Finally, he's gone. I look around the festival grounds, searching of a worried Nit. With no sight of him I was finally free of his mother-henning and protectiveness. Look, they guy is great, but once and awhile I just need a new face to talk to, not one that can randomly pick up my thoughts and intentions in a moments glance. I breathed a sigh of relief and opened my parasol over my head, allowing any person coming from behind to see me very easily. From here I start putting focus into the area around me, rather than my usual passive attention to the area around me. I could tell there were many interesting and delectable local food stalls, some more appetizing than others. But a conversation of some passerby caught my attention before I could chose to eat or play first.

"You hear about those shells?"

"Yeah! With those I could even become an adventurer!" Turning I could analyze the people who just spoke, one lanky and on the weaker side while the other has a sturdier form but obvious lack of callouses to show for training. This could mean it could lead to some thing magical, a type of item I would love to get my hands on. I pause and call out to them, "Hey!" At the childish voice next to them, they paused for a moment to look down at me. My monochrome gothic outfit throwing them for a loop. "What?" He said gruffly, not of which I minded, as I gave them my small smile. "Where are the shells you were talking about?" I tilt my head to appease a child's curiosity within myself. His friends elbowed him in the rib before pointing down on of the festival paths. this one had a much warmer tone as he looked down to me with bright eyes. "Down over there!" He looks around, and not seeing any adults around he starts to look down, "Hey, where are your-" his eyes reach where I had been, only to find me gone.

I had rushed off as soon as he had looked away, only to calmly walk after making it to the path I would need to go. All right, lets find these magical shells, if that's what they really are.

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: The Magic Conch
Participants: Two or more
Location: Crescent Isle's
Post Requirements: 5 post per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +1 Renown
Description: Rumors of magical sea shells possessing unique abilities have become public knowledge, and many people in the Crescent Isle's are selling these shells, claiming that they have magical powers and can make whoever wears one stronger, faster and smarter. However these shells are nothing but a scam, devious individuals taking advantage of the populaces fear and desire to become stronger. We need help with investigating and disrupting these fake shell selling rings. Go to the islands, investigate these fakes and help us in putting a stop to it all.

"And this one, annnnnd this one. Ooh, and this one."

The stall owner just went about adding each item that was pointed out to the woven basket in front of him, not questioning how someone could possibly justify buying so many different bottles of sake. No, he didn't question how the man in front of him could justify it. Before him was an eight foot tall mountain of a man, covered in greenish blue fur and a thick, curly mane of vivid pink hair the same color as sakura blossoms. A Koma-Inu, with curling tusks and fangs sticking out of his large, grinning mouth and a huge puffball of pink fur that was his tail behind him. He wore a colorful outfit as well, a bright blue yukata with a pattern of white silhouettes of seagulls and fish printed all over it.

"Oh, is this one good? I've never tried this one before." Yasei asked, holding up yet another ceramic bottle.

"Oh, it's very good. A great vintage, too. Would you like to add that one to your basket?" The shop keep asked in his best customer service voice. He found the overly cheerful Lion-Dog a bit annoying, but at least he was buying a lot. It was worth it to keep him happy.

Yasei just smiled wide and put the bottle in the basket. "Mmm, I think that's good."

"Of course, that'll be one hundred solars."

Yasei coughed in surprise. A hundred solars!? For this tiny amount of booze? Unbelievable! This much should cost maybe ten at most. Just how much had things changed since his extended nap?

"Twenty!" Yasei countered, slamming a palm onto the counter.

"You must be joking. I can go down to Ninety-five, but only because you bought so much." The shop keep responded.

Yasei checked his coin purse. He didn't have that much... His last job collecting sheep hadn't paid a whole lot.

"Thirty....?" Yasei asked hopefully, with a sad smile. Unfortunately, puppy-dog eyes don't exactly work when you're eight feet tall with a face full of fangs.

Yasei walked down the street sadly, his basket empty. As he walked, his ear twitched, picking up something interesting from a passerby.

"Yeah, the shells! They say they make you ten times stronger! And they're cheap. Let's check it out."

