FGO Specter of Glass

Alluring Summer

"It's bright out." Carmen covered her eyes a little as she adjusted to being outside again. It'd only been a day indoors after they'd gotten the confirmation of where they needed to go next, but that day was enough to make her need to adjust to the sunlight. Yu, on the other hand, kept her parasol held up in a way not to let the sunshine on her, lest she get a bad sunburn.

"According to Shinji, we should be heading to Bondi Beach." Mitra had walked outside, staring at the information that Shinji had given them, and that had been written down, before looking up and wincing. Covering his eyes to shield them from the sun... "This is brighter than I thought. Carmen, should we go back inside?"

"We can't adjust to this if we go back inside," Carmen pointed out. "Otherwise, we'll never get to Bondi Beach."

"Carmen's right! We won't get there at all if we just stay inside all the time!" Nero said. "Onwards and forwards, let's get going!"

With Nero pushing them forward with little time for protests, the group headed out towards Bondi Beach. There were already a lot of people coming and going from places, not minding what was going on. Most of them were talking about the cute rewards that were up for grabs from the stalls. Carmen looked at one and found it fascinating, she had her eye on the chicken plush prize, which she would go for. Mitra reminded her that they had a mission from Shinji and not to loiter too long. She didn't take a single second before saying that they could spend a little time having fun. Besides, it was probably best to speak with the people and gain information, else, they were going to be looking forever.

Nero also agreed, there was nothing wrong in taking a day or two to explore.

Yu pushed back. She didn't like the idea of an incomplete mission, less about the others were more focused on playing games than finding the gate. Then she looked to Helena, who was buried deep in a research book about Australia. Helena finally looked up. She was the deciding factor. She sighed, one day of fun wasn't going to hurt anyone. Besides, they had already split themselves into two groups, Mitra and Yu to do research and Carmen and Nero to play. Without any disagreement, the five went with their plan.

Yu asked around, trying to see if she could get anyone to talk to her seriously about Australia, but it seemed like the people were too busy with their games or relaxing on the beach. They told her to wind down, put on a bathing suit, and let the breeze handle it. She marched back to Mitra who also had no luck. However, when Carmen showed up with Nero, both holding ice cream for the group, they said they had spoken to plenty of people. There was a cave to the north where people were hearing bizarre noises, it was rumored a sea monster lived inside and thus, it was blocked off. The only ones allowed down there were the guards; anyone caught was sent back to the district.

There was also some talk about a strange girl, someone with short black hair, and an octopus friend. The five sat down and ate while speaking, from how the girl was described, she sounded like Katsushika Oui, the daughter of Katsushika Hokusai, who went missing during his studies in Japan. If anyone had information about Australia, it was going to be the daughter of a researcher.

The sun began to set and there was no sign of Oui, instead of waiting out the night as well, the group returned to Laurine's ship. She and the rest of the crew had scoped the island and discovered a few places where mana levels were higher than normal. One was the cave to the north, another was in the ocean, and the last was directly in the middle of town. However, they couldn't get past the guards and were forced to turn back.

Carmen sat down at the table as Helena sat across from her and read a new book. "The Essence of Magic and How it Affects Those in the Realms," was the title.

"When did you pick that up?" Carmen asked.

"Oh," Helena set a bookmark in it and laid it on the table. "I got it at the bookstore, there are a bunch of things you can buy if you play the games and win tokens."