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“This Shepard person. Your tone of voice implies you’re more than friends.” Yoruichi pointed out playfully, not a single jealous bone in her body. Considering the things they’d done back when she’d been at the Soul Society, jealousy would’ve been out of character.

Seraphiel nodded. “We were. And, yes, she’s also aware there were others.” She pre-empted the next question.

“So why are we waiting for her in the middle of nowhere…well, not nowhere considering this whole place has been fortified to hell and back, but you know what I mean," Yoruichi asked, while glancing at all the surrounding soldiers and ships.

The Citadel Council had fortified this world to resist Tyranid invasions like Seraphiel had suggested. It was supposed to stand as a stronghold, keeping the 'Nids away from Citadel-controlled space. "No vessel that’s not part of their faction is allowed to use the gate without permission. Shepard is our ticket to the Citadel.” She explained.

“And before you ask,” Kaede interjected. “we’re going there to acquire a ship. Maybe some additional gear. The Citadel Council owes Seraphiel several favors.” She and Tatsumiya were coming along to both get gear suitable for themselves, as well as to inspect the ship they’d eventually get. Chachamaru had also come for her own reasons.

“And this Shepard person has agreed to support us?” Yoruichi asked.

“Yes. She can’t join our new mercenary company due to being a Champion with duties, but she’ll likely join us on several occasions when the situation allows for it.” Seraphiel added, leaning against some of the crates scattered around the makeshift spaceport. The whole place smelled of grease, metal, and freshly laid concrete.

Her curiosity sated for now, Yoruichi also settled down to wait, leaning against the same box Seraphiel was leaning against, the two standing obviously quite close as if drawing strength from each other. Neither was really willing to stand further away, as it had been such a long time since they'd spent time peacefully together like this.

They had to wait for almost an hour before they saw the familiar ship woosh above them, which prompted them to move inside and meet Shepard at the ship. There was nothing to see on this world, and they didn’t want to spend any more time here than necessary.

Shepard's face was split by a bright smile as soon as she saw them approaching, having just stepped out of the ship. "Eager to go, aren't you?" She glanced at the other four. “I seem to recall seeing three of you at Mahora as teachers, while you are unfamiliar.” She looked at Yoruichi. “Your current mercenary group then? Strong if few in numbers.” She nodded.

“Hello, I’m Yoruichi.” The mocha-skinned beauty practically purred while stepping forward. “A former and future lover of Seraphiel. Looking forward to working with you.” She stated shamelessly while reaching out with a hand.

Shepard laughed while grabbing the offered hand. “Well, that didn’t take long. I did warn Sephy that her old flings were going to come back up.” The two shook hands, evaluating each other and apparently approving what they saw. “Incidentally, Wrex insisted on coming along.”

“Seraphiel!” A deep voice filled with both joy and battle-lust shouted, and soon a large, red-armored Krogan was charging at the Celestial. Instead of dodging, Seraphiel activated all her defensive abilities, braced herself, and headbutted the Krogan with all the power she could manage, causing both to stumble back.

The Krogan growled good-naturedly while grabbing at his head-plate. “Shepard told me you were weak. I knew she was lying. You’d never be weak.” He laughed. “Though you aren’t as strong as you used to be. Next time I won’t hold back.”

Krogan were large, almost lizard-looking humanoids with a large hump on their back that gave them a slightly slouched appearance. They also had large chitinous plates on their heads, running down their back. They were a race practically bred for war, with thick hides, multiple redundant organs, and regenerative abilities that matched Trolls. If you wanted to kill a Krogan, you better make sure they were all the way dead, or they’d get up later on, having regenerated most of the damage, and that was before System interference.

"Seraphiel!" The huge thing threw his hands open, in a much more friendly greeting this time, pulling her into a hug, and patting her on the back before letting go.

“Wrex. How are you, you old coot?” She asked with a wide smile.

“Old? I’ll have you know that this Vitality thingamajig has me in perfect health. I could wrestle a Thresher Maw!” He boasted, slamming his fists together, and probably wasn’t entirely wrong.

“I’d pay to see that.” She nodded in approval. “What brings you out here?”

“I heard you’re putting together a group. Knowing you, you’ll get into all sorts of great scraps. I’ve had enough of trying to civilize my people for now. I left Eve in charge of that futile effort.” He slammed fists against his chest armor in expectation.

Seraphiel had always thought the name of the female Krogan Wrex had taken as a mate was a bit ironic, considering Eve was also a name she was very familiar with from her past. The first female Human and all that. "You're always welcome to join us Wrex, though I can't promise a quick battle." She hedged a bit.

“Bah! You may not promise it, but battle follows you wherever you go.” Wrex scoffed.

"He's not wrong," Yoruichi muttered.

“See? Even the cat knows!” Wrex pointed at the woman.

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“Cat?” Shepard asked.

