Meanwhile, back home...

[Amaterasu]

“Of course, done by the prime herself. Building the wall, from what J’zargo heard, was menial task for the girl. It took hours. The construction of a society in Atlas took quite some time, however. If you wish to talk with someone more informed, J’zargo suggests meeting with the one they call ‘Bianca’ in the underground tavern. It is much warmer down there, but J’zargo prefers to stay away from the toxic smells of sweaty barbarians and wide array of greased food and alcohol.”

“Very well, thank you for your time.” She says before gesturing to Urist to come along. They needed to return to Amaterasu to inform her.

As Fiara walked her way back towards the stables where Amaterasu and Oki were waiting something came to her mind. "Oh, I should check if there's any news about this Dee-Ay thing..." She opened her Dataverse device and flicked through the screens, browsing the news semi randomly. Messageboards... what was this? A PSA? She blinked and opened the thread. Agh, the reception in this place was terrible... then again it was the Frozen Fields, people probably didn't spend much time around here. She should consider herself lucky to capt any messages at all. There was a slow-loading image there... and a warning? "Yadda yadda yadda, sadistic, blah blah... will murder you. Huh.

Then the image finished loading and a deep frown crossed her face. Split personalities? Any five-year-old could have told by a simple look at her that she was possessed. Didn't look very healthy either... white hair and skin this pale was either albinism or it meant that her life was being drained by the possessing spirit. Couple that with her being murderous and sadistic and there was pretty little doubt. Some creep went off about her being Yandere, which made her wonder if there was an option to upgrade these things to slap people through the screen. Maybe? This Omniverse place had a lot of tech she'd never seen, that sort of thing shouldn't be out of reach.

"What're ye... mph, doin'?" asked Urist and leant closer.

"Just happened across this message about... what's that you're eating?"

The dwarf swallowed before replying. "Cheese fondue! It's delicious, ah'm gonna save some fer Ammy so she can summon more... bu' ah couldn' resist 'avin a taste an' now ah can't stop."

"Isn't it warm?" She took a closer look. Apparently that J'zargo cat had wrapped the food into a piece of carton so it could be eaten on the go. The smell coming from it was delicious. "Mmmh... I can see why."

"Aye... 'e said it's called fondue. Ah wonder if we got tha' in Dwarfholm."

The phoenix girl focused her attention back on the Dataverse device. It wasn't much but at least she could leave a message behind... 'Please log in to post'? What the hell... she grunted as she clicked her way through to the next screen and filled the form with some bogus data. It wasn't like they would believe her if she told them that her adress was in Nippon after all. Username? She thought just a moment for this one before typing in what first came to her mind. R4inb0w_Pho3n1x. She felt like grinning. What a cool idea to replace letters from that weird romanji alphabet with numbers! Now then for a reply... she typed down what she knew about the Youkai who she suspected to be possessing this poor girl and recommended that she go seek out a Kannushi, a shintoist priest. They had to have some of those around the Omniverse, right? As she hit Send, she hoped that the message would soon reach her.

DING!

Almost immediately someone replied. Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX. This guy again... What the hell sort of name was that even? He made even less sense than his previous posts using slang that she made no sense of. She was about to tell him to get his head examined and cut the gibberish, but then they were already at the stables again so she decided to stop. What was that old saying again? Don't feed the Oni. Something like that.

When Fiara and Urist arrived, with the dwarf munching some yellowish sticky substance with bits of meat in it, Amaterasu was just about done summoning. Oki had a new sword on his back - though she had given him a glaive more reminiscent of the Blade of Kusanagi, the blade she had used during her journey, instead of a new Kutone, at his own request. The treasure of the Oina tribe was now in Omni's hands and he would not have a replica. The rest of the time she had summoned gold and silver pieces so that they would have some currency to spend. "Hey you two, back so soon? What did you find out?"

"Apparently someone named Amber is the Prime who built this whole place, but she's not around. We can meet someone named Bianca though."

"I see. And where is this Bianca?" she asked as she handed out three leather bags, each with a sum of gold and silver pieces in it.

"Underground, apparently. This whole place has several levels."

"Well... let's park the Nimbus somewhere more permanent and go inside, then!"

Though the stable-keeper was quite unsettled to see the group pushing a cloud into one of his vacant boxes, his attitude quickly changed when Amaterasu put a silver coin into his hand. "No feed needed, but if you could just keep an eye on it we'd appreciate it... very much", she said, then they asked for directions to the way down.

As soon as they got inside the temperature rose. Fortunately there was a storage space available to take their coats and luggage, though they had none of the latter left since Amaterasu had desummoned their provisions and climbing equipment a while ago. They were aiming to stay together, so there was no use in heaving that much material around. Urist and Fiara were already wearing their lighter clothes beneath the coats, but Oki and Amaterasu had to change in a dark corner. With her miko dress on and Oki in his light shirt and trousers again, they felt much lighter and more comfortable.

"Now for this Bianca girl", declared Amaterasu, and they descended as instructed, until they came to the tavern. J'zargo's description of 'toxic smells', 'sweaty barbarians' and 'greased food and alcohol' was pretty fitting. Amaterasu had to cover her nose with her sleeve to breathe, and even so the sheer volume of noise that assaulted her ears even after she laid them back against her head was very unsettling. Several tables went quiet as they walked by. While the Omniverse was anything but uniform when it came to its inhabitants and Atlas, being so close to the Nexus Gate, had formed quite the hodgepodge of people of various races and ethnicities, people as exotic as the three easterners, in particular the pale-skinned one in the white and red dress, drew more attention than others.

As they traversed the middle of the tavern an outstretched leg blocked their path. Fiara simply lifted her foot to climb over it, only to find herself walking into the arm of the stranger who had so rudely got in their way. "Ay, girl, wha's the big hurry?" he slurred. His breath smelled of cheap booze. He was obviously tipsy.

Fiara eyed the hand, then as if following a trail turned her eyes towards the man. "You want to let us through or should I break a few fingers first?" she asked coldly. This just drew mocking laughter from the other patrons at the table.

"Hey now, you know the rule. To pass the bridge you gotta pay the troll tax. But you're a cutie so I'll settle for just a kiss." He underlined his offer with a creepy wink. "But if ya can't keep your hands off me my lap's got plenty of space."

Fiara was about to activate her Blasters when Amaterasu put a hand on her shoulder. She gently pushed the girl backwards as she leant over the table and smiled at the patron, her elbows propped on the wooden surface. "Look, good man, my friend is clearly not interested. And if the barman sees you getting flirty with underage girls he'll probably cut you off, so... how about you go back to enjoying your drink? The night is still young." Though she felt quite different, this was not the time to be teaching a man manners. She put on her warmest, most innocent smile that she could and placed her chin on the back of her hands. "Okay?"

"Okay..." the man replied, looking stunned. The others of the table had gone quiet too.

"Thank you", she mused and stood up straight once more. The man hastily pulled his leg back and let them pass. As they got to the bar, Amaterasu chuckled. "I've always wanted to try that."

"Where on earth did you learn to put on a smile like that?!" asked Fiara wide-eyed.

"I sat through one of Kannushi Rao's sermons once, that's when I saw her do it. Of course I didn't know she was the Kyubi at that time, but... well, she pretty much caught the heart of every man who came to listen to her. If men behave that way they're usually sad inside, so I lifted his spirits a bit."

"A bit, eh? 'im an' 'is whole gang are still starin' at us", Urist pointed out.

"Don't mind them." She approached the barkeeper. "Pardon me, but we've heard that a certain Bianca could be found here. Do you know if they're around?" She carefully skirted the usage of gender pronouns. These western names were always so ambiguous...