His curiosity peaked and his attention caught, he started following behind the two men, wanting to take a look at these magic shells himself. He probably couldn't afford to buy one though...

   Finding the stall was easy enough, after all, the amount of people interested in these things. After all, magical items are usually regulated by the mage's guild or sold at high prices by the rarity of finding such items around the area. There was a crowd surrounding the cart and a line leading to it for a long time. If anything, this store was going to run out of anything before I ever got a chance to reach it. At least, that's what I initially thought, as when I came to check the table, it was still lined with the shells! The sheer amount there is amazing, I look down at the price tags for them. Rather than prices being made off of the amount of power, the price changed by how large the shells were and the looks! I could tell a... cloaked figure asked about a cracked and semi-small shell with no patterns and was told twenty solars and a butler-like person selected a large pristine shell that was fifty solars!

   I quickly left the booth after observing those prices and the people who bought them. I could not make any sense of how these oh so magical pieces could be priced for so low but vary so much in price! I drifted away till one of the sellers noticed me. "Hello little one! Were you just looking at our shells?" Lets just say this was about to be a battle of wits if this businessman knew what he was doing. "I was but I can't stand in line, sorry." Giving a small curtsy I look back up to him. Let's see if he takes the bait.

"Oh, you must be tired! I'm sorry there's such a long line." The businessman apologized, speaking with as much sympathy as he could. It's just some dumb little girl. Maybe her parents had given her some pocket change and she thought she could spend it on one of their shells. He could take advantage of this to make himself look good, promote that anyone could benefit from the magic of the shells, even a small child. She probably didn't have a lot of money, but he could give her some tiny one.

"You can come right up, I'm sure we have a small shell fit for you. I'm sure no one would mind letting you go ahead of them. We have plenty of shells for sale, no worries of them running out!" He assured her, but his words seemed more directed to those standing in front of her who looked like they wanted to refuse, but couldn't in this situation. What kind of jerk would refuse to let a little girl go ahead of them to buy one little shell?

"Right this way, mi-mmph!" The businessman started to back up, motioning for Keyke to follow him. He turned around but he suddenly was completely confused as he felt himself sink into something large and soft, his vision entirely overtaken with a bright pink color. He stepped back, spitting hair out of his mouth and looked up to see the thing he had just walked into was actually a tail connected to a very large Lion-Dog man who also turned around to look down at him.

Yasei looked a bit annoyed. He'd come to see these magic shells that could make people stronger for himself, even waited ages in line to get one, but was disappointed. None of these guys selling them were willing to haggle for the large ones and he wasn't happy with a small one. He was already really strong. He had bought a small one and couldn't feel any difference to his strength. It must be because it's too small. It was like adding a drop of water to a bucket. That must be the problem.

"Oy, you're selling these shells? Let me test one of the large ones. I can't feel anything from this one." He asked, holding up the small one in his hand.

Then he noticed the small girl behind the man. Was she also here for a shell? He gave a friendly smile to her. Maybe he could get some of his money back.

"Hm? You here for a shell too, Ojou-chan? Want to buy this one off me?"

   Looking up at the... I did not know what or who to call them. Nonetheless, I craned to look up, realizing that this is how others must feel talking to me in adult form. 'Man, I need to get something to apologize to Nit.' Looking at the shell and realizing it could work, whether it was magical or not. I smile up at him before nodding excitedly, "I would love to! Here, one moment," I flick my wrist to grab some solars to give him.¹ I look back at the table before counting the price I could estimate for how much it would cost. I looked to drop the leftovers, but they looked to have disappeared into thin air, as that's how quickly the magic could take it.¹ "Um, I think this would be how much you paid," Lifting the solars upward, I had to place my umbrella on the ground to make room, so none fall. 

   Before looking back up for the small shell, I crutch and grab my umbrella. My smile falls at what I see. The rapier had started to slide out, I flipped it upside down and messed with the sheath to lock it back in. 'Maybe I won't give him the shell; he doesn't even attempt to lock my rapier into place properly!' With my gear fixed, I look back up and hold out my hand for the shell, "Sorry about that!" My smile back on after looking back up.

