yet. Firstly I want to wait until they get a bit better trained and get their hands on offspring seals so I can save some money, and secondly because I'd like to learn Luna first since my children probably won't be able to learn that otherwise. Thankfully I've managed to start befriending Peri, and we're approaching full friendship. Speaking of...

Here's my up-and-coming master dancer Laslow making “friends” with Keaton so I can get him rally strength later down the line.

Jakob and Camilla are also finally starting to get along, now if only they'd move that up to “breeding like rabbits” then we'd be making some nice progress. Also, I class changed Camilla back to Malig Knight now that she's learned Rally Defense. Now she can start learning the awesome malig knight skills.

Selena and Xander have made huge progress socializing during the period in which I was building up my relationship with Keaton. That's great news, soon Xander will be able to reclass to hero!

...Right, well, that was odd. Leo just came to me and handed me a warp book similar to the one he gave me in the previous timeline to take the army of East Dakota to Notre Sagesse. When I asked him why he did this, he said it's because about one week back Laslow asked him to make one of them for him, one that would take him and one other person to a certain location and back. ...I informed him that the one in the previous timeline had certain unforseen side-effects, and he informed me that that... was apparently probably just him pulling a prank on me. For shits and giggles.

Huh.

Anyway, he complied, and he just finished it, but considering our current situation, he figured I might want to follow him when he used it. So he gave me a second one designed to light up when the first one was used, and then take me to the same general location.

I seriously doubt he's a spy or anything like that (gods I hope not, he has far too much of a future in this army), but still... I must say... I am curious as to what he plans to do with it. At any rate, he's definitely not going to use it now, because as long as I'm within the walls of West Dakota, time outside slows to an absolute crawl, so nobody can leave the place while I'm in it. I'm guessing that, whatever he's planning, he'll do it after our next mission.

Also, total overhaul of West Dakota. I've decided those walls were way to weak for my liking, and that this natural, un-smashable water network, with the central entrance blocked off by the unbreakable buildings, will be much more effective at keeping invasions from getting too swarmy. If I can come up with a way to forcibly separate and spread out forces then that will be even better though.

I stopped by the einherjar shop by mistake and discovered that apparently a card of Mozu is considered more expensive than a card of Xander. Wow.

I checked inventory and discovered something rather unsettling. We are 4,000 gold down with no discernible expenses to explain it. We were also briefly missing some emeralds, but we got those back quite quickly through trading. I think somebody forged either a +1 steel bow, a +2 iron bow or a +3 bronze bow without my permission. Worst of all, I can't figure out when exactly this happened, so I can't tell which person was on duty at the time, so I can't narrow down the one who's lying about it.

Whoever is responsible will be severely punished.

In other, happier item news, my favorite spell ever has shown up as a trade gift! Success! I can't wait to be strong enough to use this. Better start training in magic!

Starting tomes are really weak, though, so I'd better use that spirit dust to buff up my power. It's not like anyone else is going to be using it. Now I'd better give myself a good starting tome... fire's not very good... hm...

Egads, who found this thing? Are they trying to sabotage us? Right, better go with disrobing gale, it's stronger and faster-

...Hang on... why does the inventory report say that our disrobing gale is with... Elise?

Dakota: Elise, sweetie?

Elise: Hiya, big sister! Good to see you're back to normal! ...It's kind of weird being an aunt... how are the babies doing?

Dakota: They're doing great, sweetie, but that's not what I'm here for.

Elise: Hm?

Dakota: Why did you take the disrobing gale from the armory? Are you trying to pull another prank on Leo? It doesn't work if he doesn't use axes or bows, you know.

Elise: No... I'm going to use it.

Dakota: Well... that's a given, but what for?

Elise: I mean I'm going to use it. To fight.

Dakota: ...I'm sorry... what?

Elise: Remember that time back in the cave the other day when we were fighting the Moku-whosits, and those ninja came in, and you were trying to figure out how to get rid of them without putting anyone in danger?

Dakota: Oh gods yes I remember that.

