#after doing last minute research i am deeply concerned for the girls' wallets and their mental and physical health :D

[e-adlirez]

Treasure Seekers 2 go brrrrr

So this sequel... exists :D

Welcome to the second entry in the Treasure Seekers trilogy that I'm gonna ramble about for the next six hours (in me time, in you time it's probably gonna be like thirty minutes or less), if you wanna read it yourself before reading this ramble, here's an Archive copy. Otherwise, enjoy the ride :D

So our story begins with the Thea Sisters locked in a basement in the dark, with Russia's penchant for matches (and the basement's lack of a smoke alarm) coming in clutch. Seems like another vacation's gone awry for them :3 How could it have possibly turned out this way?

Flashback: so the girls are vibing in Moscow, visiting all the cool sights and all that, Pam is wanting to try some Russian cuisine, when they spot this girl that's wearing what appears to be a barrette that used to belong to Aurora's sister Hannah Lane. They follow her a bit, find a THUG JUMPSCARE, follow the girl, Cassidy and co into the building they're heading into, and oh dear door with passcode is in the way. They find this dood Sergei, explain to him the situation, deal with him being like "who is u, and wth are you on about mate" until they hear a scream and oh dear turns out that girl with the barrette is Sergei's sister Irina and she's in trouble.

Sergei opens the door, they go in, walk in on Cassidy, Stan and Max (who I will from now call SM for simplicity) doing their whole thug jumpscare thing and kidnapping Irina in 4K. SM somehow rolls a high enough strength roll (or the girls roll a low enough initiative) that two roughly intimidating guys successfully trap six people into a basement without breaking a sweat get yourself some self-defense classes girls oml, and that's the end of that.

Luke's up to his shenanigans again, and it seems that he's targeted Irina Lenenko for the same reason the girls double-taked at the sight of her barrette: Irina (and Sergei in conjunction) is a descendant of Hannah Lane, and Hannah Lane may or may not have known a thing or two about one of the seven treasures. It's such a shame tho that Irina doesn't wanna spill any of the tea. What's this about a "queen's jewel"?

Oh also Luke has Aurora's third diary. I would like you to pay attention to this detail in particular. Oh and he's keeping Irina ratgrabbed until she tells them what he wants to know from her. Oh naur

Meanwhile the girls infodump all of the TS 1 LANE LOORRREEEE to Sergei in one whole sitting and finally manage to get around to "what the hell does this have to do with my sister". Sergei thinks it's not really possible for Irina to know anything about great-grandma Hannah's involvement with Aurora, but Irina's still in trouble soooo time to solve this nerdy-ass science trivia keypad puzzle to get outa the basement. Irina's nowhere to be found in the lab itself, so they regroup at Sergei's place to use his phone tracker app on his computer.

Bad news, SM dumped Irina's phone somewhere in the lab so the tracker app is useless; good news, while looking for some Lane Lore™ to get some context about the situation, the girls find some Lane Lore™ :D

-

Turns out Aurora was looking for one of the seven treasures again, y'know just updating her sister on that, who'd moved to Saint Petersburg with her husband Ivan.

Seems like Aurora's quest at the time involved "the queen's jewel", which Aurora said she was 1000% down to ramble about to Hannah, maybe when she's done finding all seven treasures and hiding them from Jan.

I would like to take this moment to remind you that Aurora is a British Amelia Earhart, and if you dunno what that means, look up what Earhart was famous for and then look at this with that given context :']

-

With that lead, the girls plus Sergei take a ride on presumably the Krasnaya Strela night train to Saint Petersburg, read some Lane Lore on the way, Peter-Griffin upon realizing that they spent the whole night reading AO3 fanfics Aurora's diaries and it's like 2AM now, land in Saint Petersburg, stop by Nevsky Prospekt Street to have some breakfast (I think they went to Venezia?), and discussion.

(For the rest of this review, please assume when I say "the girls", I'm including Sergei because Sergei tags along with them and helps them out in their entire journey. It's okay, Sergei may be biologically male but he is an honorary female in our hearts /j)

Aurora mentioned the queen's jewel in her diary, and when you're in Russia, the first queen that comes to mind is Catherine II, so maybe something relating to her? Some Lane Lore of Aurora taking interest in Catherine II's Amber Room in her palace specifically confirms their theories, sooooooooo it's time to go to the Amber Room to see if Aurora left any clu--

The girls are about to walk out of the Catherine Palace to Peter Griffin in private when SM JUMPSCARE--

So SM is stalkin' around the Catherine Palace looking for something, so the girls stalk them back and follow them out of the palace, into a car (the girls called a separate taxi to follow them), and to a little gray building in the outskirts of the city. They don't follow SM into the building because it might be dangerous, but Irina's scarf lying around near the premises confirms that Irina was in fact there and possibly being held hostage in the building.

The girls do a little tactic I like to call "the Ding Dong Ditch": Pam and Nicky knock on the door, SM answers it, do a little Metal Gear exclamation point "HOW DID YOU GET HERE", Nicky and Pam book it so SM chases them, and that's literally how the other girls plus Sergei sneak into the building to get Irina out. (You dunno how badly I wanted to make a videogame reference for this but I couldn't find anything so here we are--)

With that, the girls plus the Lenenko siblings book it outa there without SM being none the wiser (seriously it doesn't even cross their mind that there are more than two Thea Sisters, that's how dum they are). Irina books a hotel room at a friend's place and gives them some extra Lane Lore that she never told Klawitz despite the interrogations:

Hannah Lane was once visited by Aurora unexpectedly, a little after Hannah and her husband moved to a house near the Ob River, in Siberia. Possible lead :3c? The girls think maybe, so they decide to head on over to the exact address in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

In Siberia, the girls cross the frozen Ob River in Novosibirsk to this abandoned little house, where they find this little note with a riddle that talks about Cleopatra and an emerald she had at one point, and CASSIDY JUMPSCARE--

Cassidy busts in, snatches the note and books it away on her snowmobile before the girls can even react. You may be wondering, how the hell did Cassidy get there and know where they were? The answer is the same as the reason behind the SM jumpscares in Russia and in book 1, and that is Luke.