---

1. Space Pocket

"Neat trick." Yasei said with a smile, watching the coins appear and vanish like magic in her hand. He'd never had any talent with magic, but who knew if this actually was magic or just sleight of hand.

He put out an empty hand to take the coins, holding it below the girl's to let the coins drop into it. What took up both of her hands didn't even fill one of Yasei's. The coins didn't even entirely cover the pink padding on his palm, similar to those on a dog's or cat's paws. He looked at them and counted about the same as what he'd paid, just a little short. That merchant must have raised the price by a little for him. Fine, it was less of a loss than he'd been expecting. He didn't even think the young girl would have half of what he'd paid for it, so he was pleasantly surprised.

Yasei was satisfied enough, so he pocketed the coins and went to drop the shell in the girl's hand. He stopped when she fumbled with the umbrella and he thought he noticed a blade hidden within the umbrella's handle. He was no stranger to hidden blades. Maybe this little girl was a little more than she seemed. He smiled wide and held the shell out again.

"It's fine, it's fine. That's a nice umbrella, Ojou-chan. Where'd you get it?" He asked knowingly.

But before he could drop the shell, he was suddenly stopped again, this time by the merchant that he been talking to Keyka and run into his tail.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry! Store policy, we must insist on no exchanges or reselling of our products! It's sued now, so it won't work for anyone else, you see." He hastily blurted out, just trying to think of any excuse he could think of to sell the girl a new shell to avoid losing business and, just in case he failed at that, to make sure there was an excuse for when the shell failed to make the girl feel any stronger.

"Well, it's not used, because I didn't feel stronger at all. Give me a big one to try." Yasei replied, ignoring the man and giving Keyke the shell anyways. He didn't care what the guy said, he'd bought the shell so now he could do what he wanted with it, and he wanted to sell it.

"No tries, you use it, you buy it. Like I said, if you use it, it won't work for anyone else. The big ones cost more! So sorry." The merchant said, happy that his excuse before was actually able to plausibly apply to this too.

Yasei was annoyed, but he didn't attack people for such petty reasons. Most insults and slights he just let roll off him, not really caring, but this guy just irked him.

   With a huff of exasperation, I stomped my foot on the ground to snap his attention to me. With a glare at the merchant, I start leaking a light amount of magic. Goal achieved, as his attention snapped down to me. "Hey now," his voice kept a smooth, kind voice, talking as one would try to ease an angered child, "You can always go buy some more over there," I raise my hand before smiling at the multi-colored person. "To answer your question, I got my parasol from this little shop that was kind. They asked about what did I have in terms of defense, and when I said basic magic, they turned around and made it for me!" I giggled and lowered my hand, "I paid them in full, but they kept going about how a girl like me needs some defense in this society and couldn't accept the money."

   I shake my head at the fond memories, "Sadly, they are no longer in business. The mother and father of the business passed away, and their kids didn't want to continue that work." I heaved a sad sigh before turning to the merchant. "Now you, listen closely. You may not know this, but as per the law, you cannot assign conditions after the transaction is held. If no one gave any explicit paper or warning of not selling it, then it is alright for us to do this!" I pause, looking at his body language, and think back to the blurt out and the relief his face had displayed while speaking to the other person. I start to rock my feet back and forth, "Unless you are hiding something... A secret, perhaps?" The end of the question held a light sing song tone, though for the merchent, it was as if hearing a threat of a person who was onto the business and was ready to expose them.

"Oh, that's too bad. They sounded nice." Yasei sighed disappointedly. He wasn't looking for a new weapon, but it would have been nice to know someone who made them in case his needed repairs or anything. He didn't know any good blacksmiths anymore, so he was hoping to learn of one.

"Yeah, what she said!" Yasei huffed, looking at the floundering salesman. He didn't really know legalese or whatever, but everything the girl had said sounded reasonable to him. How could these guys tell them what to do with their purchase only after buying it? The simple answer was they couldn't and this guy was just making up excuses. Maybe he really was hiding something.