Elise: ...Your face was really weird right then, like you'd been thinking for days, even though it was just a second. ...It was like that for me too. And... all I could think about right then was how useless I was.

Dakota: Elise, how many times do I have to tell you, you're a healer, you're the exact opposite of useless-

Elise: But nobody needed healing right then! There was nothing I could do to help you! I was just standing there watching everyone else deal with it, and I felt horrible, Dakota! The most I could do was move next to Laslow-

Dakota: And that turned out to be just what I needed to solve the problem, you improved Laslow's attack, and it was just enough-

Elise: But what if it isn't “just enough” next time!? Look, I get it, my healing's really helpful, but I could be more helpful! So I want to learn how to use... the hurty kind of magic. ...For emergencies.

Dakota: You told me you hated violence! You told me that you could never kill-

Elise: We're not killing anyone, remember? We're freezing them in those time pod thingies! Nobody's dying, there's no reason why I shouldn't fight!

Dakota: Yes, but it still has to be painful for you-

Elise: I don't care if it's painful for me! Nobody's actually dying! If I don't fight just because it makes me feel gross, then I'm just being a coward and letting everyone else do the messy stuff for me! And one of these days that could get somebody killed! Maybe Arthur, or Xander, or Leo, or Camilla... or even you! And I... I... I... I don't want... sniff...

Dakota: ...Oh, Elise... look... okay... you can start practicing.

Elise: ...Really?

Dakota: Yes. ...You're right. It would be suicide to limit our options. Stop by Leo and he'll give you a spare ring. Just... focus on healing first, okay? Don't go too crazy with it. Garon knows how much you hate fighting. If he sees you doing it too easily... he might think something's up with these rings of ours.

Elise: I promise! Thank you so much!

Oh dear... Elise... bless your little heart.

...Let's get moving.

But first, one last ting, I am absolutely starving! It's amazing how many calories completely generating two whole living things in nine hours can use up.

Ugh, forget it, this isn't filling at all!

...Fuck it, where's that bear corpse?

So... we just had a little run-in with Iago, who says Garon received our message regarding the Mokushujin. Iago says Garon is pleased with us. He is in fact very pleased by our borderline-superhuman ability to expose traitors to the glorious kingdom of Nohr. In fact, he is so pleased that he has chosen to immediately give us an assignment to put these impossible-sounding skills to good use. A dark mage named Zola, along with his entire company, has evaded execution by “firing squad” (by which they mean a bunch of mages burn them alive in Windmire town square) using his expert skills in illusions, and they don't know where he is other than that intelligence indicates he's somewhere in nearby Izumo. We've been given two weeks to find him. Garon apparently says that that's more than enough time for somebody of my caliber.

Of course. Another penalty trial. Basically he's trying to eliminate the possibility that I'm lying or got lucky by having me do it again. Normally even I would be worried in the face of the tall task we've been given. Thankfully, I remember this Zola from the previous timeline, wherein, if you'll remember, he was impersonating Izana. With any luck that's where he still is. Anyway, this explains a lot, namely why Leo, who at the time hadn't gained the courage to openly defy Garon, was ready to execute one of his soldiers. Zola wasn't acting on Garon's orders after all, he was merely pretending to and was hoping that killing the Hoshidan royal family would get him back in Garon's good graces and earn him a pardon. It was pure coincidence that we were ambushed, an opportunistic spur of the moment action on Zola's part.

Anyway, here we are at Izumo's castle, preparing to meet with “Izana” to see if he's still Zola. Our cover story is that we'd like to take a rest in his castle after a long journey. He seems to have bought it. He also says he has plenty of other royal guests with him, I – oh.......

...Fuck.

Sakura: B-big sister! Is that you!?

Hinoka: Dakota!?

Takumi: …

Ryoma: Well... I didn't expect to find you here, Dakota.

Dakota: Likewise.

Ryoma: ...Dakota... why is your mouth covered in blood?

Dakota: A bit rude to pry into somebody's sex life, don't you think?

Ryoma: …

Hinoka: What in the gods' names did you Nohrian monsters do to her!?

