Code: PIRULUK

"Thanks!" Kagari shouted her appreciation at the dragon as he walked... flew... floated? She shouted at him as he increased his spatial displacement, then ducked into a secluded alley, hiding behind one of the houses. After looking around to ascertain that there was no chance of being seen, she quickly popped the gold into her mouth and swallowed. "Hrmm. Tastes weird. Really weird." Being essentially a walking, sentient mass of digestive juices, there was no need to chew. She felt a slight tingling as her body dissolved the gold, her core instinctively memorising its shape and composition. She was about to leave her cover, then she thought twice about it. Now was a prime time for her to take a second form in case an upcoming battle required it, and she wasn't all too keen on showing off her transformative abilities in front of the others. Not as long as they still thought she was human. Who knew whether they'd go EXP-crazy once they found out about her true identity? [Kagari has attained "Gold" as a sub-form] She considered which set of equipment would probably help her more. They had enough frontliners, so perhaps more firepower would be better. She decided on the IJN Akizuki as her rigging, and a part of her body split apart from her main mass. It spasmed and contorted, then began to take on a more defined shape, becoming solid in form and structure. When it had fully settled, her appearance had changed significantly. Her hair was now tied into a ponytail, held in place by a miniature anti-aircraft fire detector. Her abdomen was enclosed in a metal corset, her neck was covered with a similar neck guard. The corset extended outward in a manner reminiscent of a ship's twin bow, with the left side holding a Type 98 25mm twin high angle mount and the right side holding a 12.5mm triple autocannon mount. A holster on her left arm held a set of four spare barrels for the type 98, and a thigh holster on her right leg held a 31mm Quadruple Oxygen Torpedo mount. [Kagari is now in Light Cruiser mode] Spinning around and looking herself over, she nodded, satisfied, and moved over to the house their guide had indicated, waiting for the group to leave.

"Me? I was just preparing for my next match in the locker room when I found myself here. I mean, I'm already an S ranker and two-time Prize Queen, so one match won't really destroy my career, but I do hope they didn't wait for me, that would suck..." When they arrived at the town, before going to the shops, she sidled over to Eon, quietly speaking to the large dragon. "So, uh... I kind of missed the whole gold giveaway thing while I was talking to Magna. Do you happen to have any more high-purity gold? Like, as pure as possible." She didn't really have a particular use for gold, but from what she remembered, the metal had some very helpful properties...

Kagari breathed a sigh of relief as the stupid bookflinger was put to sleep. Her anger began to cool down. First the misuse of books, then the stupid, insensitive and honestly rude joke about farming, then now this. Literally an unprovoked attack. So aggressive, so thoughtless. He was just like those dumb little low-level adventurers that went around slaughtering her siblings. The thought of their actions - and by association, Solomon's actions - made her metaphorical blood boil. If their guide hadn't stepped in, she might have broken her own rule and eaten him just to sever the annoyance. Continuing to follow behind their guide, she muttered under her breath, saying something in a voice far softer than what the human ear could hear. "Stupid, exasperating newborn."

Kagari had to blink several times as she watched the boy god who was apparently a fan of hers. "Huh..." She didn't have anything against fans, per se. Hell, if he'd been a loli she'd have been overjoyed. Problem: He was a boy. A male. A non-girl. She wasn't quite sure how to feel about this. The area was rather cold, but not to an extent unbearable for her. She'd been through worse. She'd once buried herself in snow for fourteen hours to get a single pantyshot; this extent of cold was barely enough to make her shiver. Unsure how to respond to the boy's apparent desire to meet her, she simply bowed gracefully and introduced herself. "As you're clearly aware, I'm the LOLI_HUNTER. Nice to meet you, I guess?" With that formality out of the way, she scooted over to the cloaked figure and hugged it, hoping to share some of her body heat. The poor girl was shivering so much that her cloak was trembling. While hugging her, Kagari continued to speak to the god. "From that earlier reaction, I take it you've been watching my matches or something?"

"Oh, hello~" Kagari was pleasantly surprised to note that their fledgling alliance apparently included the Hellfire Knight, the person who was apparently friends with an alternate Koizumi Kagari. "Pleasure to work with you~ 'The Hellfire Knight' is a bit of a mouthful, though. And I don't really want to call you HK... hmm... Aha~ I'm gonna call you Hel-chan! Sounds cute, no?" Kagari grinned as she bestowed this new nickname upon her newfound friend. "Well then, let's get going. We've got monsters to save and universes to slay! ...Wait, I meant that the other way around. Monsters to slay. Slaying universes is bad. Whoops." Even as she babbled, Kagari kept a careful eye on the Hellfire Knight, watching its reactions. The figure was an enigma, and any hints about it would be welcome information.