"Fine, but like I said, you won't get any of the shells affects since-"

"Since I used it, huh? I've never heard of a magic item like that." Yasei cut the man off, grabbed him by the front of his kimono with one hand, and lifted him into the air at arm's length. "I don't see any signs anywhere saying that. I'm starting to think you're just making shit up. Are these shells even magic at all?" He grumbled, annoyed.

The merchant flailed his legs and grabbed Yasei's fluffy wrist with both hands.

"G- guards! Someone! Help! I'm being assaulted!" The merchant called out as he struggled. The crowd started to give the group a wide berth, not wanting to get caught up in the altercation. Some of them had overheard the conversation though and were starting to have their own doubts about the shells. A few simply got out of line and left, no longer wanting to wait so long to buy something that seemed like it didn't even actually do anything.

The other merchants still manning the counters were starting to look worried.

   The sudden spark of annoyance and the drive for grabbing at the dude was something I was not expecting. At least from this kind man who seemed to be caring. Though is interest in my weapon did talk for him over his knowledge of fighting. the instant cry for help was something I was probably going to need to help with. Simply crying for help means guards are on their way and this needs to be settled quick.

   The ease in which he picked up the other person, I figured he'd at least have the ability to do basic battle. In which case, I decided that support was my next best option. Stepping away from the two, I searched the area, finding the best thing I could to distract the crowd. Seeing the stack of shells standing behind the cart, my smile shifts to a smirk. I flick my finger, dragging on of the bottom boxes out quickly, causing the rest of the town to fall. The merchants behind the table were fine, but the other shells were not. Almost all of them were broken and wouldn't sell for much, based on how thy claimed the shells to be. With the scattering of the shells, the long line quickly dispersed, forcing upon the guards more obstacles to navigate through to arrive at the scene. If they get here before the fight is over, well, the more chaos the better, in my opinion.

The merchants looked horrified at all of their "valuable goods" being destroyed so suddenly, but none of them could identify the cause of the box's sudden collapse, unlike Yasei. He knew magic when he saw it and clearly saw her cast the spell out of the corner of his eye. He just let out a laugh and glanced down at the broken shells spread across the ground before looking back to the merchant dangling from his grasp.

"Ha! Looks like your shells were as cheap as the boxes you put them in. I've never seen a magic item break so easily from just a little fall."

The merchant, still holding onto Yasei's wrist to try to pull himself up, looked panicked. Their scam was totally discovered at this point, at least by the big Koma-Inu holding him by the kimono. And now their shells were all broken, their business was ruined. The crowd was already scattering, no longer interested in the shells and now just wanting to avoid getting involved once the guards arrived. Ah, but at least some guards were arriving! They should see him as the victim here and arrest the fluffy fool who ruined everything!

Yasei didn't look worried at all about the arriving guards though, even as they held swords in his direction, obviously seeing him as the problem in this situation.

"Oh, you're here! Hurry up and arrest these scammers-" He started, but was cut off by a shout from one of the guards.

"You're under arrest for assault! Put the man down!"

"Hah? Assault? I'm not hurting him. I'm just holding him off the ground, see? That's not assault."

"Let him go!" One of the guards shouted again, not listening to his reasoning.

Yasei clicked his tongue in annoyance, but then smiled. "Okay." He replied simply before complying with their demand and dropping the merchant like they asked. The merchant let out a yelp of surprise and fell to the ground, his bottom landing right onto the broken shells. He howled in pain.

The guards didn't look happy at all, still holding their weapons at the ready.

   The fighting scene was hysterical to watch, not to mention slightly manipulated it. What is to say about the little behind-the-scenes that make it happen? Pushing off the crowd, whispering questions in a worried voice to cause concern amongst the crowd. When the guards claimed that the man who had helped me confirm my suspicions about the shells, I figured I'd have a bit of fun. I looked down at the shards below the man, turning them up before he fell, causing maximum damage to himself. I then looked back up at the guards, noting every visible weapon in my sight. I raise my hand and close my hand, drawing every weapon out of the grasp of the guards and pulling them out of reach.