Zola: W-woah! Easy there, everybody! This is neutral territory, remember? Why don't we all relax and have a nice hot meal?

Gotcha, you snake. The soul-reading War Journal doesn't lie. But yes, a meal does sound lovely. Better make sure it's not poisoned. I doubt it is, as that would blow his cover, but still...

So the meal's been going pretty well so far. Well, I say “well”, mostly I mean “without incident”. My Hoshidan siblings have been staring daggers at my Nohrian siblings from across the table. Azura felt really awkward about the whole thing and hadn't thought of a good cover story for her decision to keep siding with Nohr yet, so she sat this one out.

I wonder what'll happen if anyone escalates this? Sure, Xander, Camilla, Leo and Elise now know that they're largely on the same idealogical side as my Hoshidan siblings, but they've still got to play the part in front of at least one sleeper agent, possibly more. I wonder what-

Ryoma: This food is delicious, Izana. My compliments to the chef.

Hinoka: Definitely!

Takumi: Yeah, it's great!

Sakura: Y-yes, it's quite good...

Leo: Indeed.

Takumi: Typical, chiming in to save face. Nohrian scum like you would never show real gratitude, even faced with a huge banquet like this. I bet even royals like you can't get food this good in Nohr.

Leo: Did you just make light of Nohr's food crisis, young prince?

Takumi: Oh, there's a food crisis? I'm so sorry, I didn't know. Ahem: Are you saying there's a shortage, or that Nohrian food is itself the crisis? There. Now I've made light of Nohr's food crisis.

Oh I need to record all of this, War Journal.

This is absolutely priceless. Ryoma and Xander aren't saying anything, but they're getting into a staring contest so heated I can practically see the lightning shooting out of their eyes. I'm shocked the tablecloth isn't scorched.

Hinoka: …

Camilla: Is there something you wanted to say, young lady?

Hinoka: Just gauging whether or not to start with the low-hanging fruit.

Camilla: Oh I assure you I have no such things, darling.

Hinoka: Well actually I suppose it's admirable of you, if I think about it. What with your country apparently going through hard times, it's nice to see a princess spending so little of the royal budget on clothing.

Camilla: ...Ah. I see. Is that what you Hoshidans do when you see exquisite beauty? You put a tarp over it? How cute. Your art museums must be quite amusing.

Hinoka: Oh is that how you justify it?

Camilla: Then again, I suppose that's for the best if all of your country's... ahem... “artwork”... is as... mmm... “cubist” as it appears to be.

Hinoka: Rrrrr! Oh... Oh yeah!? ...Bet you wish people were paintings!

Camilla: Oh? And why is that?

Hinoka: Because that way nobody would know that you sound like you're fifty.

Camilla: Ah, of course, whereas your voice is simply honey slipping down the ear canal.

Takumi: What's with that “holy weapon” of yours? Is that your special talent? Reading?

Leo: My dear friend, this subject change will haunt you for the rest of your miserable life.

Takumi: Oh yeah? See this bow here? Know what I can do with it? Blindfold me, place me at the far wall of this room, and make me suddenly not want to kill you, and I could shoot an apple off your head.

Leo: Put me in the same situation and I could shoot off the pineapple that is your head.

Takumi: Oh? You borrow that one from that traitor Dakota?

Leo: No, it is an inherently obvious objective fact.

Camilla: Oh no no no, I wasn't saying that you're a wholly unappealing flat-chested pitbull in a wig who should pray for a death on the battlefield lest you die old and alone without ever knowing love or companionship, I was merely pointing out that your precious “little sister” has spent most of her life until about a month ago under house arrest, and has spent most of her time since then leading a guerrilla force two dozen strong against your country's combined armed forces, and has still miraculously found time to get laid before you! Terribly sorry for the misunderstanding.

Hinoka: Nohrian skank I will end you!

Sakura: …

Elise: …

Sakura: ...Um... Hi.

Elise: Hiya! My name's Elise!

Sakura: I-I'm... Sakura.

Elise: Ooh! That's a cute name!

