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Hidden Fragment- Net Slum
Noze carefully picked her way down from the rusted remainder of rickety remnants, scrap metal and discarded machines. Hopping nimbly off the last pile, she finally reached level ground, and spent a moment fastidiously adjusting her dress. even after hearing GeininX's explanation, she hadn't heard the emphasis, nor the capitalization, of 'The World'. As such, even after hearing it, she still thought he was just talking about any ordinary junkyard, not the peculiar and unique field that Net Slum was. Nor had she picked up on the true nature of just where they were, the unusual method of transport had seen to that.

At the mention of a chance to go in and rest, she nodded. Rest seemed worthwhile, never mind the fact that things were far from comfortable out here. Even with the mention of glass and live wires, it still had to be better than this, yes? Turning back as she heard another approach, she saw it was Randall, still running along like a beast, but now clutching an odd assortment of parts. Curious, did he know what those pieces were, know how to use or fix them? Or was he like a magpie, grabbing them because they were shiny treasures? No way to know, there was no reliable way to communicate with him that she knew of.

Next her gaze moved on to Kawari. She had remained silent, and even now was warily turning in a circle, keeping an eye on their surroundings. There were no obvious threats, but she seemed to sense something to be wary of. whether that was an internal or external threat, impossible to say. Surely, if it was something that posed a danger to the rest of them, she would announce it? Until then, better to not distract her, save a slight gesture toward their destination. She hadn't seen very many large buildings in her travels, but if she had, she might have recognized this as a section of one. As it was, it seemed an unusual house, with very rough edges, it looked like it had been pulled out of an even bigger structure. But where had the rest gone? No problem, she could always ask GeininX later, if it came down to it. He seemed to know a lot about where they were, after all.
[385 + 5299 = 5684 out of ??? ]

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Hidden Substance
Hedoro had just finished claiming a fifth victim, when she realized she didn't know for sure just how many more targets there were. Mamichi had never said just how many they numbered. That didn't bother her, keeping secrets gave you an advantage, if Mamichi was already aware of that fact, then she wouldn't begrudge it's application. It certainly didn't mean she was going to do anything less than her best, of course. As it was, not knowing how many targets there were, or precisely where they were, made this a rather difficult challenge. As well, her senses seemed to be growing distorted or faded. She didn't really see, not in that sense that most living ebings did. For the most part, she operated almost solely on tactile sensations, the sense of touch. Even for detecting her surroundings, all she did was 'feel' the water vapor in the air, and where it wasn't. Yet now... Now it was becoming more difficult to do that, why? The first possibility was that one of the mercs she had already claimed had somehow been tainted, poisoned. But she didn't think that at all likely. Both because Mamichi didn't seem the type to do something so underhanded. And also because she was fairly sure that she couldn't really be poisoned. No, this was something else. As her first real experience with another Meliae not of her direct generation, Hedoro had no way of knowing that she couldn't sense through another Meliae's substance as easily as water vapor, for some reason it was like wearing somebody's glasses when you didn't need them, it rendered things blurry, distorted. Time may deign to teach her that lesson later, but for now, she had no clue toward the source of this distortion, just annoyance at it's presence. Putting that annoyance to work as determination, she sped up, her five forms spreading out even more, trying to find at least one more merc before Mamichi got to the rest of them. Time was running ever shorter, if she didn't make a big push now, it might be too late.
[350 + 3410 = 3760 out of ??? ]

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Hidden Love
Saya cried out in surprise as she enjoyed a rather bumpy ride down the hill atop a moving carpet of watermelons. Somehow, she avoided getting seriously hurt through all this, but clean? that was another matter. Her shirt, once a nice, crisp white, was now almost completely stained pink from watermelon flesh. Her hair was mussed up pretty badly, too, from the sweet juices. But the one object that suffered the most from this sudden fruit deluge, was none other than the festival that was still being set-up. Melons collided with stalls that had been selling flowers, jewelry, hot food, clothing, and more. All of it, burst apart at the onslaught of green orbs. The various shopkeeps cried out in rage at this little slice of chaos, each glaring daggers at the one they thought responsible. By some miracle fluke, not a one thought it was Saya, and instead they started berating each other. A few even stooped so low to pick up a watermelon and chuck it at another stand. This served as a rather obvious trigger for that most ancient form of war, heralded by a young boy selling papers. "Food Fight!" With that cry, even more shopowners joined in, even more watermelons, and chunks of melons, were propelled through the air. By this point, Saya had gotten to her feet, and picked up a large piece of watermelon. Not to throw, but because it looked tasty. Not eating food off of the ground seemed to be yet one more lesson she had failed to cotton on to. That may well have been fortunate, as cotton was awfully hard to clean when stained with watermelon juice.
[279 + 209 + 758 = 1246 out of 17,600? ]

Hidden Substance
After a time, Hedoro's senses began to refocus. Was she becoming accustomed to whatever that odd distortion was? No, she could almost feel it, and whatever it was, it was fading away, and normal water vapor was filling the air and area once more. Now, she could truly strive for any remaining targets. Even so, she had lost a lot of time during that blackout. She'd have to start playing to win!

