For the WT characters poll, "Joan" and "Taylor" clearly won with 20-41% and 17-35%, followed by the "Cat avatar" with 8v-16% and "Mei" with 3v-6%.
Oh, poor Mei, even our unnamed protagonist gets more love than her... :p
Next poll, we're going meta, yo!
And resuming the story of what happened with Tomoe's time in the spotlight (what an inconveniently placed cliff-hanger, huh?)... we get now the grossest QB scene!? (VQ ramifications aside)
I mean, my partner didn't seem very fazed by it, so your mileage may vary... just don't say I never warned ya~!
Enjoy!
Convinced of her victory, a thin smile formed on Tomoe’s lips.
But that lasted all of one second.
The next moment, the priestess’ face froze in fear.
Because, from within the bowels of the rotting swordsman’s body… a myriad of flaming cockroaches came bursting out.
“Nooooooooooooo!!”
Tomoe shrieked, losing control over her talismans, which fell to the ground.
Letting loose an otherworldly roar, the seared swordsman renewed its approach towards Fio.
“AAAARGH!! THAT’S IT!!”
Logan’s bellows echoed throughout the store. The putrid smell was bad enough, but allowing roaches--that were on fire no less--to scurry around was something he would not stand for.
“Nooo!! ‘Maromushis!’ ‘Maromushis!’”
Her courage from before now long gone, Tomoe screamed as she ran from place to place.
“Huh, I guess that’s what they must call them in Hinomoto.”
In stark contrast with the hysterical maiden, Fio calmly squished whatever roaches came her way with a crab shell.
“Heh, funny that.”
A participant in the Queen’s Blade with numerous victories under her belt, running around, screaming in fear of cockroaches? Fio only now realized the absurdity of the situation.
“Miss Tomoe! Calm down!”
The girl ran to the foreigner’s side, who was busy desperately trying to brush off the advancing roaches on top of her, her priestess garb fluttering about.
“Fifi?”
The dancer continued systematically disposing of the roaches approaching them.
“Fifi, you’re… okay with this?”
Tomoe asked, surprised how the other girl could get rid of the insects in such a composed manner.
“Yup. They’re just bugs. A bit gross, sure, but nothing compared to spirit orbs or skeleton swordsmen.”
“T-There’s something I’d like to ask of you then…”
“What is it? I’ll do anything I can for you, Miss Tomoe.”
The foreigner turned red up to her ears, then spoke:
“Actually, some of them found their way up my hakama… could you drive them out?”
“Leave it to me!”
Tomoe lifted her hakama bashfully, and Fio dived to her feet.
“You ladies going to do something about this or what!?”
As one might expect, the shopkeeper was absolutely livid. Roaring, he shot Leina a scowl as he intercepted roaches with duster in hand.
“‘Something,’ huh…? Tomoe, your amulets…”
The warrior, sword poised, went speechless when she turned to look back at the foreigner.
“W-What are you two doing?”
“W-Well, umm…”
Tomoe fumbled with her words, her face red as a tomato.
“Roach extermination.”
Fio’s voice was heard from under the hakama.
“...You just keep protecting Fio from where you are, Tomoe.”
Leina decided to face the rotting swordsman herself. Now that she couldn’t rely on Tomoe’s talismans, little choice but to do things her own way.
“I’m counting on you for the finishing touches, so rest up until then.”
Leaving those words to Tomoe, the blonde kicked off the floor to close the distance between her and the skeleton in one go. To which the swordsman responded in kind by charging her with a sword thrust.
[Let’s see how you handle this.]
Her sword shattered through the creature’s ribs and rotten juices sprayed out, the rancid smell burning like fire to her nose and eyes.
“Urk.”
Fighting back the urge to give in to her mounting nausea, Leina swung her sword again. This time, aiming straight for its head.
Meanwhile, the swordsman’s sword went for her side.
[No time to dodge.]
Betting everything on this one attack, Leina swung down.
*Wham!*
She felt something give way beneath the impact of her sword.
Of course, she also felt a mild pain shoot through her side... However it didn’t seem like anything serious, thankfully.
Leina readied her sword once more to deal the final blow… but at that moment, the rotting swordsman, its head crushed, quickly fell to pieces.
“Tomoe! Purify it!”
The rotting swordsman wouldn’t stay that way for long with just her sword.
[We need to purify it with fire before it regenerates again.]
And unfortunately, Leina had no such power.
“R-Right.”
The priestess dismissed Fio from her hakama, and took up her amulets again.
“My apologies for the undignified sight you saw earlier.”
Tomoe then bathed the creature in hellfire once more.
“H-Hey! Don’t burn things inside the store!”
Logan shouted. As if this day hadn’t been bad enough, he didn’t need to end it with his business going up in flames.
“Fret not, Mister Shopkeeper. This is a purifying flame, and so it shall never spread.”
Tomoe explained, full of confidence.
“Really? It spread to the roaches though, didn’t it…?”
Logan’s doubts however, weren’t completely unfounded.
“Hidden within the evil being’s body, those insects became a part of it. As proof, none of the fire from the bugs spread within the store.”
At least somewhat convinced now, the man quietly backed down.
“Alright, whatever… But what about the rest of this mess?”
He asked the women in an absolutely exhausted tone. By this point, not a single customer remained, there was garbage from the swordsman scattered everywhere and, to top it all off, there were bug carcasses as far as the eye could see.
“Allow me to give you a bit of life advice: ‘If it happens twice, then it’s bound to happen thrice.’”
He then pointed to the store’s entrance.
“You can keep your money, just get that brat out of here.”
***
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