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Ryume looks up at the sky. White hot streaks of falling debris paint the dawn, and she breathes a sigh of relief. Most likely, what they were seeing was the smallest pieces of the destroyed God’s Fang losing power and falling back to Earth. Hopefully, they would burn up completely in atmosphere. The bigger chunks of the God's Fang were still floating up there, propelled by Madou, but eventually they were going to have to come down— though they would probably give anyone with a telescope a heart attack in the meantime.
But that was her problem, not theirs.
Ryume turns to her men. "Time to get to work, you two. Standard procedure. Clean up any traces of Madou from the area, and then we can cast a large scale memory alteration spell. We’ll need to keep an eye on those pieces of the God’s Fang still up in the sky too, so contact the Senate and ask for a squad of able-bodied priests— what was that?" Ryume whips her head around at the sound of rubble shifting. There shouldn't be anything alive in this area. Her men ready their weapons behind her.
Something small and white and furry collides run towards her and she nearly fires a spell at it before she registers that it's just a stray dog. It jumps up onto Ryume's legs and wags its tail excitedly. Ryume can't help but smile as she reaches down to pet it.
"Well, hello there. And just where did you come from, I wonde— oh. Interesting."
Ryume puts her hand on the dogs head and closes her eyes. Fascinating. The dog's not a dog at all. From what she can tell, it's an incredibly well-made Madou tool. Based off of the old Gouryuus, perhaps? She can sense some sort of weapon mechanism, but otherwise she'd need a lot more time to really figure out what it was made to do. In the meantime, though…
Ryume crouches down and looks the dog in the eyes. "What a strange Madou tool. Would you like to come home with me?"
She holds out her hand. The dog sniffs it before cocking its (Or his, perhaps. It doesn't quite sit right with Ryume to call the dog an it) head in consideration. Ryume waits, patiently. Eventually, the dog sits back on his haunches and barks once, as if in agreement. A white hot shot goes whizzing past Ryume’s face, but she doesn’t flinch. So that’s what the mechanism was for, huh?
Ryume smiles. "I think I'll call you Shiromaru. Let’s get along, alright?”
"Lady Ryume…?" One of her men— the one in the red mask— tentatively speaks up behind her.
She doesn’t look up from where she’s scratching behind Shiromaru’s ears. Ooooh, it looks like he likes that. "Mhm? Yes?"
"Lady Ryume… not that the acquisition of a dangerous Madou tool—"
"His name is Shiromaru."
"--ah, Shiromaru, isn't important, but… is the cleanup proceeding as per usual…?”
The one in the blue mask coughs into his fist for a second before also speaking up. “Forgive my impertinence, Lady Ryume, but also, are we going to help the Makai knights and the priest get back down safely?"
Ryume stops rubbing Shiromaru’s belly for a second and frowns. Oh. She knew she'd forgotten something. She squints up at the sky. She had personally seen Ryuga fly on his own at least once, and Rian was very good at the flight spell by now, but she didn’t know nearly enough about the capabilities of the other two. There wasn’t any sort of guarantee that they’d all get back down safely, especially after what was doubtlessly a grueling fight. Perhaps she should lend a hand?
Shiromaru whines, breaking Ryume’s concentration. He pushes his head up into her hand and looks up at her with forlorn doggy eyes, and she can't help but smile. "You know, I'm sure that Rian can handle it. She's very good at what she does."
She scoops Shiromaru up and he settles into her arms. "We're headed back. Blue, pick up some dog food on the way. Red, you can deal with the clean up. Report back when you’re done."
“Lady Ryume, I’m not sure— does it, ah, even need to eat?”
"What? By myself? Wait, Lady Ryume, please don’t leave me here. Lady Ryume. Lady Ryume?"
"No. No, you've got to be fuckin' with me, dude, what the fuck."
"I swear on the Garo Ken—"
"No! Stop talking! You— a dog—”
"Ryuga, while the effort you're making to keep us all from thinking about our imminent death by atmospheric re-entry is admirable—"
"Shut your face, Aguri, we're not gonna die I'm working on it. Anyways, where would Horrors even get a dog like that?"
"I don't know!! Why do Horrors do anything? "
"Maybe it was like… a thing. To throw you off your game. Like that time that Horror chick took off all h—"
"Please don't bring that up."
"Well… if it existed, the dog was clearly some kind of Horror. Did you kill it?"
"Yes! ...Maybe. Probably."
"What do you mean probably, Ryuga, fuckin' hell you can't just let a Horror go like that—”
"Okay, listen, we were all kinda busy as shit with Jinga and the literal dozens of Horrors pouring out of the walls, in case you’ve forgotten. And I know for sure that your record's not spotless either, so get off my ass—"
“Can everyone please just be quiet? I’m trying to concentrate over here.”
"It probably burned up in the destruction of the God's Fang or was used to activated it. That is, if it even existed in the first place. I’m certainly still not convinced—"
"Oi, glasses, d’ya ever take that stick outta your ass? If Ryuga says that he saw a dog then he saw a dog, ain’t like Horrors haven’t been weirder shit before—"
"ALRIGHT, BOYS. EVERY SHUT THE FUCK UP SO I CAN CONCENTRATE ON MAKING SURE WE ALL DON’T FUCKING DIE, UNLESS YOU WANT TO TAKE OVER, THANK YOU.”
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…so, was it, like. A cute dog, though?"
"Yeah. Super cute. 'Cept for the part where it was also a gun that was shooting me."
“Canine ranged weaponry. I hate this job.”