She hadn't wanted to do this. Both for the fact that it was simply indiscriminate, and also because it wasn't just relying on her own abilities, but also that of an item. In this case, a flute, but it may as well have been a crutch. It slid out from her arm cleanly, and without bringing it to where her mouth appeared to be, it began to play. A soft tune, yet it cut through the constant patter of rainfall, filling the air with high notes, causing a slight bass tremble at the lows. What purpose could this music have? At first none, but after a time, it seemed to have led her to what she was looking for. The final mercenary. They were no longer hiding, they had sprawled over from their hiding spot, blood trickling from their ears, being diluted by the still-falling rain. They were still alive, but it wouldn't be for long. And while they remained conscious, they'd be trapped within a particularly nasty hell. She seemed to remember that the human sense of pain was widespread in it's range. Virtually anywhere on a human that was stabbed or cut, they'd feel pain. She intended to test that, both externally, and internally.

Even so, they didn't seem to gain any fresh stab wounds, instead, they just writhed and twitched, small convulsions as they frothed at the mouth. Without them even playing anymore, the hunt became less interesting. So she grabbed them up, and debated adding a little twist on this game. As well, she'd be able to see first-pseudopod just how well Mamichi might react. Without giving any sign that she was potentially done with her own hunt, her other four forms continued their search. The one who had snared this latest victim, however, seemed to change. Translucent blue substance slowly gave way to a more disturbing appearance. It took a moment's complete concentration, but she'd done it. This section of Hedoro now looked exactly like a human! And a human wandering the streets right now was a target. Would Mamichi fall for it? She may look exactly like a human, but her movements were clumsy. The same problem that Mamichi was having manipulating her corpse, actually. It was difficult getting used to all those sloppy muscles, sinews and bones!

[458 + 3760 = 4218 out of ??? ]

Hidden Substance
Hedoro ignored much of the world at large when she had first transformed. Partially, because she had to. Humans were limited in that they could only see what was right in front of them. The last time she had taken this form, and tried looking behind her, she had fallen over. Apparently human bodies couldn't even twist a full rotation, let alone more! So limited! But they did have their perks. Actual vision, for one. She had forgotten just how vibrant colors could be, actually seeing them for the first time in months. You couldn't feel color, after all, this was a sense that she had almost missed. So now, she was looking around as she moved, or rather, once she had gotten the hang of moving. It was almost like working a series of pulleys attached to still more pulleys. One pulled on the end of another, causing the limb to bend just so... Far too complicated, yet the fleshlings were able to do it. That meant she was able to as well. She just had to learn how first.

It had taken several minutes of walking with a rather crude manner; short stomping steps, as if each foot weighed much more than it actually did, before she got the hang of it. But finally, she was moving around more or less under control. That was when she noticed the appearance of Mamichi, right in front of her. No warning through her normal senses, a human's sense of touch was limited only to what their physical body made contact with. and she'd been looking the wrong way at first, by the time she swiveled her head back, the skin shell that Mamichi had been using had already burst open, and she was reforming herself. After hearing what Mamichi said, Hedoro's arm twitched, seemingly a muscle spasm. Odd, that hadn't been what she had intended. Concentrating more on it, she succeeded in her second attempt. Namely, that of bringing her open hand up to her head in an expression of mental exhaustion, a facepalm. Odd, how complicated such a simple action was. Humans were so limited!

Even then, though, she didn't answer in the positive. "N-nnnu, aai Hafunt zznnn herr..." Controlling the human tongue enough to shape sounds was an exercise in frustration, but hopefully her reply of 'no, I haven't seen her' would still be understandable. It wasn't a lie, either. After all, her eyes had only formed after she had begun changing, when she was no longer in the form that Mamichi was speaking of. Once she had replied, she just stood there, arms dangling limply at her sides. She was curious, was Mamichi this friendly to all strange humans? Why hadn't she attacked already?! Sure, humans attached great importance to their children, but this one was alone and unattended, it was a perfect target.

