Author's Note: As suggested to me in the last chapter I'll soon start having a section at the end of each chapter to where each character lies in their status. I'll also do such a thing for the previous chapters where it applies, back to about Rebellion the Third: Food For Thought. It might be a lot of information to process, but if it provides the option to help the readers I'm all for it. Also, I might be making a few small changes to the system, but it's nothing too jarring. Enjoy the chapter everyone.

Rebellion the Ninth: Progression 1

"Dammit, that was one hell of a breakfast rush…" Ragna the Bloodedge muttered to himself as he headed into the small room his team was staying in, his signature red coat slung over his shoulder as he headed into the doorway. Opening the door, he saw the three of his other teammates gathered around each other looking at their status screens in open discussion. "Care to catch me up?"

"We managed to figure some stuff out, but it's going to get harder not to bring attention to ourselves," Yu said. "Yesterday when were out with May, we managed to find that we're not the only ones around here with special stats. I mean the whole invisible screen thing still seems like its unique to us, but May had this strange object that she could create in her palm called a Soul Scroll."

"Soul Scroll… Right…" Ragna muttered to himself. "And if it's what the people of this world are usually using, then we'd have to get those things for a chance to blend in…"

"I think we're far past the point of blending in," Ruby reminded the team. "So for now, I think our best shot is to stand out as best we can give them some hope whenever they hear stories about us!" She then gave a girlish giggle. "In a way, it's almost like I'm acting as a Huntress."

"Well, you are one in training…" Ragna noted, leaving Ruby to send him a bright smile to show that she thought he'd given her a compliment. "I don't know, did you guys even have a plan for how to blend it?"

Kind of; and it doesn't sound like it's going to take a lot of effort either," Hyde told him before gathering visible energy in his hand. At first Ragna thought he was summoning the Insulator, but that was before he noticed the energy that he was casting was purple instead of his usual red. A moment later there was a small scroll in his hands that was quite similar to the one that May had showed them the day prior. "Using just a bit of magic, you can create something that's almost exactly identical to a Soul Scroll, in fact it's so close that this might be an actual one. It doesn't have our Skills on it, but that was intentional on my part, since that feature seems to be a rarer one. Pretty neat, right? We can show you if you need any help making one."

"Hmph." With that small grunt, Ragna opened his palm and allowed a small blue flame to take form. Everyone around him looked in surprise as he created his own soul scroll in the palm of his hand. "Made one, now what?"

"You managed to make one just like that!?" Ruby exclaimed before pouting. "Lucky… It took me hours just figure out the magic enough to make mine."

"In my defense, this is far from the hardest thing I've ever had to cast," the Reaper explained, remembering his former ineptitude with the nigh impossible Ars Magus as he looked over his personal Soul Scroll. "One problem we've got though; the classes we've all got and the stats I've been stuck with are kind of a tell-tale sign that something's up with us."

"It's going to stick that way, we can't seem to alter what the category shows at all. This is going to be one of those factors that we can't account for, but we can try to work around it as best we can to make sure we're not spotted too early on," Yu explained. "There's still a slight problem though; when we found out about Soul Scrolls from May we made it clear that we hadn't heard of them before and we wouldn't have them."

"So what's the big deal? All we gotta do is tell her that we figured out how to make 'em now that we know what they are," the Reaper told them, figuring if they were lying it was usually best to keep it simple.

"That's the problem, there's supposed to be a special ceremony called an Inner Awakening that gets you these, but besides knowing that the ceremony supposedly takes place at the church we don't know much else," Hyde recalled. "You'd think that the temple priests would've let us know this before we headed off."

"Yeah, you'd think. Well we sure as hell ain't getting anywhere just by sitting on our asses," Ragna decided crassly. "Let's head to the church and figure out what we can do."

"You're moving kind of fast, aren't you?" Ruby tried to advise. "If we're not careful, couldn't we blow our cover completely?"

"First, you have no right to lecture me on moving too fast Miss Fifty-Dexterity," the Reaper scolded his young partner who tried not to look pleased at the reminder. "Secondly, we're supposed to save these people, aren't we? Even if we try to keep our pasts under lock and key, the whole secret's probably going to come out sooner or later and then what? I doubt that too many people are going to believe the whole 'other world' thing and if they do, hopefully we'll have done enough by then that they don't care."

"So… you're saying that we're making a bigger deal of this than we need to?" Hyde asked before sighing. "Well… maybe you've got a point. Back home I had only a few people that I could talk to about my powers, but here it feels like that sort of thing is common knowledge."

"Same on my end; people using Personas wasn't a common sight and even then we could usually only use our powers in a specified area or event," Yu had to agree. "Still, I'm sure that the sight of Izanagi would get the attention of more than a few people off."

"Then just tell 'em it's some new form of magic; you won't be completely lying at least," Ragna said bluntly, once again electing to take the more simple approach. "If you're so worried about what everyone thinks about you, you won't get a damn thing done."

"Easy for you to say; you're not the one trying to raise your Sex Appeal," Hyde muttered.

"Or has a date to go on tonight," Yu added.

"Right or has to… wait, what?" As evident by Hyde's reaction along with Ragna's skeptic gaze and Ruby's tilted head, Yu had yet to tell anyone from his team that he had plans for that night.

"Yesterday I asked May if she'd like to grab dinner and we agreed to eat together tonight," Yu explained to his team casually. He didn't think there was anything wrong with such a thing (and in truth there wasn't), so he was a little surprised as Ragna just groaned and shook his head. "Is that a problem?"

"Nah, it's just you should remember who you are and what the hell we're doing," Ragna lectured the youth. "We've been in this town for a while already and it's high time we moved on to some of the worse off places."