Sakura: ...U-um... Uh...

Elise: What is it?

Sakura: ...I think we're supposed to be arguing with each other too.

Elise: …Oh! Hey, yeah, I think you’re right!

Sakura: …I… I’m n-not very good at this...

Elise: That’s okay! All that matters is that you do your best!

Sakura: Okay then, here goes… um… y-your... d-dress... is... lame?

Elise: Ooh! Good one! My turn! Um… You’re a stupid… a stupid… uh… a stupid… you’re a stupid!

Sakura: …

Elise: …

Sakura: …I’m a stupid?

Elise: …Yes.

Sakura: …(Sniff)… W-w... WAAAAH!

Elise: Oh goshes! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it!

Takumi: For the love of all the gods, Sakura, you're four years older than her! Hold your ground!

Leo: Oh, yes, and you're doing so much better. Though I do admit you have me beaten on one thing. I've devoted my life to studying the dark arts, and I've steeped myself eyebrows-deep in the darkest darkness, and yet still you somehow manage to be edgier than me.

Hinoka: Enough talk! Choose your weapon!

Camilla: You'd best be stepping off, child, for you have nary begun to plumb the depths of my true power.

Hinoka: Yeah, and what power is that, Miss Cheesecake? Those dainty arms of yours don't look like they could even lift a chopstick, much less an axe! Do you even know what push-ups are? Hint: it's not a type of bra.

Camilla: Oh! I'm impressed! You know what bras are!

Hinoka: Maybe I should go easy on you and take weapons out of the picture!

Camilla: My, what an splendid proposal! No weapons. Hand to hand. And our mounts can fight each other, too! Marzia could use a snack.

Zola: Oh phooey on snacks! Who wants mid-day dessert!? I DO I DO I DO!

Right then, well, that was fun. I wonder how much of that was genuine. Probably not Camilla's threat to have Marzia eat Hinoka's pegasus. Camilla loves horses.

Anyway, lunch is over. Time to spy on Zola and see if I can figure out what he's up to.

Quick update: I'm currently hiding in the rafters of Izana's throne room with Kaze. If there's anyplace I'll be able to get Zola alone, it'll be here. My hopes aren't high that he'll talk to himself out loud about secretive stuff, but crazier things have happened. Of course I could confront him at any time, but I must say, I'm curious what he's up to.

Ah! There he is! Now to see if he-

...Why is the room getting all dark?

...War Journal... a swirling purple portal has just emerged in the middle of the room, and...

...Shit.

It's that hooded swordsman from back in Hoshido when I turned into a dragon for the first time.

...The man who killed my mother.

???: “Izana”. How go the negotiations with the Hoshidans?

Zola: ...They're going well. They came to me just as you said they would. I'm pretending to be a little reluctant to stay in character, but I think I've made them believe that Izumo wants to ally with Hoshido in the war, just like you ordered.

???: That is good. Now you need only convince all of the Izumites of the same thing.

Zola: One problem, sir... the Nohrian army is here. Along with all six of the royals.

???: That is no concern of yours. You're not ready to engage them, even with the supplies I've given you. You need time to convince the Izumites to fight, I assume.

Zola: Y-yes, but I have to ask... why do you need the Izumites? It's a small country, surely there's nothing they can offer-

???: Size is irrelevant. Every nation of this world must be embroiled in this war. All nations must face death from all sides, and as many as we can get to fight Nohr, the better. Nohr's army must be shattered before Nohr ultimately triumphs.

...That's odd... my book isn't picking up his name for some reason...

Zola: U-understood... Mr. Purple Man... though I don't really... understand what you're planning on doing... but just to be sure... after Izumo falls...

???: You will be granted sanctuary with us, that is correct. You need not worry so long as you succeed.

Zola: Good... ...As long as that's understood... I don't think anyone else could possibly protect me from Garon.

???: Correct. I will return in a week's time to check on your progress. Do not fail us, Zola.

Zola: O-of course not! And might I add, thank you so much for supplying this little band of deserters with weapons and skill infusions.