Luke Von Klawitz is doing a little segment that I like to call: Luke Touch Grass, where it becomes increasingly clear that Luke's spent way too much time on 4Chan (/j but you'll see what I mean). Luke hears about SM's failure and facepalms. Then he calls his friend Petrovski, who has access to the database of all of Russia's airports, for help tracking down "six mice leaving Saint Petersburg". Petrovski gives him results in minutes: the girls and Sergei are leaving Saint Petersburg and heading for Novosibirsk, Siberia (most likely Tolmachevo Airport). With that intel, Klawitz looks into his own database of Aurora Beatrix Lane, finds a picture of Hannah and Aurora together, and uses his own version of Google Lens to figure out the exact coordinates where the picture was taken, which happens to be in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

No this man does not in fact canonically touch grass on the regular, who's asking

Anyway so he sent Cassidy the coords, instructions and Aurora's diary to go, and that's how Cassidy walked in on the girls in that little abandoned hut next to Ob River. Only thing is uh, she dropped her purse on the way out. A purse that just so happened to contain Aurora's diary that Luke gave her.

So the girls scoop that puppy up and assume that the treasure is Cleopatra's emerald, thus they think it's in Egypt.

So the girls go to Egypt :D (29 and a half hour flight there good god no wonder they conked out in the plane--)

The girls read some Lane Lore, something about Aurora finding the treasure and hiding it somewhere in a desert, in an "expanse pure and white" that a star compass will lead to. First thing the girls think of at the desert bit is the White Desert (Sahara el Beyda), specifically a spot near Cleopatra's pool, so they leave the airport (not realizing Cassidy is following them now) and head over to a market to buy some supplies because might I remind you, they initially went to Moscow, Russia for vacation.

While in the market, Pam meets a guy named Omar. Pam tells him a little bit about them going to Cleopatra's pool in Sahara el Beyda, and she finds out that Omar just so happens to be an Archaeology major in Oxford University who's here on his summer vacation and works as a guide for Sahara el Beyda, and is more than down to give the girls a tour. Talk about lucky :D

The next day the girls take the scenic route and after a while make it to Siwa, where Omar books a room in a hotel for them, and the girls find this interesting myth there about Cleopatra that I will summarize here:

Cleopatra was once given a jewel that maxes out the owner's rizz and the effect is supposedly indefinite. Cleopatra liked the jewel so much that she wore it on her crown at all times... until she grew a bit self-conscious about the gem's maxxed rizz effect and how everyone kept eyeing the emerald a second too long for comfort, so she decided to hide away said rizz in a spot where none of her rivals could get to it. Oh and uh Cleopatra wrote up a dedication to Ra that's hella cryptic too.

One long rest later, the girls go to Cleopatra's pool on a donkey cart. Yes, a donkey cart. It was Omar's idea. Speaking of Omar, prepare yourself buddy because the girls have dubiously decided to give you some Lane Lore to chew on. O-oh you like it a lot. A lot a lot. Well okay cool, maybe you can help out, cool.

The girls manage to figure out the riddle in Cleopatra's dedication, find a little stone coffer that has the queen's treasure and-- SM JUMPSCARE

With a donkey as the girls' only escape method and Omar having suddenly disappeared, a scuffle ensues where the girls play hot potato with the box until SM gets their hands on it and opens it, and here we get a very accurate depiction of what SM and the girls found in the box once it was actually opened.

Description: a hand made of salt shaped in an upside-down "ok" symbol, circa 1920s-30s.

The sheer whiplash of this leaves both sides of the conflict losing enough HP that they're all on red-- SM is blaming the girls for this (how dare >:[) and dip. Omar is gone, and all the girls get as compensation is the empty box and a letter from Aurora telling them that they'll know to read the hidden clues. The girls head back feeling very hollow and dead inside, and this is the one time one of the girls questions how the hell did SM know they were at Siwa. I mean they never get any answer to this (kinda), but it is a milestone! They're aware of it now!

Once they get back to Cairo, they ask around and find that Omar's completely up and vanished, and they decide they'll just head back to Moscow since their investigation has come to a dead end. On the way, Pam comments about the falafel she bought being hella salty, which leads Violet to an epiphany that hey, the Sahara isn't the only desert that exists, let alone the only desert known for how white it is (like how Boracay Beach is known for how white and fine its sand is, but it's not the only white sand beach that exists). A quick Google search (and a long flight (35 HOURS CAIRO TO SUCRE???)) leads them to the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.

Nicky reserves a room for them at Hotel Luna Salada (a real place you can book a stay at actually :D), and they make a friend by the name of Adriana, a local waitress in the hotel restaurant. Adriana helps them pick out a dessert, fills them in on some stuff about the Salar since the girls came here 100% out of impulse, and talks about possible itinerary locations to go to, like the Isla de Pescado, Tiwanaku (the "Gate of the Sun"), Lake Titiaca, and Laguna Colorada. Y'know, typical tourist stuff, and Adriana was so kind to show them pictures she took when she visited said places herself! :D

Anyway so while the girls long rest, Luke is mulling about in his base waiting for updates. Someone calls him about the whole Egypt thing, and Luke calls the girls incompetent? Rude, oh and something about the caller being Luke's "secret weapon". Cassidy calls him on a theory she has about the gemstone being in Cleopatra's palace, and since the girls are currently long-resting (which means they aren't doing anything), Luke figures that a little diving trip in Alexandria to search for the gem with Cassidy won't hurt. Besides, he still has his secret weapon.