"Oho." Kagari fought to suppress her surprise as she felt Magna's hands. Now this was rare indeed. Here was a creature she thought had died out. Or, well, fell in numbers. It felt weird to describe the undead with the term "dying". However, if she was willing to reveal this to Kagari, Magna clearly trusted her to some degree. The onus was on Kagari to reciprocate the trust. Kagari made a snap decision. Making sure nobody could see their hands, Kagari very briefly released the human form of her hand and wrapped Magna's hand in a translucent pink slime. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared and was replaced by a human hand.

"Huh? Wha?" Kagari glanced frantically around, searching for the source of the voice, settling her gaze on that strange lady with the mask and the glowy eyes. She frowned a little at the title. "Oh, it's you. Kagari's fine. I may be an idol, but I'd prefer not to be called by that job description. It brings back... painful memories." She chuckled slightly at Magna's suggestion. "An alliance, huh? I mean, considering that I'm pretty sure we're all supposed to be working together in this situation, an alliance is kind of redundant. Not that I'm averse to the idea, though. Always good to make more friends. Besides, I saw that little trick with the shadow creatures. Pretty strange ability, that. Haven't seen it in a while. Not too common these days. Definitely seems like it would come in handy for a ton of situations. Like doing household chores." Kagari grinned and held out her hand for a customary handshake. "Well then, pleasure to make your acquaintance. I'd love to take you up on your offer... Magna, was it? I hope we get along."

Oh whoops. Didn't see this. Count me in, I guess.

Kagari turned as the weird creature spoke directly into her mind. Creepy. Telepathy wasn't anything too special, but it still felt weird. "Food, huh..." Kagari glanced at the corpses that lay on the floor. Theoretically, if she were to ingest it, she should be able to purify it into an edible form. She wasn't looking forward to how the shadowy stuff would taste though. Would probably taste like despair and dead dreams or something. Besides, she wasn't all too eager to reveal her true nature to the rest of the party just yet. Who knew how many of them were adventurers in their original realities? They might have a knee-jerk reaction to killing slimes. Like, "OOH, EXP! *slice*". Not a wise idea. Thankfully, it seemed that the dragon had some food on him. Dragons were truly such convenient creatures. Friendly, helpful, and fun to ride, too. Kagari liked dragons.

Kagari silently watched the edgy man walk off. She murmured quietly to the dragon. "Think we should follow after? Might be a bit dangerous for him to go alone." Not that I mind, though. His personality leaves a bit to be desired.

"Hm. I assume we landed in similar predicaments. Displaced from whichever reality we were from, then deposited here, then beset upon by monsters of some sort. The monsters we fought were a little different from those here, but still all shadowy and dark and stuff." She paused for a while. "What I can say without doubt is that we all come from very different worlds. For example, I'm reasonably good friends with a dragon, but she was pretty different from you. Not as long. Stockier legs - don't tell her I said that. Actual wings. How do you fly, anyway?"

Kagari noted that the new batch of potential allies they had run into were the source of the fighting. Since the shadow beasts were no clearly dead and on the ground, that meant there was no imminent threat. Noting as such, she released her transformation, returning to her regular swimsuit-clad form. The less time she had to spend suffering Apocalypse Collider's passive-aggressive reprimand, the better for her sanity. Among the new group there were certainly a very diverse distribution of individuals. Several were clearly mechanical beings of some sort. One dragon. One strange thing with a presence and vibe that made her feel like a baby slime again. Interestingly enough, it was the dragon that caught her interest. Kagari had only known one dragon throughout her life, and that was one of the lizard-shaped types. This dragon was more snake-shaped, and reminded her of the Eastern dragons she had seen in fiction. Strange. She decided to talk to someone. The question was who. She didn't quite feel up to the task of speaking to It That Embraces - the excessive length of its name aside, she'd rather avoid having to speak to something with such a distinct presence. The dragon seemed interesting enough, and Hiroki was standing on a side talking to Magna. She did kind of want to speak to the Hellfire Knight again, but she felt a social imperative to at least try to get to know their new allies a bit better. Making a decision, she strode over to the dragon, standing with both hands behind her back, grinning amiably. "Hello~ Name's Koizumi Kagari! Pleasure to make your acquaintance~"

Kagari pretended not to hear the conversation between the two girls with talking weapons. Of course, she had no idea what Barrier Jackets and Devices were, though the young mage clearly used a similar Mahou Shoujo-esque power. Still, she was unsurprised. One thing she had learned in her 765 years of life was that the multiverse was ALWAYS bigger than you thought it was. Always. However, this did open up several other questions. She wondered about the other versions of herself - were they all sentient? What about "Kagari"? She knew that there was an alternate version of "Kagari" in the armored girl's home universe. Were they all as kind, as gentle? As these musings, among others, occupied her mind, she kept a steady gait, staying alert.