"So don't go too far with her, is that what you're telling me?" Yu asked, though strangely enough he didn't appear on the defensive.

"...Shit, I can't tell you what to do; I mean I ain't your father," the Reaper muttered. "Just remember that we're going to be moving on soon and you'll be fine."

"Don't worry, most of my relationships have been like that," Yu assured him.

'Seriously, he must move fast if he's been able to get a date already," Hyde thought to himself. '...Maybe I should try and ask Liza out tonight myself, I mean I've been working on my Sex Appeal just as much as Yu has… Wait, this isn't some kind of competition, I don't have anything to prove… No harm in asking either way.'

With that, the group headed down the stairs and headed to the front door, ready to get started with the days events.

"Leaving for the fields?" the group heard a familiar voice question. Turning their heads, they all saw Rojo and his daughter Azula also heading for the door out of the Inn and following them out onto the streets. "Funny, we were just about to head out ourselves. Care to work together for a day?"

"You're getting into trouble already?" Ragna asked them with an eyebrow raised. "No offense, but it felt like you took a hell of a beating yesterday."

"You're still up and fighting aren't you?" the Brawler asked, giving a smile and chuckle that the Reaper found odd for a person to do after just being reminded that they'd gotten the crap kicked out of them. "I might not have regeneration like you do, but I still recover faster than most people. I had some decent healing magic cast on me and to top it all off I got a good night's sleep so I'm good to go."

"What more could you ask for?" Ruby said in agreement.

"See? The young lady gets it," Rojo chuckled to them and earning a smile from Ruby. "So how about it? Care to team up with the Red Phoenix instead of treading blows with each other? I've got a personal job to take care of out there, but those shouldn't take too long."

"'Fraid we can't; we got to head to the church and get the damn Inner Awakening," Ragna told him leaving Rojo to stare at him in surprise. "What?"

"Nothing, just… you managed to beat us that badly without even doing that much? Holy shit." Rojo's swearing aside, even the stoic faced Azula looked completely bewildered at Ragna's claim. Ragna was about to simply shrug and try to brush the whole matter off… but then an idea formed in his mind.

'Let's see… the other three made it clear that they didn't know, but what if I…?' A plan in mind, Ragna channeled energy to his hand and once more created a 'false' Soul Scroll. "I have one already; it's these three that I gotta worry about."

"Ah, that makes a bit more sense then," Rojo reconciled. "Still though, getting everyone started with their Soul Scroll is usually move one for any traveller worth their salt. Why have you held it off for so long?"

"A rumor that Ragna heard," Yu cut in, surprising the Reaper as they hadn't coordinated this plan. "Apparently there's some speculation that if you hold off getting your scroll until you're more comfortable with combat you'll get either a small boost to your level or your stats… I suppose we'll have to see today if that's true."

"Honestly the whole process is kind of a mystery to us," Hyde said, trying to give Rojo and his daughter a well meaning smile (and practice his Sex Appeal skill to make his claim and eaiser sell). "Thanks to this guy we didn't even know Awakenings existed until yesterday and we sure as hell didn't hear it from him. Big oversight on his part."

"Why you-" Ragna growled at the blonde. Hyde only continued to smile innocently at his lie to help the team.

"Some leader…" Azula groaned, leaving the Reaper's glare to be refocused at the blue haired miss while her father only laughed. "We should get going."

"Be careful out there," Ruby warned before shuddering. "Spiders…"

'There's Ruby and her usual crippling fear of giant Arachnids," Ragna thought to himself before noticing Azula's involuntary shiver. 'Which is shared by the normally stoic girl that nearly pounded my face into the ground yesterday? …okay then.'

Heavencliff Church

Aside from a few farmers and members of the clergy offering their prayers to whatever gods or goddesses they worshiped, the church seemed rather empty. Ragna noticed that a familiar farming couple was there, the same one that he'd had to bring grim news of their son, but he didn't see any reason why he should bother them here. This place as a whole still felt foreign as hell to the Reaper… but standing this little rundown church might be the closest he'd ever get to feeling homesick. Seeing the group enter, the familiar green haired cleric approached the group.

"Welcome to our modest house of worship, you may call me Sister Rowena," she said to the group with a calm and serene smile on her face. "Are you in need of healing or do you wish to offer your prayers to the gods above?"

"Neither, we're actually here to get an Inner Awakening for these three," Ragna told her, being the first to speak since he was still technically the leader.

"Oh… I see… are… are you sure that you'd like to do it here?" she asked with some embarrassment. "We do have the proper procedure, but I'm afraid it's not nearly as potent as it is in the other major cities. Perhaps you should-"

"It's a dangerous world out there, we'll have to take whatever we can get," the Reaper insisted. "...This going to take long?"

"It shouldn't, the process is a simple one which has been passed down by generations," the priestess explained. "Most of the time we charge a few silver pieces for each person undergoing the process, but perhaps just this once we could waive the fee given your deeds around the city."

"Are you sure? I mean we haven't done anything all that special," Hyde told her.

"No? With everything that you've done to protect this city this is the least we can do to aid in your efforts," the priestess assured him. "I'll go and retrieve the tomes that we'll need for the Inner Awakening, just wait by the altar for the moment."

"We'll be here," Yu promised with a hint of comedy in his words as she left to gather her tomes. While the clergy woman had promised that she wouldn't leave them waiting long, in the time that she was gone Yu could only notice the looks that the four were getting from the farming couple nearby… or rather looks the couple was sending at Ragna. "I'm afraid to ask, but do you know those people?"

"...They're the parents of the kid that Liza liked," he told them, keeping his voice low so that the couple couldn't hear him and blocking his mouth with his arm as he pretended to scratch his hair so they couldn't read his lips. "I know I don't need to say anything else, but-"

"Don't bring it up; we know," Hyde finished, interrupting the Reaper. It was then that he noticed that Ruby had a slight blush on her face accompanied by a small and somewhat embarrassed smile. "Eh? What's with you?"