Oh yeah and he knows the girls are long resting because he has a drone in Bolivia spying on them and showing him their every move. Touch grass, Luke. No, going on a diving trip in Alexandria doesn't count, there's barely any grass there /j

Morning comes in Bolivia, and the girls head out early to search the Salar as much as they can. They look around the flat white desert, eat some late breakfast, toy around with forced perspective camera shenanigans for a bit, and read up on some LANE LOOORREEEEE

So Aurora's been to Pumapunku and Tiwanaku which is cool, she paid a visit to the archaeological site probably and that's really cool. She says something about hiding the queen's treasure in a fish's stomach covered in very fine thorns. Sergei ends up having an epiphany, and that leads the girls to Isla de Pescado, which just so happens to be "Fish Island" in Spanish, and has cacti on it, it's all coming together :D

Oh and the fish drawing Aurora made is coords to the treasure seemingly so that's cool-- OMAR JUMPSCARE

The girls are very surprised to find Omar joining them, and Omar explains that he booked it when SM came over and lost his cellphone as a result. However, he managed to figure out that Aurora's riddle was about salt and not sand, and decided to head on over to Bolivia since he assumed that's where the girls are going. How did he find them? It was just out of pure coincidence, and also the fact that the girls are extremely recognizable. Hm.

Anyway, Paulina plugs the coordinates into her GPS and leads the girls plus Omar to a little cave at the bottom of a little embankment. The girls find that, lo and behold, there's an old tin box containing a bright green emerald!

Meanwhile Luke is not finding anything in Alexandria haha L, LVK L get dunked on Luke, Cassidy girlie that's not a man to simp for find someone else gurl-- oh dear Luke is alerted that the treasure has been found and now he's planning on heading over to Bolivia? Now how could he possibly know that?

In the meantime, I dunno what's up in the air or if it's the Archaeology major speaking in him but Omar's really invested in this treasure, even more so than the girls to the degree that the girls are a little freaked out by it-- RHEA JUMPSCARE-- Paulina calms the big bord down and gets it to not trample Omar please, he's still a friend of theirs. Colette picks up this blue notebook Omar seems to have dropped.

The girls plus Omar head back to the SUVs, and Omar is really trying to persuade the girls that he should bring it back to Cairo. The girls are not jazzed at the idea because Omar bringing it back alone will be too unsafe, y'know with Luke and Cassidy and SM and all. They gotta think about this rationally-- WHOA OKAY OMAR calm your man tits buddy why are you demanding they trust you like you automatically deserve your trust-- ohh that's how Klawitz has known about the girls' whereabouts, Omar was working as a double agent.

So yeah Omar snatches the box from Colette and drives off in his SUV, leaving the girls in the dust. The girls freak out and are feeling that EMOTIONAL DAMAGE, but Colette for some reason is very calm about Omar booking it with the emerald. And that's because SHE HAS IT :D she did a lil' switcheroo so now the emerald's with her while the box is with Omar.

For context about how Colette knew about this, remember the blue notebook Omar dropped? Yeah that notebook was a company LVK notebook, straight from Luke himself. Then after Colette saw it, everything about Omar became incredibly sus, so she performed this precautionary measure.

So now the girls talk to the local authorities about how the whole thing with the emerald is gonna go down, and soon the girls are waiting for a plane back to Moscow.

As for Omar, well, he goes over to Luke's super-fancy hotel in La Paz, Bolivia, and he hands the box to Luke, explicitly stating that he decided he'd let Luke open it before he himself can appreciate it.

Luke opens the box, and here we see an accurate depiction of what Luke sees.

Description: an upside-down "ok" symbol drawn in strawberry pink lip balm, signed Colette [insert last name], circa 2018.

Luke punts the box (prolly with the lip balm still inside it) into the swimming pool, tells Omar to get out, and that's the end of that. Haha Omar L Luke L

The girls head back to Moscow to drop Sergei off when SURPRISE PARTY BY IRINA'S SQUAD :DDD

Then the girls are about to return to Whale Island to presumably Peter Griffin in their dorms, when Colette suggests they make a journal a la Aurora Beatrix Lane, and they do. In a pink notebook because it was Colette's idea so we might as well give her that

And they take a black-and-white group picture of them wearing adventurer clothes like Aurora would've done. The brainrot is real, these girls are mentally ill /j

And that's the book :D

... Honestly it's the most meh out of the trilogy besides the big-brain bits in the middle and the end imo

The writing was so much more stilted in this one, even for Scholastic standards, and everything feels pretty..... kid's book. Even more so than the usual in the book's English translations. I do readings for the books in some of my Discords, and this book did not read well at aaallll. And I haven't even mentioned the typos in the book (they're not a lot, but they exist, and they're kinda egregious :D) and some grammar errors if I'm remembering things correctly. It might just be a translation thing-- I worry a bit for the translator who had to put this together.

Luke's character here is also kinda wonk? For one we see him directly contradict his anti-friendship spiel in TS 1 since he literally greets Petrovski like a friend (maybe it's a "friendship doesn't exist except in 4Chan" thing, I dunno). Then in the middle of the book, he gets... very Disney villain-y. The most egregious example here is the chapter "Lurking in the Shadows", where as you can see

I am confusion?? Luke has been described as a to-the-point brat who hardly cares for the means to his end (unless it will impact his ability to achieve the end) and is so fixated on his goal that he doesn't touch grass. Is this not-touching-grass behavior? Yeah, definitely, but this??? This is too Disney villain???? Why does the man break into an evil cackle in front of Cassidy???? I understood it in book 1 because man thinks he's doing a "You may think you have outsmarted me but I have OUTSMARTED YOUR OUTSMARTING", but this one?? Maybe it's my personal taste, but it's too cartoonish and too... deviated from what we know of him up to this point.