There were two sides to this plan of hers. The first was to test Mamichi, make sure she was properly ruthless at all times. The second, was to distract her, give the other four Hedoro-selves time to hunt down as many more of the mercenaries as she could find, however many more of them that there actually were. Mamichi had an advantage in her sheer range right now. But she hadn't seemed to learn how to fully divide her concentration into multiple forms, that was an opportunity for her to act. But first, she'd wait and see what Mamichi did next.
[580 + 3760 = 4340 out of ??? ]

Clicks of very small German jackboots could be heard with eminence of feebleness heading pressing up word the gravel trails "Dur...It vent from 'hot' to 'boiling.' Nien." Oxide said speaking softly only to himself while climbing up the mountain. The dark uniform he wore on that hot day didn't make 'Hidden Volcano's air streams any cooler or the climb under the sun any. After coming back from the academy, The small Chibi solder had just left the Hidden leaf academy training grounds not really learning anything what so ever and traveled back to his home...to his. . . "MY VOUSE IZ Z'ON FIRE! NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN!" Oxide said screaming running in circles looking for source of water. The home was in a hot inferno. He had to find water quickly but the thing was, he had probably already been too late. A large flaw in the villages on top of the volcano's design was because of there is always being precautions of clans controlling the magma so the volcano could be a safe fire free environment for animals and people. No one ever planned for people to START fires. All that there was, were few puddles and large ponds at the bottom of the volcanoes' ridge line. With no time at all to spare, little Oxide ran swiftly down the mountainous volcano and headed to the ponds that were at the bottom of it all. Being tired, Oxide still ran all the way down the mountain structure to the water souses leaving tracks of his heavy German boots, and the reddish orange pigment dust trail of the volcano behind him.

As he ran to the bottom the scenery became more urban. Small brown wooden shacks would house some farmers or family's, their were large green pine trees appearing along the trains on way back down that had a outdoorsy scent. It was only highly urbanized because only few daring and brave decided to settle so far away from fire country. Well sure they had the large umbrella that was the "Hidden Volcano" village, but they were miles to miles up the mountain. The only thing out of character from it being perfectly peaceful and relaxing spoiled by the youth of tranquility in the small woodlands would be the short screaming chibi nazi, eyes wide and mouth flapping in the wind from running so fast. The dust behind him settled onto the gravel trail every time he tripped and or fell over (sometimes even began to roll down the hill).

Once Oxide reached the bottom he had tall evergreen pine trees overhead towering every living being in their massive height besides the stone Volcano which was practically alive since it contained so much magma inside its thick stone structure. He looked around for some kind of way to contain water like the volcano contained lava. Nothing convenient the small Nazi child uses his very own World War II German commander hat to scoop in very few ounces of water than ran up the Volcano once more. He ran quickly, white eyed. Instead of dust behind himself this time it was now replaced with the occasional fragment sized gravel being kicked up, lots of droplets of water out of his gray commanders hat, and a supple amount of tears trailing behind him, A LOT of tears. He ran threw the woods and reached the red dust of the mountain, seeing his homes smoking up from the bottom he winced at the sight of the large very thick black smog.
(600 X2 = 1200.)

“…” Mamichi just stared at the child… stared blankly… she was familiar… and then it dawned on her she’d seen her at the Halloween party in that bizarre town through that odd portal, “Hey! I know you! You were at the Halloween party!” Mamichi said delighted and started to circle the person rapidly, unlike Hedoro, Mamichi was capable of humanoid sight while in the form she was in, she didn’t exactly have eyes but then again she did after all the Maliae had no organs to speak of, But Mamichi was something of a mutant among her kind with several… eccentricities. Much like her preference to dead things to living though living with Hedoro had warmed her to the idea of living prey, this girl was human… but she had seen Mamichi before so she would let her live, Mamichi had grown a taste for a rather different kind of food recently, not even living things, metal and wood mystified her palate now, items as it were. And so Mamichi stopped and turned to look at this girl she seemed to be a bit off just as she had been back at the party, a little wobbly as she stood there twitching a bit… Mamichi puddled herself suddenly turning into a thin layer of liquid and just spreading out, it was odd how easily one of their kind of disappear. Just as simple as letting go and relaxing, Mamichi’s head popped put to look at the girl, well if you see her she’ll eat you… but be sure to say that Mamichi says the game is done and that it was a tie game, 6 to 6 as it were perhaps should have designated an extra person to kill make victory a definite unless of course they kill themselves off.”
300
OoC: Man I should probably go back and actually look at how many words I got XD