Kagari felt a prickling along her spine and glanced at its source, looking the spider thing, who had shown its fangs- or, well, mandibles. She knew that look. She was hardly a stranger to hunger. In fact, until a short 25 years ago, she'd thought of nothing but eating. That was an embarrassing 740 years, before she learned that there was more to life. Still, it seemed that their arachnid was hungry. She contemplated taking some form of action, but decided against it. She wasn't in any particular danger, and if this lack of control was going to cause them trouble later, it would be better to get it out of the way as soon as possible. Instead, she finished her song, letting the last notes die out, and bowed to nobody in particular. For ease of carrying, she transformed her microphone into its hands-free mode, clipping it securely to her ear. When she did, she telepathically wrote her microphone a note of appreciation. "Good work." A female voice sounded in her head, telepathically sent by the microphone. "Well then. What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into this time?" "...You say that like I have a penchant for getting into trouble." "You say that like you don't. Remember three months ago?" "Hey, the succubus was an old family friend who said she needed my help. How was I supposed to know she wanted to usurp the Demon King position?" "Her family friend status certainly didn't stop you from gobbling her up, did it, you monster?" "I mean, I am a monster, so that doesn't quite work as an insult. You still haven't gotten over me eating your old master, have you?" "What do you think?" "I'll take that as a no. I- No, never mind, I'm not having this conversation again. I don't care if you believe me. I promised her I would fulfill her duties, so as long as our interests align in that respect, it's fine." Apocalypse Collider did not respond. Kagari sighed. She wished the weapon would open up to her a bit more. They were contract-bound now, after all. She turned in the direction of the the fighting sounds, frowning. This whole place was rather desolate, very empty. Almost depressingly so. Again she wondered what on earth had brought them together in this place.

Kagari contemplated cancelling her transformation, then thought better of it. If those things came out again, this form would be far more helpful. "Oh? Sounds like something else is happening in the distance. We should probably check it out. But before that..." Kagari took in a deep breath and struck a pose. "Listen to my song!" As the slow, calming, soothing song reached the ears of the party, their wounds began to close up, their energy restored to their bodies through the magical power of song.

"Reinforcements, hm? Things might get a little hot." Serene frowned as she glanced at the enemies massing to the side. She suspected it was going to happen, so she wasn't entirely surprised, but it was still annoying. The best move here would be to move to take out the leader and cut off the chain of command. She silently ran forward, taking cover behind the building, next to Dash. Since Rosalyva and Anna were exposing themselves, this was the best position to offer ranged cover. Moves to Z6 and holds.

"Kill all at the same time, huh..." Kagari frowned. She had no way to attack multiple enemies at once. Annoying as it was, she was not going to be of much help in this current battle. Perhaps it might be better to switch to support, instead. She placed a hand on her chest and hummed a clear note. Her hair started shining, emitting some kind of melody. As the music played, her body began to change - her swimsuit shimmered and was covered by an elaborate dress. Her right arm from the shoulder was left bare, while her right arm was cloaked in a long pink sleeve that ended in a cuff at her wrist. On her left wrist, there was another, isolated wrist cuff which seemed to serve no actual purpose. Her blouse itself was white and buttoned up to just below her neck, but it was accompanied by a pink bolero jacket, the front of said jacket decorated by a large white ribbon. It was from this jacket that the aforementioned sleeve extended. Her skirt, matching her jacket, was pink, with a white trim. Her legs were clad in white stockings, nestling inside a pair of pink heeled boots. Her hair grew longer and changed colour, becoming largely pink, but the translucent purple tips remained unchanged. She was, as a whole, extremely pink. A pink handheld microphone materialised in her hand, its cute white ribbon resting squarely atop her fingers, as the song faded. Compelled by the nature of her transformation, she struck a pose for nobody in particular, making a V-sign with her unoccupied hand and winking. "Magigel Idol ★ Slippery Kagarin is making her debut~" Kagari Transforms!