ALSO TWIRLING HIS MUSTACHE? WHAT MUSTACHE IS HE TWIRLING THAT THING IS NOT TWIRL-ABLE

Also time to address the one big plot hole in this book: Aurora's diary.

So in this book there's only one diary, which is infinitely simpler than the two we got in the first book. This diary supposedly contains Aurora's records of her mission in hiding Cleopatra's Rizzmerald, and the details are supposedly vague enough that Luke felt the need to kidnap and interrogate Irina, a Hannah Lane descendant, to fill in the blanks. However, when you look at the contents of the diary itself (which lord knows how many times Luke himself has looked through it), there's hardly any blanks that need to be filled, at least if you're Luke.

The diary itself is mostly in the background-- like I said, not as much Lane Lore here as the previous book, the girls mostly rely on Aurora's letters to Hannah here-- but there's one specific entry the girls read in the latter half of the book that explicitly mentions Pumapunku and Tiwanaku, and how Aurora is there for her mission to hide the emerald. Complete with coordinates hidden in a little drawing! My one question I have for Luke is, why didn't he go straight to Bolivia and started searching there? Why did he go through all the effort of kidnapping Irina, tailing the girls around Sahara el Beyda, letting SM fall for the salt replica gambit, left his base to touch grass and go on a dive with Cassidy in Egypt; all if he could've just gone straight to Bolivia to look for the treasure there? Sure, Aurora did a good job hiding the coordinates in the fish doodle, but someone as observant and as obsessed about the outcome instead of the journey like Luke would rather have sidestepped all the Aurora shenanigans and beelined straight to the goal if he was able to.

Luke hardly has an excuse here because he owned the diary at the start of the book, and most definitely read through it many times (and we know he's the type to do this, see TS 1). The plot hole is plot hole-ing, it seems :/

Maybe it was just an excuse for the girls to get a giant glowing arrow pointing in the direction of the treasure? It certainly feels like it.

Anyway, the things that carry this book and made it memorable when I first read it (and allowed me to ignore the iffy bits) are the gottems and Omar as a character. Aurora setting up a salt replica of the Rizzmerald as a gottem in a time capsule, only to be opened almost a hundred years later to still be as potent as intended when it was made so long ago? That is amazing, like c'mon, pure comedy material.

Even funnier is Colette doing the exact same thing, only with her lip balm. Luke is quaking in his bougie-ass leather boots.

Now for Omar. This may be a hot take of mine here, but Omar's sus-ness is actually at a decent level compared to the girls and what they usually deal with. On one hand, Omar is incredibly suspicious with how incredibly lucky the girls are to find an Archaeology Oxford major working as a Sahara el Beyda tour guide; but on the other hand, the girls had almost the exact same situation with Diego in Mexico (I didn't mention him in the first review, but he came in clutch in TS 1).

The girls met Diego in Merida, Mexico, and he helped them with their research into "the invisible place", which happened to be Uxmal, along the Puuc Route. Diego also just so happened to be a tour-guide-in-training for the Puuc Route, which was the place the girls just so happened to need to go to find Aurora's second journal.

In comparison, the girls meet Omar in Khan El-Khalili while they were looking for supplies for their trip to the Siwa Oasis. It comes up in conversation that the girls are headed to Siwa, and Omar just so happened to be a tour guide for Sahara el Beyda, which was where the Siwa Oasis is, and it just so happened to be where the girls needed to go. When you stack them up together, it made perfect sense that the girls thought they could trust him-- Diego didn't know much about their trip and helped them the best he could (which was a lot), so why wouldn't Omar do the same? He's an Oxford Archaeology major, too, for crying out loud, the girls struck gold in the end!

Gold that was too shiny and too good to be true. Gold that was, in the end, nothing more than pyrite, fool's gold.

Omar is a good case for why you should be careful with who you trust, and when you should start thinking a little bit when you're getting a little too lucky with the people you meet. When the girls got to know him a little more and decided to trust him and tell him the deal with their trip, he got way invested in the gem-- too invested to not be a little bit suspicious. Maybe the girls mistook it for his passion for his archaeology major, maybe they mistook it for something else-- but whatever the case, Omar pulled the cheesecloth over the girls' eyes and really only fell apart near the end, when his alibis and behavior started becoming more and more suspicious; and by then, Omar didn't need to be as inconspicuous, and the girls had gotten to know him too much to readily say to him "okay buddy can you kindly f%ck off, your vibes are not vibing here".

The girls probably should've been suspicious when Omar reappeared in Bolivia out of nowhere, but I guess his alibi was just good enough (and the girls at this point were probably running on adrenaline, caffeine and a brain on 70% capacity at most) to pass the Deception check.

Fr tho there were some bits where the girls should've found him sus but they didn't (him accidentally saying "I did it" when they uncovered the emerald, and also him handling the emerald the way he did), so shrugs. It could be a translation thing, but it could also be something else.

Anyway, kinda meh for a sequel, but it does have its standouts that allow it to somewhat stand on the same level as the first and third books. Kinda.