"When Ragna had to bring the news earlier, they sort of thought that I was his apprentice," she explained, nervously scratching the back of her head. The two high school boys stared at her in some surprise before glancing at each other and then her partner who seemed to be partial to the whole situation.

"I mean, I guess I could see it given your similar clothing styles," Hyde felt like he needed to acknowledge. "It's either that or they'd think you were his little sister." Hearing Ragna's low growl, Hyde correctly assumed that it was a sore spot for Ragna to mention siblings.

"Really? I would've thought that they'd see her as his daughter before anything else… maybe a young wife at the most," Yu input casually, earning flabbergasted gazes from Ruby and Hyde.

"...The only reason I ain't beating the shit out of you is because we're in a church," the Grim Reaper threatened the high school student, his glare didn't even need his Intimidation skill for Yu to break into a nervous sweat. Hyde made a note of this new sore spot as well as to never speak of it again… not if he wanted to stay on his leader's good side (however much that differed from being on his enemies list).

"Sorry for keeping you waiting," Rowena said as she laid came back from the church with a few other members of the clergy as she placed a set of tomes upon the altar. "If the three will put their hands upon the tomes, then we can undergo the ceremony."

At Ragna's nod the three members of his team headed up to the altar and got a good look at the tomes that they'd be using for their false Awakening. Unlike the grinoires that they'd used for their real procedures, these ones looked more worn with obvious scratches and stains on the covers. Their observation aside, it all seemed very similar to the process they'd undergone just a few days prior. Placing their hands upon the objects, the clergy's hands became encased in golden light with the priestess began her chant.

"Divine powers that be, if you in your strength and wisdom should find these four worthy, bless these travelers and uncover the potential within their souls! Bless them so that they grow strong and fight for your glory!"

'Tch, and I thought the chant back at the temple was overblown,' Ragna thought to himself as he watched from afar. It was then that he noticed that the three were bathed in a golden light. Remembering the effect from the back of the church, he took this as a sign that the ceremony was going without a hitch… at least it was until he found himself consumed by the golden flames. 'Wait, what the hell is-!?'

A bright light seemed to be shining in his eyes, the Reaper instinctively made to cover his eyes only to find that was his vision and mind that was going white as his surroundings seemed to be caught in a powerful tremor. The effect got further and further intense… and then it faded.

'The hell was that?' the Reaper demanded as he lowered his arm while his vision returned, only to see a new screen floating in front of him. Unable to Class Change due to Insufficient Levels. 'Class change? ...That's right; I'm called a CentralFiction as my class… Which means I can change that?'

"Th-th-that power…" the young cleric helping them noted as she stared at the three in awe. Not only were the people of the church staring at Yu, Hyde, and Ruby, but a few of them had their eyes on the Reaper, indicating that they'd seen the golden glow around all of them and that this wasn't what normally happened.

'So much for blending in,' Hyde thought from the altar as he tried not to look to disappointed with the whole process. "So now what are we supposed to do?"

"I… I suppose trying to summon your Soul Scrolls will likely be a reasonable next step," the priestess told the group, trying to regain her composure at the light that had been shining before her. Gather a few sparks of energy, she managed to create a small Soul Scroll. "It may be a difficult process, but if you-"

"FIRST TRY!" Ruby said as she looked at everyone with a beaming smile, evidently trying to make up for her difficulty creating a Soul Scroll earlier. Yu had thought it might have been better if she'd shown some struggling in making their scrolls to try and save face, but there was little he could do now. Sighing, he and Hyde also created their Soul Scrolls without much difficulty.

"Excellent, I see that all of you have a great many talents to display," the cleric praised as she looked at what they had created. "Though… I am curious how the gods have deemed to illustrate your powers."

"You… you want to look at our scrolls?" Ruby asked, somewhat nervously given all of the oddities the three had about them. "I mean… aren't these things supposed to be kind of private?"

"There are no secrets to be kept in the halls of the gods, for they already see and know all," the cleric told them sweetly, though Hyde felt that this was just a way of strong arming the group into showing the church what they wanted to see.

'Even if we don't show them now, there's going to be some attention thrown our way and given how big of deal churches seem to be in this world, I don't think we should make an enemy of them this early on… besides, I doubt a small church like this one could cause too much trouble,' Hyde figured as he reluctantly handed over his scroll to the woman.

"O…Oh my, you're… a higher level than what I had considered," Rowena said as she looked over the details of Hyde's scroll. "And you have a class that I've never heard of as well…"

"Lucky me I guess…" Hyde told her, trying to keep his tone as neutral as he could. The priestess then looked over Yu and Ruby's scrolls and came to a similar conclusion (though she did blanch a touch when she saw how high Ruby's Dex stat was).

"I… I… see... " the cleric said, looking over the entire group as she tried to figure how to best word this. "It… it would seem like all three of you are blessed by the gods… I can't imagine what the sort of epic destiny fate has planned for each of you."

'I'm not included in that… is fate on my side for once?' the Reaper thought before he remembered how ungodly low his LUCK stat was. It was probably thanks to that attribute he wasn't about to be forgotten as the lady of the cloth had her hand outstretched, Grumbing, he summoned his own scroll and handed it off to the woman who only had to take one look at it before her face fell at seeing his LUCK score. "So if they're blessed by the gods, then I'm just a sick joke?"

"No! I doubt that the divine have cursed you so!" Rowena tried to assure. "A test maybe… but I'm sure that if you stay true to their teachings that you'll prevail!"