???: I repeat: If you do your job properly, you need never use them. Let us hope you don't.

...And he's gone, right back the way he came. Damn it, if only I were as strong as I used to be I could avenge Mother right on the spot. But alas, that will have to wait. Right now I best focus on bringing Zola in. It should be easy. All I have to do is expose him as an impostor.

...Hm... So it seems I was correct in how exactly the Purple Ones are trying to weed me out, if this attempt to get Izumo involved in the war is any indication.

More importantly, it explains why on Earth the Hoshido royal family is here in the middle of a war. Time to talk to Leo and work out how to undo his shapeshifting magic.

Sigh...

Why is it never simple, War Journal?

We managed to unmask Zola easy enough, but then when cornered and faced with the prospect of either being killed or brought before Garon and then killed, he came up with the brilliant plan of killing both us and the Hoshidan royals to keep Garon's favor.

...He's totally lost it, War Journal.

Obviously we can't let him kill the Hoshidan royals, the entire point of the magic rings Leo made was to keep as many Hoshidans as possible alive to ensure post-war peace. If anybody but us were to “kill” the Hoshidan royals, there goes the whole plan.

So now we have to both take him out and keep him from killing the Hoshidan royals, but without making it look like we're particularly trying to save the Hoshidan royals.

URGH.

...On top of that I have to keep up my usual social developments and get the treasures.

And as if that weren't enough...

WE HAVE A TIME LIMIT. Leo says Zola's preparing a spell to get out of here, and if we let him get away, we fail Garon's penalty test and then who knows what Garon will do to us.

...Sigh. Let's get this over with.

Begin.

As you can see, our forces are split up right now. Thankfully I have plenty of magic users on the side with generals and I have Keaton on the side with the riders.

Still, these generals are tough. Not even Xander will be able to one-round them with Siegfried, and he's basically one of the very few units I have who will be able to take a beating from all of them.

So I send him in, having Felicia (who's way behind and who I have pairing plans for) support him with Demoiselle as I move everyone on the west side in.

On the east side, I have Kaze, rallied up and supported by Camilla, prepare to take on a sorcerer to hedge my risk depending on who advances immediately. If they weren't going to move, I'll bait this one prematurely, but if they were going to move, I'll do serious damage to, and possibly kill, one of them, averting a potential crisis.

As it turns out, nobody who wasn't baited moved. Experience indicates it doesn't stay that way for long, however, so I'd better keep moving. I certainly need to get rid of all of these generals before they hit my soldiers like dragons diving right out of the sky.

So I do so. Elise's decision to pick up a tome turned out to be extremely wise.

Step 21 on my path to greatness.

...Unfortunately, a mistake on my part, where I delayed pairing up with Peri in case switching from offensive attack stance bonuses to defensive dual guard bonuses eliminated that guaranteed kill rate, not realizing that Mozu had no space to guard up with me afterwards, means I'm now vulnerable to one particularly nasty dual strike right now. But there's nothing I can do now, I'll just have to do my best to survive it.

Meanwhile, the east side prepares for a rather daring gambit centering around Keaton.

Thankfully it appears I slightly overestimated the killing power of these attackers, so we're good.

On to the main plan for the east side: I pair Keaton up with Laslow and dance and rally him up so he can take out this annoying freeze staff user and then bait and kill all but one of the outdoor paladins, surviving the whole ordeal.

And Arthur finally reaches the bow rank required to use his mighty forged killer bow, the Justice Beam.

...Sadly, he won't be using it for a while, as he's also reached the level where he needs to transfer to great knight for a little bit to get his hands on Luna. His critical rate as a sniper is obscene, to be sure, but I want it supplemented with a combat technique as well, especially since both can happen at once. Besides, his skill is so obscene at this point that he needs to have a combat technique or two that uses it.

Time is running out, so I send my forces in. The west group will take care of the generals while the east group will advance towards Zola. So in a twofold move I have Keaton bait some more riders and have the armorslayer-wielding Selena, with Xander on standby with a dual guard primed, bait a general.

Sigh.