Hey, at least it's not as bad as Crystal Fairies-- that's the bar of bad-ness I'm setting. It's not as bad as Crystal Fairies and that's what matters--

Also special thanks to @ishmeowwow (it won't let me ping you for some reason bestie <:[) for making the lil' artworks haha

#geronimo stilton #thea sisters #thea stilton #book review #book rambles #book rant #thank you ishmeow for making the gottems for me :D #you came in clutch while my ipad is still dieded thank you bestie <3 #in the book it's just the lip balm but ishmeow decided to go all-out with the gottem gag and i can't be more grateful lmao #same goes with the gemstone in aurora's gottem (it's just the fake tiara plus fake gem) but hey the more salt the merrier :D #book 2 luke is so jarringly different from his other depictions but at the same time #he does not in fact touch grass and he does crack an evil cackle at least once a book so #i dunno how i feel about it . . #on one hand it adds to him not touching grass #but on the other hand it doesn't connect with his “this villain is supposed to make you shnit your pants at how intimidating he is” #he's intimidating because of his connections his ability to basically spy on the entire world and control everything from his base #and y'know he can tell his goons to do whatever and they'll literally wreak havoc to fulfill said requests #he was so intimidating in concept that they had to nerf him with incompetent goons lmao #after doing last minute research i am deeply concerned for the girls' wallets and their mental and physical health :D #like good god i thought a ten hour flight was unbearable and made your body stiff but holy damn #i'm not complaining too much about the timeline tho because this is hilarious and makes the girls look so neurodivergent #“what do you mean we flew a total of 64 hours by plane feels like it's only been a day to m--” #*dies*

[shogetsus]

Stripes of Auburn, Eye of Sapphire

Prologue Pt. VI

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Summary:  "My lord, I bring Mai Mizusaki and Lord Masamune…"

Gulping hard and pretty much frozen in her spot, all she can do is stare at the very Devil King, Nobunaga Oda, as he fixes his fiery, very intimidating eyes on her and her only.

"You kept me waiting, Mai…" He says, his face unreadable, before his gaze falls further down to her hand, and then up again to acknowledge the warlord who brought her before him. A brow quirks up, yet barely and almost imperceptibly, but enough to make her lose her unconsciously very tight grip on Masamune's hand and flinch away from him as if he just burned her.

Mai

It’s worth to mention she had someone to guide her through the place in the first place, otherwise she’d have gotten hopelessly lost in no more than five minutes. Whoa, so this is what they call a castle, huh.

Once inside the castle, Masamune gets into a quarrel with Mitsunari and Hideyoshi about who should take her to her assigned room, but the former finally gives up as Mitsunari’s insistence for all of them to attend to their own recently arrived vassals instead. Easily enough, the warlords scramble away one by one, leaving Mai with the only company of the sweet Mitsunari.

She shakes her head, partially amused by that situation. “Are they really always like that?”

After apparently noticing she’s not disturbed by such friendly display, he smiles brightly. “Indeed they are. It has been some time since my lords’ last reunion, so as you may figure out, there is a lot to catch up on,” With his companionable guide, Mai’s lead to a spacious and quite comfortable looking room. “This room is yours to use as you like, Lady Mai. I hope it’s enough for you.”

She spares a moment to admire the decoration. “Wow, it’s more than enough! In fact, it’s almost too much,” Despite refusing to be there, she can’t help but be truly surprised at the commodities offered—too regal and even royalty-like, with expensive tatami mats spread all over and a huge futon at the center, nearly inviting her to throw herself over in an unceremonious way with how comfy it looks. “But please, it’s alright with the formalities. Just call me Mai, alright?”

Mitsunari seems to flush at that, “Oh, but I couldn’t possibly! You’re a lady and Lord Nobunaga’s savior…” He avoids his eyes and Mai’s not sure if to be flattered or concerned.

“It’s really fine, though. I’m not truly used to titles and all this fancy treatment, it kind of makes me uncomfortable. And, to be honest, I don’t need them either…” She just shrugs, trying to make her point clear.

He seems to relax at that statement. “Then… I agree on the condition as long as you stay as familiar and informal with me. Is that alright, Mai?”

Finally, she smiles back. “You’ve got a deal, Mitsunari.” It’s not like she could really say no to that angelical face of his, for the matter.

“Thank you. Now, take your leisure. Someone will come to fetch you soon,” The polite smile remains on Mitsunari’s face until he leaves the room with a courteous bow and closes the door behind him.

Once she’s left to her own devices, her brain makes fast work of filling on the gaps, sinking into the futon with a deep sigh. For how spacious and stately the room is like, it’s actually too quiet for her liking, her thoughts running wild and very loud in her head. There’s been absolutely not a single clue of Sasuke’s whereabouts since she last met him, and there’s no way of knowing what to really do next without him.

Lost for anything else, Mai empties her belongings onto the futon, looking for the best way out of the concerning situation she’s into; or at the very least, a distraction. Her only possessions are her guide, cellphone—pretty much dead for all it takes, naturally—wallet, house key, makeup bag, pads, sewing kit, and her test piece, Bearsace, looking back at her with warm acrylic eyes. Mai happens to have it with her as an example of her sewing skills, along with her dress designs inside a notebook, piled up for a job interview, and it’s been in her purse ever since.

She lets out another longing sigh, raking a hand through her copper hair. I was so excited to start my dream job. Why did this have to happen? Am I really the most unlucky girl in the world? A heavy feeling settles in her chest, beginning to truly realize how she can pretty much scratch that down her list.

Until a sharp ‘tock, tock’ sound startles her thoughts, looking up to the ceiling and the source of that noise just in time to see a panel slide open. Her hand scrambles for the closest object to grab on, happening to be her house key, deftly holding it between her knuckles and leaning back to prepare for whoever’s about to invade her room.

A familiar face appears in the opening, and Mai’s shoulders sag down in sheer relief.

“Hey there,” As if being summoned, Sasuke shows up, removing his mask and cracking up a friendly smile, “I’m not bothering you, am I?”

“Sasuke! I’m so glad to see you!” Brightening up at the mere sight, she makes room for him to get down the ceiling. “Did you follow me here?”

He climbs down with a certain grace Mai couldn’t possibly have expected in him, reminding her of the vocation he happened to take on in this timeline, landing without a single sound. “Yes. I just hid when those men arrived and kept up following your trail,”

“Oh, thank heavens you did!” She truly feels like hugging him tight, but refrains herself just so, lest she’d be accidentally pushing some boundaries she shouldn’t—only the gods know how many awful times she’s done so in the past. In the end he notices the gesture and leans down himself, trapping her arms in a warm hug, if politely brief.