'Probably shouldn't tell her that I don't know the first thing about their scriptures,' Ragna thought, correctly deciding there were some things that he should try and keep to himself. "Well… thanks for your help anyways, we should get going." As soon as the group left the church, Ragna let out a loud groan.

"That totally backfired, didn't it?" Hyde asked, causing Ragna's groan to grow even deeper. "Right…"

"Someone was bound to find out about us eventually, but this isn't helping anyone..." Yu sighed. "It was a good idea to try and keep appearances up, but I think Ruby might've been right; our best strategy now is to stand out with our actions and give everyone hope."

"Yup! So it's time we started dropping the ficade and start acting like real heroes!" Ruby declared.

"At least you're into it," Hyde said with a sigh. "Anyways guys, I think I've got a good idea for our next move. You remember that elf that came up to us yesterday, Greluda or something?"

"Think so… I remember that she said something about learning magic, didn't she?" Ragna said as he thought back, recalling that she'd offered to heal him after his fight with Rojo and Azula. "You got a type in mind?"

"I think it would be a good idea if at least a few of us learned some healing spells; we don't have your insane healing factor and potions seem difficult to come by," Hyde proposed.

"...You've got a good point," Ragna said as he tried to think things through since the group was starting to see him as their leader. "Let's see… if we even need to split into teams of two, that means that we should probably at least get someone on each side that's good with healing."

"Actually, as long as we can all learn the spells we should probably all try to get the strongest level of healing magic that we can," Yu decided for the both of them. "Both back in my own world and in a lot of the RPG's you could play, the ability to heal yourself and others were more often than not extremely overpowered, especially if you had the higher versions of the spell. That could be invaluable to all of us here."

"Point taken," the Reaper admitted as he remembered the times the people from his home world had needed Celica's healing support and how invaluable it had been. "I remembered seeing them at Inn while I was cooking last night, we'll start looking there if we don't run into them on the way. How's our funds looking?"

"That's right, we forgot to go over Yu's selling with you," Ruby remembered as she slapped Yu's back and caused him to stumble forward mid-step. "This guy put a point into bartering and managed to earn us some serious cash for everything that I got from that snake and spider! We've just about doubled the gold that we started out with; we've got about 50 now."

"...That right?" Ragna said as he looked at Yu. "Nice to see you're not just using your points for Sex Appeal."

"Are you complimenting me or ridiculing me?" the young teen asked.

"Both, but more of the former," the Reaper said with a cocky grin before turning to Hyde. "What about you? You've been investing your points anywhere else?"

"Not at the moment," he admitted, earning a slight glare from Ruby. "Wh-what I mean is that I haven't been putting them anywhere, just that I'm having trouble deciding on where I should be putting my skills to use."

"Maybe you should be putting your points into Survival, it's a really useful skill," Ruby tried to offer.

"You just want me to do that so you don't have to harvest monster corpses," Hyde said with a scowl. Yu awkwardly chuckled at the spat between the two while Ragna rolled his eyes.

"Excuse me?" a new voice asked, seeming to be directed at the group. The speaker was obviously an elf from yesterday, though it wasn't Gerdula. This elf still had their hood covering their head, but the voice that had spoken to them was male and they seemed to have a slightly different body type. "Aren't you the four from yesterday?"

"The only four that anyone seems to talk about," Hyde admitted with a casual slouch. "You've got good timing though, we were actually just looking for Gerdula for some help with magic."

"...Is that so?" the figure asked, seeming to muse over his words. "Are any of you hoping to learn Healing magic?"

"All four of us if we can," Yu informed. "It sounds like you have some sort of plan for us…"

"In fact I do. you see there are a few refugees in that came in with convoy that unfortunately carry diseases within them. As such we haven't let them into town and are doing our best to treat their symptoms now," the hooded elf said as guestered for the four to start following him and started leading them towards the wagons. "Right now the best we can do is use our healing magic to treat their symptoms, but the only way we can truly cure their diseases is to wait for Rojo to bring back the root we need."

"So that's what he meant earlier when he said something about a personal job," Ruby realized, thinking back to the offer the Brawler had made them that morning about working together. "But does that mean that Healing magic can't cure diseases?"

"There are some spells that can, but they're difficult to learn and costly to one's pool of mana," the elf explained. "There were likely a few churches back at the capital that could perform such service… but I doubt anyone in this town could afford those prices."

'Churches in the capital don't sound nearly as charitable as the one in this town,' Ragna thought to himself with a shred of hatred forming. Even if they were in the middle of nowhere, Ragna knew the type of person that the sister was. She wouldn't have hesitated for a moment to help someone in need and she wouldn't have accepted any type of payment, feeling that the ability to help someone was all the reward she needed. Compared to the church he was hearing about now… it rubbed him the wrong way. 'Soon as we finally make it to the capital, that's the first thing I'm fixing.'

The Refugee's Medical Tent

Sounds of congested coughing echoed throughout the tent, many of the victims lay sweating in their cots and a fair few had painful boils on their faces. The elf from the day prior, Greluda, was attending to the patients where they could along with a few of the clergies from the churches. Yu in particular hated the sight, seeming these people sick in their cots only brought back one of the biggest scares back during the investigation.

'I can't let anything like that happen again,' he decided with conviction, walking up and approaching Greluda. "What can I do to help?"

"Help?" she asked with some surprise as she turned to the hooded elf that had brought them here. "So then…"

"No luck, and I asked around about anywhere you could expect to find the medicine. It might mean that they don't know how to make it, but more hopefully they haven't needed it until now." He gestured to Ragna and the others. "Silver lining, I found some help for you until Rojo gets back with the ingredients we need. They all want to learn Healing magic, so helping us here would be mutually beneficial."