Anyway, Selena's finally reached promotion level, and since I made Laslow a bow knight, however temporarily, I've decided to make Selena a hero.

Selena: I want to be a bow knight.

Dakota: Sorry sister, not happening. I need you as a hero right now.

Selena: Pickin' bow knight.

THE FUCK!?

OH SHE DID NOT JUST DO THAT!

Gods damn her, War Journal, that flagrant disobedience just cost me a chunk of money and limited store stock! What the hell is wrong with her!?

On the bright side, Kaze is far more cooperative, and my Nohrian comrades marvel at the glorious return of the Giant Mechanical Lion.

Welcome back, old friend, I have missed you so.

We also get a visit from some reinforcements. Now it would have been clever of them to put the general reinforcements on the east side and the paladins on the west side to exploit and subvert my unit placement, but Zola doesn't seem to have a brain for much else besides illusions.

They're easily dealt with.

...These guys, however, will not be. This will take a while, hence why I kept my party split up for just two enemies. The rest advance on Zola and the chests.

While I wait for that maid to use up her enfeeble staff on enemies just outside the range of the heroes, I have Kaze go in to lure these sorcerers to their doom.

At last, the last general falls, and the maid runs out of enfeeble uses.

Only two more levels until Arthur can become a killing machine again.

Unfortunately I think I've spent too much time here. Sensing there's only three “turns” left before Zola escapes, I prepare to rout this area and down Zola while still getting the treasure. It'll be close, but I think I can do it if I'm clever.

...Alas, fate is not kind. The inner enemies don't respond to baiting, so I'll need to go in directly and route them in one round if I'm to avoid a nasty counter-attack. This is down to the wire. My actions are as follows:

Round 18:

Kaze unlocks the western door.

Camilla goes in to soften up the hero and let Kaze dual-strike in a Kaze's Needle attack.

Arthur goes in for the kill.

Jakob rallies up Xander's resistance.

Xander goes in to attack the heroes.

Felicia takes Elise's rescue rod. If my calculations are wrong I might need it, and Elise is about to have her hands full with something else.

Azura is transfer-ferried over to Kaze and sings him back into action to get the chest.

Laslow attempts to bait this Sorcerer to his death.

Peri and I move in just in case.

The bait is successful.

One of the sorcerers falls and both heroes are gravely wounded.

Round 19:

The enemies are routed.

Step 22 on my path to greatness.

Kaze is song-ferried towards the eastern treasure room.

Laslow and Keaton separate for transfer ferrying. Everyone closes in on Zola.

Round 20:

Kaze latches onto Keaton and opens the door.

Azura takes a ride with Laslow and sings Kaze back to action to open the chest.

Felicia nerfs Zola's magic, defense and resistance with her flame shuriken...

Mozu softens him up...

And finally, Peri finishes the job!

Minimum treasury threshold goes up to 27,500.

And with that, we're done here!

Izana is immensely grateful to be freed from his cell, and he throws us all a lavish feast!

...Nobody, not even his own staff, has the heart to tell him Zola already fed us. He just looked too excited.

Everyone tries to muscle down what they can... or try to discretely pass their food to Keaton and Effie. Me? I'm still starving. I'm going to eat my fill of this second lunch-

...Hello... what's this I'm hearing?

Laslow: Hello, Azura!

Azura: ...Hello, Laslow.

Laslow: Great work out there with Kaze and those chests. I can't believe we got all the treasure before Zola got away!

Azura: I was simply following Dakota's instructions.

Laslow: Instructions nobody else could follow!

Azura: I suppose...

Laslow: Anyway, I'm guessing you're not hungry. Me neither, so I was wondering if you had some time to spare? There's a place I'd really like to show you.

Azura: ...Laslow, can't this wait?

Laslow: No, it really, really can't. It has to be today. Actually, it has to be now, or at least in the next hour or so.

Azura: ...I don't want to be an inconvenience to anybody, we shouldn't walk out on the group. And besides, once we get back to West Dakota, I need to keep practicing my singing.