   Quickly from my grasp and deweighting of the guards, their balance was completely hindered. I see an opportunity for a quick fun to have that Nit would never let me do. I drop the weapons to the ground as I reach for the little opportunities, their armor. I grabbed the shoulder pads of one that was about to attack and pulled him back into another batch of boxes. At the basically forcefully flight, I saw some shin guards on him. With a spark of inspiration, I push my plan into motion with no hesitancy. I pass my parasol to my back, where my doll holds it. I raise both hands and keep my eyes closed for a moment before opening them wide again. My left hand grabbed the shoulder pads of the remaining guards and pulled them to the ground. I raise my right hand and lift the leg gear into the air, revealing trousers under. I drop them, but before they can reach the ground, I pull their trouser back edge up, holding them up in a wedgy position.

   I give a little skip to them; my parasol opens over me and being held by my mini-me. I smile brightly, "Now then, I believe, as a witness, I should tell you what happened before you get the wrong guy." I point to the vendor, "He was trying to sell us fake magical items. More illegal than any threatening that could be done." I release them back to the ground and collect their weapons around them. "I would know, as a mage." I looked behind them, seeing Nit in the distance, trying to get through the crowd. "And as a mentor to a Mage academy graduate." The looks on their faces were priceless as they realized I was much more to be trifled with than what my first seemed.

Yasei held himself back a lot, not wanting to actually harm any of the guards too badly and end up in serious trouble. He figured this misunderstanding would get cleared up and the situation would work itself out. He was always a pretty easygoing individual.

Still though, he tried to enjoy the fighting. He blocked swords being swung at him with his staff or deflected them with his tail and then gave his attack a shove that he would describe as gentle even if the guards would disagree, being sent flying back to crash into one of the merchant's stalls or knock down more guards behind them.

"Eh?" He raised an eyebrow as all of his opponents' weapons suddenly left their hands and gathered with the weird little girl. He clicked his tongue in frustration. He'd been trying to enjoy this battle! How was he supposed to enjoy it now with all his opponents having their weapons taken away? Beating up a bunch of unarmed people wasn't fun at all!

He let out a huff of disappointment, but accepted things as they were. It wasn't like he could just go take the weapons and start handing them back while telling the guards to keep fighting him. They'd just think he was some battle crazed weirdo. This fight was over. Whatever. At least it wasn't a huge loss. These guards were too weak to give him a real battle anyways. At least the situation was getting resolved now that they were listening to someone explain what happened, unlike earlier when he'd tried to explain.

It was weird that it was a child they were finally listening to though. And what was this "Mage Academy" she was talking about? Some new kid's school? Heh, well, he figured she was a mage already. It was pretty fun to see everyone else's face when she announced it though.

   I look through the crowd and glare at Nit then glance to the people whose attention I have. I give a bright smile to the guards that lay on the ground. "Perfect, you do listen!" I clap my hands in a slow manner. I let a giggle escape as I point my thumb to the merchants. "Like I said before, they tried to sell us," I open my arms to the crowd that surrounds us, "Shells with the label of them being able to empower you, magic and physically at the same time. Yet," I tilt my head as I glance over at the shells littering the area around the shop, "Not one of them was checked to work or even for the proper enchantment. A hit attraction was not secured and they went off without regulations."

   I lift up my hand and start to count, "First major thing was the price, you price things with magic by the magic, not the looks." I step closer to the group, not making any hostile movements; rather, I lift my hand. I focus on the upper body, like the shirts and chest plates, forcing the guards to raise once more. "Second, you only arrived and didn't listen to the other side of the argument. You immediately took to the merchents' side and didn't stop to think till I had to force you to do so." I huffed as I look around to everyone, rubbing my forehead. "Do I need to continue to list everything done wrong here or will you act properly without me needing to point it out?" My gaze is directed to the soldiers who had started to reach for weapons, reasons for doing so changing for each one who did so.