"That depends on how quick they are as studies," Gredula said as she cast a Healing spell upon the patient in front of her. Receiving the light, their boils seemed to shrink slightly and their pain induced sweating seemed to lighten. "Quickly now; how high are each of your Spirit stats?"

"44," Ragna told her with confidence. 'I might want to arrange those levels I got from yesterday's fight.'

"20," Yu cut in with his perfectly balanced stats. (No, I'm not doing a Thanos meme.)

"14," Hyde said, sounding a little disappointed that he was on the low end of the spectrum.

"...12?" Ruby told her awkwardly, having invested most of her stats into Dexterity was starting to bite her.

"...Seems that we have quite the split," she said, quickly heading over to one of the chests and bringing out two tomes before thrusting them into Ruby and Hyde's hands. "You two, read those. They'll teach you how to use the basic healing spells." Both of them nodded, sat down at a nearby table, and began reading as instructed. "Both of you come with me." Ragna and Yu both followed Gredula to and elderly man covered in boils and sweating profusely. "You saw what I had tried to do earlier? I want you to cast a healing spell on him."

"Eh? Already?" Yu asked with some surprise. "You want us to mimic you just like that?"

"Only because your stats can allow it," she explained. "All spells have two diffrent thresholds for casting; one for learning the spell through study, and using the skill by copying an example. The spell that I'm using Healing Spell the First: Minor Cure has a stat learning requirement of 10 Spirit and a mimicry level of 20. Since you two meet the requirement, the both of you can learn this spell by just watching me, though it might take a few tries."

"And you want us to practice it on the sick?" Ragna asked, glancing to the man in pain in front of him. "Doesn't seem like the best way to practice. If we screw up here-"

"You'll just heal them for less; there's a reason that healing magic is so popular. It's safe for even the most inexpeirinced casters and there's hardly a risk involved in casting it as long as you're not stupid and don't overexert yourself," she explained. "Now then, try channeling your magic and speak the name of the spell."

'First time in a while that I've actually tried 'fixing' something,' Ragna thought to himself. Channeling his energy into his left hand, he held it just over the sick man in front of him. A bright cobalt light appeared from his hand and seemed to coat the sick man. His boils seemed to fade slightly, but for whatever reason he started to grimace harshly.

"Huh… Guh… GAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" the man screamed in agony gripping his face as he continued to yell. Ragna took a shocked step back as Gerdula rushed to the man's side, trying to cast healing spells to heal his pain, but to no avail. His harsh screams last for several minutes more before he fought to catch his breath, his face crimson and drenched with sweat.

"What the… what the hell did I just do?" Ragna asked, feeling more than a little uncomfortable than what he'd done. All eyes in the tent were staring at him, looking at the pain he'd caused to an already suffering man. Even the rest of his team was looking at him with a touch of discomfort at what their leader had done.

"That shouldn't have happened," Gredula said, quickly dampening a washcloth and placing it on the sick man's forehead. "I've never seen a healing spell do that. In fact I've never seen any spell cause that much agony to a person before; it should be impossible."

'Then it's my damn LUCK stat or…' Ragna didn't say anything, but he did glance to his black Azure Grimoire gloved hand. He'd even cast the spell though his other hand, but it was possible this thing was interfering with his spell work. Gritting his teeth, he headed out of the tent in a huff.

"Sorry about that," Yu tried to tell Gredula. "Ragna wants to help… but he's sort of been given an odd draw with his abilities. I don't think he was trying to do something malicious."

"...I doubt that he was, but come here and take a closer look," the Elven healer instructed, beckoning Yu closer. "Do you still see the boils on his face?"

"I… I can't," Yu said as he had to look especially close. "Did Ragna just cure his disease?"

"No, now matter how strong it was that particular spell wouldn't have been enough to remove it complete, but the level of healing magic that this man's been given he's going to remain stable for quite a while." She paused as she mused over the events. "The ability to heal this much is certainly there and it reflects his high Spirit stat, but with the pain he's causing with it… implies something troublesome about that man, to say the least."

"Do you mind if I keep trying to practice?" Yu asked. Gerdula gave him an odd sort of look as she'd thought the news would have at least fazed him. "I'll be fine, I have a little experience with healing and I've never had that happen to me. Besides, you still need help don't you?"

"That I do, but are you sure that your leader's going to be okay? He seemed less than pleased when he left."

"He'll be fine," Yu assured her as he headed over to one of the sick youths and raised his hand. "Healing Spell the First: Minor Cure." His own golden light didn't cure the patient quite as much as Ragna's spell had, but the youth did seem to relax as both his sickness and pain seemed to lighten. "He's probably just going to need a bit of time to brood to himself."

Now that the drama had seemingly come to a stop, it was up to Hyde and Ruby to read through the old texts in an attempt to master the basic Healing spell. Progress seemed to be slow between the two, as these texts weren't exactly the most hands on approach and it was hard to understand some of the diagrams and text based explanations of channeling magic in a way that would result in healing. Sure, using something like a Semblance and Aura was easy for Ruby and Hyde had experience channeling his Exs, but the process of casting magic in this new world just felt… foreign.

"Come on…" Ruby said to herself as she looked over the tome whilst trying to channel the Healing Spell with her free hand. Her hand was cloaked in only the lightest of crimson glows as she tried to control her flow of 'mana' as the book called it. Feeling that she just about had the channeling right, she tried her best to hold her power there as she began performing the incantation. "Healing Spell the-!"

There was a sudden cracking sound as Ruby's spell seemed to shatter right in her hand. The young huntress gave a pained yelp before gripping the hand she'd been casting the spell with. It didn't look like it had taken any physical damage from the failed casting, but it was already starting to go numb.