Laslow: ...Azura, I'm worried about you. I've heard how much you love singing, but I'd never know it from seeing you. I know you sing a lot, but... frankly I've never gotten the impression that you enjoy it. For as long as you've been in this army, you've kept practicing that exact same song, I've never heard you sing anything else. It's like... it's like you're rehearsing. Rehearsing for this big concert that you know you're going to hate, but you feel you have to do it for some reason.

Azura: …

Laslow: Look, just give me half an hour or so. It'll be good for you.

Azura: Look, Laslow, your little crusade to get me to smile was cute at first, but now it's just making me feel worse. Give up. You can't possibly comprehend the burden I bear, for it's one even greater than Dakota's. Please. Leave me alone.

Laslow: ...Right, that was mostly a formality. Sorry, Azura, but friends don't let friends miss something like this.

Azura: H-hey! Let me go!

Laslow: You'll thank me later, I promise!

Azura: Somebody! I'm being kidnapped by a philandering chippendale!

Keaton: Okay! Have fun!

VWOOM!

...Right... better follow them.

Dakota: I, uh, need to go, uh... iron... the bathroom.

Izana: Ooh! Sounds interesting! Be sure to tell me all about it!

Right then, find a good hiding spot, and...

VWOOM!

...Right, so... War Journal... it seems I've shown up... slightly ahead of them... somehow. Gotta find a hiding spot. Gods, what is this place? It smells like a forest, and I can just barely see trees in the dark... we have to be in Nohr, nowhere else gets this dark, even at night, especially when there's a clearing in the trees overhead...

VWOOM!

And there they are. Laslow's got some kind of crystal light with him, I can barely see the two of them, but basically nothing else.

Azura: Laslow! What on earth do you think you're doing!? Take me back right-

Laslow: Just give me five minutes, please. You have to see this.

Azura: I said I didn't want to, Laslow, now stop being so creepy and mysterious and tell me where we are!

Laslow: We're deep in the Woods of the Forlorn, in Nohr.

Azura: This awful place!? ...Laslow, why are you doing this? You know how much I hate this country, why would you show me the worst part of it?

Laslow: Humor me. Can you sing me a song right here?

Azura: No. Take me back. Right now.

Laslow: ...Sigh. Fine. I guess I'll have to do it.

Azura: ...You can sing?

Laslow: ♪ Se vi a vi o vivi a sad... et visi a vis insignis fortis soli sat! Te memor inveniam indicas quan ito via! ♪

Azura: Oh... oh my goodness...

...I can't believe what I'm seeing, War Journal. The very second he started singing, the entire clearing lit up with a beautiful green light. But it didn't stay green for long. As his song shifted, so did the light, reflecting the warmth, pitch, and passion of his every note, shifting from vibrant color to vibrant color.

Laslow: There. Now you try!

Azura: What... just happened?

Laslow: Just try it, then I'll explain!

Azura: ... ♪ You are the ocean's gray waves...♪ OH MY GOODNESS! It... how...

Laslow: See all those huge crystals all around? Soundstones. They can form basically anywhere, but they're super rare.

Azura: You mean those things we use to receive Dakota's orders in the field?

Laslow: Exactly! But they're even more amazing out in the wild like this, before they have all those spells cast on them. Here, they turn sound into light, and the more beautiful the sound, the more beautiful the light show.

Azura: ...Laslow, this... this is incredible...

Laslow: Oh we haven't even gotten started, Azura. There's a reason why I had to show you this now. You see, once a year, on this day, for about two hours... a certain species of insects stops through here on its migration south. Ah, here they come now, right on cue!

Azura: Oh goodness, that sounds like... a lot of bugs...

Laslow: Go on, sing for them. I bet they'll love to hear it.

Azura: What?

Laslow: Just try it, come on!

Azura: ...Alright... ♪ You are the ocean's gray waves...♪ AH!

Before the shock silenced Azura, the entire clearing lit up with a dizzying dance of lights. Every one of the bugs glowed the same color as the crystals, whatever that happened to be. Hundreds upon hundreds of tiny, flying, dancing lights, technicolor fireflies swirling around and matching the glow of the crystals. I... I don't think I've ever seen anything so beautiful in my life.