“It’s good to see you safe and sound, Mai,” He says to her hair before letting her go, an honest look in his face. “I’ve already pieced together much of what happened,” His genuine smile falters a bit, “I see you’ve got yourself into some trouble.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ve been through worse in your four years here,” Mai gives him a thoughtful once-over, “I mean, it made you into a textbook ninja after all,”

“Yeah, there’s trouble, and then there’s Trouble,” Sasuke snorts, looking like appreciating her concerns, “Anyways, I’m here because I forgot to tell you something really important back at the forest.”

Her brow quirks up in sheer curiosity. Gods, let it be good news, please, please. “I did mention I was researching a way for us to get home, right?” Mai only nods, waiting for him to continue, “Well, recently, I was able to confirm that the wormhole opens here at fixed periods.”

“Oh, really?” That tidbit really catches her undivided attention, “Then that means—!”

“Ssh, keep your voice down, please. I’m not supposed to be here, remember?” Right; finding what is obviously an enemy ninja in someone else’s castle would be, classically and naturally, bad. “I’ll keep it short. The next wormhole will most likely provide our way home.”

Her eyes go wide, mindful of not making much noise this time and covering her mouth with both hands to muffle an incoming gasp. “So, there’s actually a way to get back home!”

“All in all, yes. Leaving the reasoning behind its recurrence aside, according to my data, the next traversable wormhole will appear in six months from now.” He explains solemnly. “I’m still calculating its location, but chances are good that if we make contact with it, it’ll return us to our original timeline.”

“Sasuke, honestly… all you just needed to tell me is that we can get back,” Mai brings her hands up to her chest, already feeling a terrible weight being put off her shoulders. “I’m so relieved I can’t even explain it,”

He smiles again in return, but only briefly, before adjusting his glasses, “However, it’s best if you spend your next six months here.”

Blinking twice, she frowns slightly, “You mean, here in Azuchi? Why don’t I just come with you? Isn’t it best if we team up or something?”

“Mai, we’re in the midst of a chaotic civil war. One that’s now further away from ending than the one in our timeline due to Nobunaga Oda’s survival…” Right, that’s another point she’s accidentally left out. “Besides, Nobunaga and his men seem rather fond of you, isn’t it? I doubt they’d let you go that easily,”

She winces, but naturally he’s not wrong. “Yeah, given their penchant for hunting me and handling me as a trophy woman, I suppose you’re right…” Her shoulders slump down, recalling the dire situation she’s into. “I don’t like the idea of staying here, though,”

“My employer’s base of operations isn’t here, but what I can promise is that I’ll try my best to stay in Azuchi for as long as I can. You can send a smoke signal if you run into any trouble!” He jests as if to cheer her up, giving her two thumbs up.

“Yeah, right… after I figure out how to make one, though,” She snorts, appreciating his will to help regardless.

“Oh, there’s one more little thing,” Mai notices how much the quirk of Sasuke adjusting his glasses are a sort of signal that he’s about to get serious, “Mai, don’t get deeply involved with people in this time.”

“Deeply involved?” Her brows knit into a frown, “Sasuke, I’m going to be in close contact with them for the next six months…”

He shakes his head, “I’ll be blunt, then—don’t fall in love, alright?” His lips purse, giving her a solemn look, “Doing so may cloud your desire to return to the future…”

A second of silence goes by, then two, and then three, before Mai has to cover her mouth with her two hands so to muffle a loud laughter bubbling up from the bottom of her throat.

“Hahaha, oh, Sasuke…” As she wipes tears of mirth with the back of her hand, she realizes he’s not really joking. “Love? Are you serious? How can you possibly worry about that happening? Like, really, have you talked to any of this people?”

“… All right,” For what’s worth, Sasuke doesn’t find that remotely funny, however, but decides to drop the matter for the moment. “I also recommend you keep the fact you come from the future a secret too.”

That tidbit makes the most sense as for their whole conversation. “Yeah, well, about that…” She bites her lip worryingly, “I’ve already told that to Nobunaga and Mitsunari. Not like they find it believable in the slightest, though.” She’s quick to add, “In fact, they didn’t even consider it for a moment. I think they took it as me having taken a hit in the head, or smoke-addled, but regardless, they didn’t buy it, that’s for sure.”

He nods in understanding, clapping a friendly hand on her arm. “Hmm, well. Best to keep it that way,” Then, he rolls his shoulders before propping himself up, “Anyways, my employer is in the city below and I’m staying with him. I’ll be able to come to your aid quickly should you need it, for now.” He flashes her a warm smile and adds, “Best if you learn fast how to make smoke signals, right?”

“Haha, alright, will do. But, what’s that your employer? What are you here for…?”

However, her question goes unanswered as Sasuke’s gaze shoots to the door at their left. Mai hears it too—footsteps approaching and fast. Faster than a gust of wind, her only ally is up in the ceiling before she can even notice.

“I’ll come back in another time. See you!” Pulling his mask up with one hand, he hushes in a whisper before becoming one with the shadows right in the nick of time.

Mai can’t help but startle as there are three sharp knocks on the door before it’s burst open, a man with silver hair sauntering in. His golden eyes are as cunning as they come, such as like that sly smirk crossing his face as he gives her a thorough look.

“I see you weren’t able to get away from Nobunaga after all,” He observes, his expression leaving nothing to make of. And this one is… right, Mitsuhide Akechi. “He’s calling for you…”

“I-I… beg your pardon?” Mai stammers, whatever words she had for him caught in her tongue, intimidated by that intense gaze examining her all over. All in a sudden, she feels very small and poorly dressed.