"Doesn't look like you first tried that one," Hyde noted with a short sigh as he tried reading over the book himself. Ruby shot him a piercing scowl. "At least you're able to make some sense of this; even if I can read it it's all Greek to me."

"...Greek?" Ruby asked, coming from a different world than Hyde had. "I can't really say I get it either… more like I'm just trying to learn by practice than by than hitting the books."

"Most beginning mages are like that; more theater than theory," Gredula told them from while trying to assist one of the sick women; helping keep their head up as she gave them water. "You should have seen me when I first started learning, any excuse I could take to show off, I would. I gave my father more than a few headaches from showing off."

"With healing magic?" Hyde asked with a small laugh.

"Not back then…" she admitted awkwardly, implying experience with a more destructive force. "Your stats are high enough to imply an aptitude with the spells, but you'll still need to hone that talent through study. Even your friend here isn't casting the first spell perfectly with his higher Spirit."

"As long as I can help someone, I'll focus on that first," Yu said as he continued to cast his healing spells over the weaker of the patients. Giving a sigh, he did his breath to catch his breath from the taxing effort. "Both of you keep studying, I'm going to need your help as soon you have the basics down."

"Soon as we're able to," Hyde promised as he tried channeling his purple magic himself, Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself for the feedback as he finally cast the spell. "Healing Spell the First: Minor Cure." It wasn't as strong as Ragna's had been or even Yu's for that matter, but it was managing to hold its and he could practically heal the calming energy coming from it.

"...Lucky try," Ruby insisted with a pout as she started her second attempt at casting the magic.

Later that Evening

"And there's the sick tent now," Rojo muttered as he and his daughter passed through the town border, done with their day hunting around the forest. Neither of the two seemed any worse for wear, though they certain didn't have all of that webbing covering them when they'd left. "But damn, that took a lot longer than I wanted it two. With all those spiders around we barely had any time to actually look for the Beggar's root."

"...Hundreds of them," Azula said with a shiver. The number was a slight exaggeration with her fear of spiders, but the creatures did appear to be growing in number at a rather astonishing rate. "I hope everyone's okay…"

"Gerdula's been looking out for them all day; they'll be fine," Rojo assured her… even though he partially had to assure himself of the matter. Even if Gerdula would do everything in her power to make sure that nothing would happen to the sick, there were several people needing her assistance and she was just one person. Even Elves had their limits in magic, and it was almost certain that she'd be exhausted after the day she'd had to go through. If he'd known that even the stores around here didn't carry and of the Beggar's Root he'd have held off his fight with Ragna until this had been settled… because any loss of life laid solely at his feet.

"Dad. In front of the tent."

Rojo had been so taken with his thoughts that he almost didn't see Ragna right in front of the tent until he was right in front of him. The silver hair Reaper was sitting right in front of a large cooking pot which he was watching intently as a pot of campfire stew cooked over a small fire. A small cutting board, a basic dagger, and some wooden bowls and spoons lay off to his side along with some leftover potato peels and bits of meat. Taking a sniff of the pot, he gave it another stir.

"Didn't expect to find you here," Rojo said. Ragna didn't say anything in response, only glancing his way for a short second before returning his attention to the pot. "...Don't you usually work at the Inn around now?"

"Sick need to eat too," Ragna told him bluntly, giving the pot yet another stir. "How'd your hunt go?"

"Got what we needed at least," Azula said as she took out the large chunk of beggar's root they'd found from her pouch. "Wasn't easy to find this, but it'll at least cure their minor diseases."

"Those are minor disease?" Ragna asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Minor doesn't mean that they're not still deadly," the brawler explained to him seriously.

"True enough, but what about those with tougher diseases to cure?" The Reaper's answer was a collective silence. "Right…" Looking at the both of them, Ragna took a glance at the Beggar's Root. There wasn't much that made it look different than any other root out there, but something about it seemed to interest Ragna. "...You're really sure that'll do the job?"

"It better, this took us all day to find," Azula told him. "They're not in for an easy night though; once this enters your system it'll kill the diseases afflicting you, but it also puts you in a fever like state for several hours… It's tough medicine to swallow."

Again, Ragna didn't say anything at first and only stared at the root in her hand. "...Mind if I see that for a second." Azula only glanced to her father, who gave a slow nod. Taking the root in his own hand the Reaper looked over the ingredient for another long moment. Abruptly, he grabbed out his knife and proceeded to skin the root in seconds.

"Hey what're you-!"

Ragna didn't pay any attention to her, only moving on to cut the large root into pieces so small her was practically mincing it. Rojo and Azula watched slack jawed as he dumped it all into his stew pot.

"Thanks for that," Ragna said with the smallest of smirks on his face as he gave the pot one last lengthy stir. "I thought this was missing something."

"You… you… you idiot!" Azula yelled at him, though Ragna didn't seem to care much as he continued to stir the pot. "We just told you how long it took us to get that root and dump it in as a spice!?" Again, Ragna didn't say anything as he proceeded to fill up a few of the bowls with his stew. "You better go out and get these people some medicine after what you just-!"

"Shut up, grab some bowls, and start serving," Ragna instructed as he entered the medical tent, leaving Azula and her father to stare on blankly. Inside he got a few nervous looks from the sick and clergy, but he couldn't be bothered "Food's ready, everyone here gets a bowl."

"That's… kind of you to offer," Gredula told him nervously as his partners continued to run around a continue healing. "But I'm not sure anyone here is well enough to keep the food down, you might've wanted to make something lighter."

"They'll keep it down, trust me on this one," Ragna told her as he walked over to the old man who he'd tried curing earlier. Even if he'd had healing magic cast on him since then, his horrid boils were already starting to return and he was painfully sweating… that or he was sweating because Ragna was back. "...Sorry about before." Shoving a bowl of stew into the man's hands, he once more left the tent.