Laslow: Nohrian crystalflies, Azura. I wound up here on this day three years ago by total chance on my first mission for Lord Xander. And every day for the next year I came back here, hoping to see them again, until I figured out their migration pattern. I've never missed it since. It's just one of those miraculous quirks of nature. I guess a part of Nohr just decided that if it wasn't going to get any light, it would make its own. ...In a way I don't think something quite like this could have happened anywhere else. Only in Nohr.

Azura: Is that why you brought me here? To prove I was wrong about Nohr being ugly?

Laslow: Oh gods no, that would be pretentious. I just figured you'd love to see this place. ...No, more to the point, I felt that you'd need to see this place. Sorry for forcing you to go here, but you've just been so miserable all the time, and this only comes once a year... I felt you had to see this before we go any further in this ridiculous war.

Azura: ...Thank you, Laslow. Perhaps you're right. Perhaps I did need to see this. ...Who else have you shown this to?

Laslow: I showed Selena and Odin once, but nobody else. Mostly I'm worried somebody might try to take and sell the soundstones if word gets out to too many people. I mean sure, none of the animals need these things to live, but still, the world would be... poorer, in some hard to explain way, without this place. But enough of that, let's get closer!

...They spent half an hour there, and for whatever reason, I found myself unable to look away. I just... couldn't stop watching them. Singing, dancing among the insects, letting at least a hundred Nohrian crystalflies land on them so that when they sang they themselves glowed those vibrant colors. They sang together. They danced together. And the more beautiful it became...

The worse I felt.

This gross, dark, twisted feeling in the pit of my stomach just got stronger and stronger as the two of them had such a wonderful time, dancing and singing among the beautiful festival of lights. I became angry at Laslow for reasons I couldn't understand. I felt disgusting and inadequate when they became so candid with each other and talked amidst the lights, talking about themselves, their lives, their dreams... I wanted to vomit at the saccharine nature of it all when they danced around in circles and collapsed on the grassy forest floor. And when they hit the ground, and Azura erupted in giggles of unbridled joy, and Laslow shouted in triumph that he finally managed to make her genuinely happy... all I could think was...

“Did I ever make her that happy?”

And then I froze. I stopped myself. I wondered why on earth I would say such a thing. Why would I wonder...?

...And then I remembered, War Journal.

Dusk Dragon below have mercy on me, War Journal, I remembered everything.

How she used to be my wife.

How she used to be the mother of my children.

Everything I felt when I was forced to watch her die and fade from everyone's memories.

And now... and now...

It's inevitable, War Journal. Those two are so terrifyingly close to falling in love.

And I'm the one who set them up together.

All to get a rally bot.

Is there enough time left to stop it? Surely there is, they're not quite there yet. Azura is my wife, I can't just...

...I can't just...

...Oh. Right. ...That.

…

…

Dakota: Lilith?

Lilith: Welcome back, Dakota! ... Dakota? ...What's wrong with your eyes?

Dakota: Nothing.

Lilith: Have... have you been crying? Oh gods, did somebody die!?

Dakota: No. Nobody died.

Lilith: ...Then what?

Dakota: Lilith. May I please see my old journal now?

Lilith: ...Sure, if you want, I mean it's had enough time for the paradox energy to cool down, it should be safe, just don't press the two journals together and rub really hard or anything... but there's stuff in there you probably wouldn't like to remember.

Dakota: I need to read it. Please.

Lilith: ...Okay... if you say so... It's on that shelf over there.

…

...

...That's all?

...There's barely anything in here about our life together. I mean our children were born and then... the marriage... just... stops... being mentioned.

No mention of any dates, or romantic dinners, or even any conversations...

...I'd really love to give my past self the benefit of the doubt and assume it wasn't relevant for a war journal... but a cynical part of me doesn't believe that.

...Was that really as far as I cared about our marriage?

Did we do anything together?

Anything at all?

…

...I... need some time to myself, War Journal.