Until a second figure approaches, leaning nonchalantly onto the doorframe, chuckling softly, “Don’t mind this kitsune, lass. He meant to say Nobunaga is requesting you,” Masamune Date, all the ever charming, bats away the growing tension inside Mai’s room with the help of his playful smirk only—definitely more open and inviting to talk to than her former visitor, though.

However, Masamune has to step aside as, per the other warlord’s sign, a couple of maids politely walk inside the room. The two of them hold another set of a more regal kimono than the one she’s currently wearing as well as hairpins and some more accessories.

“’She can’t go dressed like that. Take this to lady Mai,’, is what Hideyoshi said, and pushed them onto me,” Mitsuhide explains to the group, that ever so sly expression never leaving his face.

“Sounds pretty much like Hideyoshi,” Masamune seems to feel inclined to admit, shrugging before addressing his associate. “Are you going to stand there while she gets changed? Come on, man, let’s wait outside. She’s not going anywhere…”

“Of course,” It’s all Mitsuhide says before leaving her with the maids, closing the door behind him.

With a dejected huff, Mai is left once again without a choice in the matter, submitting to the ladies attending her as if she were a royal figure from a faraway land. The maids praise her for helping prevent Nobunaga’s demise all the way into fitting her into what certainly looks—and feels like, to Mai’s embarrassment—a very expensive kimono. Then, they proceed to brush and adorn her hair, leaving her copper locks down and loose over her back, adding some quick yet elegant braids on the sides of her head.

After quite enough pampering than she’d be able to endure for much longer, the women finally leave her to meet the pair of warlords awaiting her on the hallway. A set of very pleased smirks meet her once the door slides open, but there’s definitely something smugger in Masamune’s face as he all but ignores his associate, sauntering past him in a moment’s notice.

She feels those sharp golden eyes straight on her as Masamune gracefully offers his hand to her, adding up some teasing exaggeration in the gesture. “Shall we go, Mai?”

His sapphire eye gleams in a delighting expectation, drawing her into its spell. It’s in that very precise moment—somewhere between when a blush creeps onto her cheeks and when her fingers slip into his palm all as if but having a life on its own—when she knows it with absolute certainty.

She’s undeniably doomed.

And by the looks of that wicked smile plastered all over Masamune’s face, she can tell it’s precisely what he was looking forward to doing to her.

Guided by his hand, all she can do is follow Masamune’s lead, flanked by a very amused Mitsuhide. “No sense of self-preservation at all…” He comments to no one in particular, hands clasped on his back, eyes straight ahead, just as relaxed as if they were taking a nice stroll across a park.

The words hang in the air, nagging her if briefly, before Masamune’s soft chuckle brushes them away. “Still with this tendency of always having the last words, I see,”

“Says the one who still manages to be fashionably late to every gathering he’s summoned to,” Mitsuhide spices up the little prodding game between them.

Truth be told, Mai’s still not quite sure what to make of Mitsuhide Akechi. He’s betrayed Nobunaga and arranged his gruesome assassination from the history she knows of, yet the fact of having seen someone else at Honno-ji doesn’t truly make him innocent of any possible scheming against his lord. But for some reason, the one man among them all who she’s slowly growing a genuine liking to seems to be alright around Mitsuhide, just as how he is around every warlord in Azuchi—and naturally, Masamune does know them better, after all.

Deep in the castle and after taking a set of turns that mostly loses her for a reasonable attempt to retrace her steps back to her room, they come to a stop in front of a wall of gorgeously painted screens. Mitsuhide then shoots them a curious look, apparently in sheer expectation of something, yet it’s as he swings the screens aside when Mai’s feet suddenly lose their will to move.

“My lord, I bring Mai Mizusaki and Lord Masamune…”

Gulping hard and pretty much frozen in her spot, all she can do is stare at the very Devil King, Nobunaga Oda, as he fixes his fiery, very intimidating eyes on her and her only.

“You kept me waiting, Mai…” He says, his face unreadable, before his gaze falls further down to her hand, and then up again to acknowledge the warlord who brought her before him.

A brow quirks up, yet barely and almost imperceptibly, but enough to make her lose her unconsciously very tight grip on Masamune’s hand and flinch away from him as if he just burned her. She doesn’t dare meeting his face, growing flustered like a child just caught on a mischief, but either way, she can practically feel his sheer amusement from miles away. That gesture alone seems to please Nobunaga, the dais void of any people but him—although the power of his presence practically fills the very room nonetheless.

Not long after and forming rows on either side of him, appear Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Mitsunari Ishida, and Ieyasu Tokugawa, coming up with Mitsuhide as well and Masamune for last. The sight is just baffling for any mortal eyes; some of the country’s brightest minds, stronger warlords and infamous conquerors, all but in one single room.

“Don’t just stand there. Approach me,” Nobunaga insists in a commanding tone, one that clearly isn’t up to a negative, a voice so deep it sends an unnerving chill down her spine.

Ever so careful, Mai forces her feet to move and waltzes across, doing her absolute best in shoving down her mortification, unable to meet anyone’s eye as she gets on her knees before him. For all it takes, the whole scenario seems like she’s about to be sentenced for a crime unbeknownst to her, feeling about to pass out in any moment.

When a satisfied gleam crosses Nobunaga’s copper-ish eyes, the look almost confirms her suspicions. “Henceforth, Mai Mizusaki, you are to reside in Azuchi Castle and give your service to me.” He proclaims; his speech—as becoming so very usual—not allowing any objection from anybody.

His assertion makes her all the more nervous. “I, um, thought I was up to hearing an offer from your part, my Lord…” Mai observes, worrying her lower lip, anxiety dangerously creeping its way up and threatening to get the best of her. “I said before I have another job. Am I allowed to… politely decline this, then?”

Judging by the ice cold in his gaze, it clearly doesn’t look like it. “That is of no matter to me. All you have to do is say ‘Yes, my Lord’.”