Kagari grit her teeth and looked over herself, checking to make sure she hadn't accidentally lost her form in her surprise. Pleased to note that she was still human-looking, she got to her feet and growled. "Knock me down, will you...? You'll pay dearly for that."

Kagari cocked her head at the strange man with the book. "I'm a Keijo player. Isn't it only natural I'd use my butt?" She caught the end of the sentence from the person with the bird. "Hmm. Aight, leave it to me~" With that, she launched her butt at the indicated shadow beast, aiming to use the force to push it into the nail. Uses Butt Gatling on the enemy that Pluck punched.

The enemies were going on the offensive. Perfect. Maybe they could get this battle over with sooner. Serene ran up behind Meredith and lobbed a fiery sword over her shoulder at the enemy she was engaging. Moves to X3, fireslaps Soldier 4

Kagari coiled away in revulsion when she saw the things that were attacking. "Now those are the absolute ugliest treants I've ever seen. They should feel honoured to be hit by a cute girl's butt." Kagari casually spun on the spot and kicked herself off the ground, lurching towards the things butt-first, attacking the closest one rapidly with her butt, her posterior moving faster than the eye could follow. Use Butt Gatling on Shadow Beast B

"Oh? Even the same family name? That's...odd." It was also a bit awkward, considering that Kagari had eaten her whole family and thus was the last person with said family name. But she wasn't about to actually say that, it might have created a bad impression. "But another me, huh... I mean, I knew other planes existed, but... I never thought I'd get to meet someone from one. Or, well. That's not quite accurate. Rather, I never thought I'd have the chance to meet one who wasn't actively trying to kill me." She shook her head and asked excitedly, forgetting about the bad atmosphere that had overtaken the area while they were talking for a moment. "So, this other me, what kind of person is she? Is she human? Is she nice?" Hearing the strange aloof boy speak the name of her planet, Kagari perked up. "Oh! Oh! Me! I'm from Earth. Well, might not be the same Earth though, now that I think about it."

Kagari tilted her head even further when confronted by the Hellfire Knight's strange response, barely remembering to keep it to an angle reasonable for a human. "Loli...Hunter? Gods? Sorry, I don't really understand what you're saying. There's only one god I really follow, and most people don't really call her that... Most people don't like her, either, for that matter, though she's really nice. Besides, I know what a loli is, and I'm pretty sure I qualify, so it would be pretty weird for me to hunt myself, no? And I already said, I'm wearing this swimsuit because it's my working attire. Professionals need to keep up appearance, y'know?"

Kagari blinked as the armored person turned to her while speaking in a sharp voice. Confused, she tilted her head to the side. "Sorry, do I know you from somewhere?" She'd certainly never met anyone like this person, not in her 700 years of life. Yet somehow she felt a sense of strange familiarity. Odd. "Oh, and of course I'm in a swimsuit. I am an S-rank Keijo player, you know. My chest is a bit lacking, sadly, but my butt is the fastest in Japan!" Her brag was sadly interrupted by the armored woman's snark. "Wha- Fighting? Already? But we just got here!" Kagari hated fighting. And she hated people in armor. Some of her earliest memories were of people in armor hunting down her family in the name of the greater good or some nonsense. Barbarians. Here she thought people had become more civilised, or at least civilised enough to avoid hunting down innocent slimes. Oh well, at least she was in her swimsuit, so she would be ready for combat. Or maybe her other form would be better? ...Nah. She'd wait to see what they were up against before deciding.

Kagari blinked herself awake. Where was she? She jumped up, patting down her body to make sure that she'd kept her shape. It wasn't all that uncommon for her to accidentally revert, after all. Thankfully, her body seemed to be in one complete piece. As a plus, she even had her favorite swimsuit on. Which was odd, she was sure she'd gone to sleep naked. She looked around, surveying her surroundings. Strange place, this. She stuck out her tongue to taste the air. ((How are the moisture levels?)) She glanced at the people standing around, trying to decide who looked friendliest. The woman in the armor was a definite no. Speaking of which, what was with their clothes? They were weird and uncoordinated, a cesspool of fashion styles across time. She hadn't seen seen anyone actually wearing plate armor since she was no larger than an apple. And that was a long time ago. As she scanned, the person in the large black cloak with the robotic mask caught her eye for some inexplicable reason. Perhaps it was curiosity at her clothing choices. She walked over to that group. "Hello! I'm Kagari. Koizumi Kagari. Who are you guys? I would ask where we are, but from the looks of it, you don't know."