"Okay… this one's not the listening type at the moment," Gerdula noted. That was when she saw Azula and Rojo entering the tent seeming less than pleased. "How did-?"

"Fine, until a certain idiot decided that it would go good in a pot of stew," Azula said with a low growl.

"...You're kidding."

"She's not," Rojo said with a tired sigh. "I'm not saying he's the easiest guy to read in the first place, but doing something that stupid and careless is just… dangerous."

"That's one word for it; I've got countless others," Azula said, developing a bit of an attitude now that she was annoyed. "So what now?"

"There's not much else we can do now," Gredula told them both with a sigh. "If it took you both this long just to find one root there's way you'll be able to find another before night falls. I'll just have to keep healing them and the church for more support. In the morning we'll-"

"Uh, Gredula?" came Ruby's voice from beside the elderly man with the boils. "You might want to come look at this." Sighing as a new complication arose, the elven healer made her way over to the young huntress, only to stop when she got a good look at the patient. "See, the boils seem to be… Gredula?"

"Rojo. Azula. I need the both of you to make sure everyone gets a bowl of that stew, you two included." The brawler and his daughter were confused at the suddened command, only to see that the sick man's boils seemed to be slowly vanishing as he ate. "I don't know what that man just did, but it's working."

Later -Town Gates-

"I hope everyone's going to be alright," Hyde muttered to the rest of the four. "Those illnesses seemed pretty severe when we came in."

"I think they should be fine," Yu told them. "Gredula was saying saying how much better their complexions were and how some of them looked like they could just get and walk out those beds. And they don't even seem to have those fevers she was warning us about." He turned to Ragna. "How did you know that putting the medicine in the stew would work like that?"

"I didn't and normally I doubt it'd ever work that easily," he informed. "Remember my first cooking skill Soul Food? That one already has a chance to cure status ailments, so I figured doing the same to a disease wouldn't be too out there. Add my Substitution skill to mix the root as an ingredient and I think I might've managed to amplify its healing."

"So since you couldn't use healing the tradition way through magic, you managed to sneak on by with your cooking instead?" Ruby asked. "Huh, well I guess that's one way to get around your abysmal luck."

"Yeah, I guess just gotta find another way out of a jam when this pops up," the Reaper agreed. "How did the magic training go?."

"Good enough I guess," Hyde told him a bit underwhelmed. "It took Ruby and I a while to get our healing spells down and even then they're nowhere as good as Yu's. I think we're going to have to rely on him on healing us."

"Not that you're lost causes, your spells were certainly looking stronger by the end of it," Yu assured him. "It's just something that we're going to need to keep practicing. Like anything in this world."

"You mean like how you still have to practice dating?" Ruby teased, sticking her tongue out. Ragna actually had to chuckle at her behavior. "Kind of surprised that you didn't run off on us and try to get your date with May in early."

"I'm not that self centered on dating," Yu assured. "If I had to stand her up so that I could heal those people until Rojo came back with the medicine, then I was prepared to do that. She'd understand."

"Probably," Ragna agreed, before smirking at the youth. "That's not going to stop you from bragging that you helped out though, right?"

"Well ...I wouldn't go that far," Yu admitted, scratching the back of his head as his leader saw through him.

'Yeah, I'm DEFINITELY asking Liza out tonight,' Hyde promised himself.

Meanwhile

Much as any Draven City, Brinkstone was a well defended and finely crafted home within the mountains. Dwarves were short, stout, and hardy but many of them were also prized artisans in their craft of stone working. Everybit of masonry work in the city had been made with patience and dedication. Small crystal rocks carved out of the mountain's natural resources served as lighting throughout the town's streets and inside some of the houses. A large marble fountain sat at the center of the town, not only as another work of beauty but also to provide the entire city with water it collected from the subterranean streams.

This was beautiful, but it was also safeguarded as well. The only way in or out of the city was through a small mountainside cavern. As soon as that small passageway opened up you'd find yourself face to face with the first layer of the town's defences; a giant wall supported with crossbow wielding arches in the sides and barrels of flammable oil on the top. To challenge it with anything less than an army would be suicide… which left the Dwarves stationed there wondering just what the long figure approaching them was doing.

"An impressive sight to behold. No wonder the ancient ancestors built the castle largely off of dwarven design. With this type of work, the stones might hold for an eternity."

The approaching figure musing to itself was dressed in a hooded brown cloak which itself was of superb craftsmanship. Black leather gloves covered their hands and their dark traveling boots were without a trace of dirt. Their face was covered with crimson mask, etched with black arcane markings. Aside from this nothing could be seen of the figure as it slowly approached, continuing to take in the marvel of the architecture. It might have continued to do so, if the Dwarves had decided that they'd had enough and fired a single crossbow bolt. It sailed through the air, impaling itself in the stone floor just in front of the figure.

"And so we begin," the figure said to itself with a hint of whimsy. "That's an odd way to say hello! Is this a custom or am I simply a special case?"

"No one gets any further than this wall! These are our lands and you won't be entering!" came a dwarf's voice from one of the sniper positions. "Turn back or the next shot won't be at your feet!"

"Charming as always these things," the figure muttered, holding its mask as they shook their hooded head. "Please reconsider, I've traveled far to come here and I'm weary from the journey! The least you can do is give me a little food before turning me away so quickly!"

"Don't make me repeat myself! Leave here now!" a different dwarf shouted.