She gulps hard, bearing in mind her options. All things considered, she’s in a very precarious position; surely Nobunaga wasn’t going to be so gracious if she ran away once again—that thing being precisely what her mind is all but screaming to do as of then. But perhaps Sasuke is right, and her best shot is to spend her next six months in Azuchi.

For some reason, her thoughts drift to her father—as it tends to happen when she’s in a particularly concerning situation. What would dad do? The picture of Haru Mizusaki’s determined gaze falls upon her, always steering her resolve.

“If the world falls into chaos all around you, remember that sometimes the very eye of the storm is the safest place to take shelter on.”

Her eyes shoot to the left, catching up the striking blue and black patterns of a kimono, a hakama tied up by a golden crescent moon in the middle; regardless, Mai still doesn’t dare to bring her gaze further up to meet the wearer’s face. The sight does strengthen her resolve, though, bolstering her father’s words clinging to her mind.

“So be it.” It hardly is the wisest thing she’d done, but resigning to her fate is the best card she can play for the further moment. “Yes, my Lord,” She says to Nobunaga’s face, “I do have a question though. How exactly am I going to serve you?”

Nobunaga shows no hesitation, naturally. “However you like.” He says as if it’s obvious. At her confused look, he leans down and catches her wrist, pulling her nearer and onto his lap—his fingers remarkably and elegantly long. “Your only duty is to stay nearby. That is what I need of you.” His low voice turns to become surprisingly pleasant to her ears this time, yet there’s still not a bare hint of kindness in his words. “You will be my lucky charm as I unify this nation and all that lies under the sun.”

She flusters, mortified by the undignified treatment. However—and judging by no one in the room seems to bat an eye about it—it all pinpoints for her to contain herself and not slap that haughtiness out of his face, swallowing down her disgust.

Although the last comment makes her curious, “Um, you only want me around because I’m lucky?”

“Exactly. But fear not,” A devious smirk makes its way across his face, “You shall be known as a princess from afar and will be treated as such.” He spares a glance at his subordinates as if to make sure they all properly understood. “Spend your days on makeup, or Hanafuda games if it suits you…”

Am I just supposed to loaf around for six months and do ‘girly’ things? That’s almost preposterous to her. “No, thank you. I’ll go stir crazy if that’s all I can do here.”

“What?” Oddly enough, that single word question seems to start becoming the only one Nobunaga’s capable to make to her.  

A musical laughter makes its glorious return to cut down the tension, though. “I agree with you, Mai. I feel the same way,” Masamune nods in earnest approval, and Mai has no idea how he—or any of them, for that matter—is so collected and easygoing around such an intimidating man as Nobunaga Oda.

It’s another sort of concern with the One-eyed Dragon, however. Isn’t his so very flirty bantering with her kind of getting in the way of his lord’s wishes? Sure enough, she may not know much of proper decorum in the Sengoku period, but historically, crossing a superior has never fared well for anyone.

Either way, regardless of the way he does it, Masamune’s addition seems to do it, prompting a sigh from Nobunaga. “So be it, then. I shall appoint you as my chatelaine.”

She makes a quick rundown of the word. That’s the caretaker of a castle, right?

Mitsunari steps in, brightening the room with that angelic smile of his. “What an excellent idea! Mai, count on me to provide you with all the support you need to get started!”

Ieyasu doesn’t seem to be in agreement, as very characteristic of him. “How could this waif possibly be of any use?”

Hideyoshi, as the ever admirer of Nobunaga, scoffs beside him, “It’s Lord Nobunaga’s decision, Ieyasu. Hold your tongue.” Luckily, no one seems to notice Mai’s exasperated eye roll at that, “Though only time will tell if we can trust her…”

“Who says you have to?” Mitsuhide points out, shrugging nonchalantly, “Just keep an eye on her. You’re good at that, right?” He directs a brief yet all the same mischievous glance at Masamune before adding, “She may surprise you.”

Masamune’s flashes a wicked smile, but thankfully doesn’t comment back on it. “Then it’s decided.” Nobunaga concludes, chin straight and looking pleased, “Work hard and prove your worth to me, Mai.” ‘Or else…’, his tone seems to slip on, but that goes without saying.

She opts for letting them bicker on without interrupting, hyper-aware of having the unrelenting gaze of Nobunaga upon her, adding that intimidating smile playing across his face. I only need to put up with them for six months. Just six months. I can take it as an internship! Plus, I’ll have Sasuke around, so it’ll be alright. Although that could hurt more than it helps, considering he just disclosed his employers seem to be nosing around and stirring trouble—and that’s without contemplating the true reasons why they’re in Azuchi all along.

Then again, if she allows her thoughts to run wild she knows she’ll never be able to stop.

“I won’t let you down.” She settles for saying, as collected and resolute as she can.

And true enough, she can do it. She’s faced hard challenges many times before and while not always she has come out unscathed, that doesn’t mean she’d be brought down by this. She will endure and learn from the waging war of this time and survive enough to make it back to the present time, making it all an incredible adventure to get a good laugh from. She has to live to tell it, it’s even preposterous to think otherwise.  

Besides, having to spend six months of her life in a chaotic period such as the Sengoku doesn’t truly mean she wouldn’t be able to have some entertainment in the process. And if a playful look from a sapphire eye is anything to go by, fun times seem more than assured.

Hanafuda: Playing cards of Japanese origin that are used to play a number of games. The name translates to "flower cards”. The name also refers to games played with the cards.

#Cassie writes #Stripes fic #Ikesen #Ikemen Sengoku #Ikesen Masamune x MC #Ikesen Shingen x MC #Ikesen fanfiction #Ikesennw reblog #Hoo boy it gets so much better from here onward :D #MitsuMasa as Best Power Couple in Sengoku period #That's all I'm saying lol