"I don't think so. I've traveled this far for a good meal…"

A sudden mass of darkness surged by the masked figure with a shrill scream. Slamming into the wall, the stone easily gave way under its massive bulk. The cries of battle sounded from inside the fortress wall, only to be followed by screams of agony and gruesome snapping of bones. The snipers atop the wall didn't wait another instant, letting loose a volley of countless arrows. The air around the figure surged and became powerful winds that tore any arrow that came close to shreds. Thrusting their arm forward, the figure pointed to a certain spot in the wall and caused a violent explosion with the force. The archers in the area were either torn to shreds or blasted out to a long fall to the ground.

"...and there's plenty of good food to be had here," they continued. From behind, a countless hoard of spiders came into view and slowly closed in on the Dwarven town. When the figure waved their hand forward, the creatures charged forward into the opening into the town in a pure stampede with their numbers. Screams began to emerge from around the town as the spiders laid siege; the larger ones breaking through the walls and crushing knights while the small ones chased after their new food source. The figure chuckled to themselves at the sound. "Let the feast commence."

Author's Note:

Well this is a fine how do you do. This story was asked for an update by one of my readers so I though I'd do my best to focus on this chapter. Anyways, let's move onto the reviews before heading into the Omake.

A Special Kind of Stupid: I'm working on it. First I'll get this chapter out, but I'll be going back and filling out the information on a chapter by chapter basis. Stay tuned for the edit.

Jadasimone: Yu would be the type of person to say that, wouldn't he?

Guest (1): And another one.

Wlyman2009: I've… considered it.

Guest (2): The thing is he can't use those abilities just yet.

EnteTheSlayer: Thanks for the support.

Hehe: Nope, just a serious no BS character really.

3 Question Marks: It doesn't exactly have to be crazy…

The Unplanner: Hyde's just not sure where his talents lie at the moment. I'll find something for him.

fernandamichellerayaoon: Eh, he'll just have to work it through.

Althea Sirius: If my plans to keep this long running hold, quite a few.

Sr. Red: I might do a reflection chapter for everyone soon enough.

Guest 2: Sure I guess, and for Rojo the only voice I'd take is the legendary Ian Sinclair.

Just a Penguin: Speaking of smash leaks, any good ones?

Almighty Lord: So about villains…

ArcherShirou: Thanks for the several reviews thusf ar, hopefully the long wait didn't kill it for you.

Kyugan: Big brother impulses are hard to shake off.

ON TO THE OMAKE!

Cross Tag… Apartment?: Part 4

"Chie… you stay that close to hot pot the steam's going to make your face all red," Yukiko warned as Chie continued to watch their Hot Pot like a hawk… moreso the beef in said Hot Pot. The innkeepers words fell on deaf ears (obviously), so she instead turned her attention to the second hot pot that was filled with tofu. "I hope it's ready soon…"

"Oi oi, you keep staring at it like that it's never going to cook," Ragna told her as he sat on the couch, reading the newspaper and enjoying an evening cup of coffee. "Shouldn't you all be studying anyways?"

"What do you think we've been doing for the last three hours? This is our break damn-ARG!" Yosuke looked like he'd wanted to say something else, but he was a force to grip his ribs as they flared up in pain.

"Seriously, who the hell did you piss off that could do that to you?" Had Ragna's eyes not been focused on his paper, he might've taken notice of everyone in his apartment looking directly at Chie.

"Even still, we'll all have a lot more studying to do after this," Yu said, glancing to all of the books resting on the kitchen table. "Now matter how much we read, there are more and more books and after that there's even more writing… like it's a never ending cycle."

"Tell me about, now I'm convinced that Kawakami's just being sadistic," Hyde said with a sigh.

"HAH! Dodged it!" came Ruby's victorious shout as she hammered on the video game controls.

"What!? No fair! That Blue Shell was supposed to hit you!" Weiss shouted as she continued to try and rush after in fourth place.

"Quit shouting dammit! I'm trying to focus!" Kanji shouted as he too stayed into it, trying to grind along the boost pads of Luigi circuit.

"All you have to do is wait for an opening… and strike!" came Naoto's voice as she let loose a lightning bolt and breezed through the players at the last second, taking first with Ruby inches away from the finish line.

"No fair! Item hog!" Ruby shouted.

"Honestly, it's just a game," Linne sighed as she sat off to the side texting on her phone. "Can't you calm them down?"

"Believe me I've tried," Orie sighed. "Few things can get as competitive as a game of Mario Kart."

"How bad do you think it is when the four of us play?" Ragna muttered as he finally put the paper down (nothing too interesting that day). "Looks like we're about ready on the Hotpots. I… Chie?"

"I don't want any," she sighed to herself. Everyone seemed to still with unease as they looked at the normal carnivore who was only laying on the ground. "The beef's probably not that great anyways."

"I… is she serious?"

"She looks like she's lost the will to live."

"Oh man, Chie…"

'Perfect, just as planned,' she thought, trying to hide her demoness smile. 'All I need to do is keep this charade up a little longer. It might be hard, but if I can possibly get the first pick of Ragna's prepared meat it'll all be worth it.' "Just save me some Tofu… I'll try to snack on that later… If I'm hungry"

"Something's wrong with her, very wrong!" Yosuke realized, backing away in terror. "I… if she doesn't start acting normal, made I can give her some of mine…?"

"Hey Chie?" Ragna cut in with dark tone. Turning to the host, she found herself at the receiving end of two red and green scowling eyes. "Don't try it. I've seen Gintama so I know how this Nabe charade plays out."

'BUSTED!'

"Wait, so that's what she was trying to do!?" Yosuke then realized, also having watched that Hot Pot episode. "You little-! … But by that logic, doesn't that mean that the small. strong girl is the one that gets it all in the end anyways?"

"...Just what are you implying?" Linne demanded, seeing all eyes land on her in suspicion.

'Try to invite everyone for a Hot Pot and this is what I get? Yare yare…'

Short but sweet! Until next time! Ciao!