“She smells like your earthling cats.” Wrex just shrugged in lieu of an explanation.

“I was about to say I didn’t fight in battles for years in the academy, but…” She grimaced.

“You fought in the events and duels.” Kaede finished for her. “You know, the Krogan has a point. You are a magnet for battles. We never had any trouble until you came along. Now that might just be a coincidence, but…”

“Screw it. Let’s just go and find us a ship.” She surrendered with a sigh.

------

Negotiating with the Citadel Council for a ship and gear was actually surprisingly easy. The Council had been famously stubborn in the past until Seraphiel had hammered some reason into their thick heads. Those lessons had apparently not been forgotten. It only took both Seraphiel and Shepard reminding them that they owed her. In fact, they owed her just about anything she might desire. Besides, keeping good relations with an unbound Champion, and someone who had a wealth of knowledge on how to fight the Tyranids as well as a large range of other threats was quite useful. A ship and some high-end gear by their standards were a small price to pay. Something all the councilors quickly realized.

Just like the ship Shepard used, their new vessel had a similar silhouette to the Normandy of old, a rough arrow shape with slightly down-tilted wings, but that wasn't too surprising. That shape was universally used for its effectiveness and simplicity. It wasn't one of the high-end magitech ships, but it still utilized magic in the construction. Besides, they didn't need it to be high-tech, since they would be upgrading most of it, part by part. Seraphiel had visited many, many universes, and she'd picked up quite a lot of engineering knowledge, magical and otherwise. She only needed to make her ideas into reality. Finally, her [Magical Engineering] Skill would start to see real use.

The frigate-sized ship itself was quite optimal for the use of a small mercenary group. It could easily house a couple dozen people without much of an issue and didn't require a large crew to keep working. The cargo hold was large enough for a decent amount of equipment as well while allowing the ship to be small enough to make landfall without dedicated facilities.

"This is nice," Yoruichi commented, sliding her hand along the leather benches. Real leather. Joker would’ve been proud. "Though I'm still not sure why you won't just use a Senkaimon for travel." Senkaimon was the dimensional gateway that the Shinigami used to enter and leave Soul Society. It also allowed them to travel between worlds.

"Because only Shinigami have the ability to use the Senkaimon, and the only ones currently in existence are controlled by the Soul Societies," Seraphiel explained.

Yoruichi scoffed. “Surely you don’t expect me to believe you haven’t figured out how to create your own.”

“Actually, I haven’t. I never needed to. While I was in the Soul Society, the Senkaimon present served me just fine, and I could always create a Garganta if necessary.” Garganta were basically fractures in dimensions used by Hollows to travel. “Once I was no longer in Soul Society, I had access to other methods of travel. Methods that I don’t yet have access to in this life, although I’m getting close.”

She could theoretically create portals between any two points with [Reality Manipulation]. Just that her current powers were not enough to travel between worlds. Since her Bankai had also granted the ability to manipulate reality, giving her access to that power even as a Shinigami, she hadn’t seen the point in the inefficient Senkaimon for her personal use.

"It's not as shabby as I assumed," Wrex grunted, dropping down his personal gear in the cargo bay. “Only needs a Mako and some engine grease to make the place feel like old times.”

“The gear they provided was also quite excellent. Even my old weapon isn’t quite as efficient.” Tatsumiya placed her gear down on a nearby workbench that could be used to fiddle with their gear.

Shepard walked up the ramp leading into the ship, clearly having overheard those words. “If there’s something our people are good at, it’s making guns. Even the gear I use is made by our weaponsmiths. Combining Quarian Engineering, Krogan desire for mayhem, and Asari artistic approach is surprisingly effective, even when magic is involved.”

They'd all gotten several guns and armor. Unlike the ship, these were top-of-the-line, equipment usually reserved for special forces. They weren’t normal guns and armor of course. Instead of shooting bullets, they shot condensed psionic power or mana. Funny enough, her [Weapon King Arts] applied, since more futuristic weapons had been included when creating the Skill. Thanks to her [Fatebreaker’s Regalia], even her psionic enchantments applied, as did her passive smite Skill from her Paladin Class, meaning the gun was much more effective in her hands than pretty much anyone else. Still, she could always pull out her Witchblade and shield if necessary. Even Yoruichi had picked one just in case.

The armor was also lined with powerful magical runes. It was well made, utilizing both advanced technology and magic. It was also very form-fitting so that it would count towards [Juicy Armor] and [Sanctity of the Firstborn]. Even so, it was less revealing than what she’d worn before. She hadn’t explored all the features of either her weapons or armor yet, so she’d need to put them to a real test. And they would need someone with proper crafting Classes.

“I agree, even if guns aren't really my thing." Chachamaru nodded as well while marking off things on her clipboard as more mundane supplies were brought aboard. “I assume you’ll be upgrading this ship and probably even our weapons over time?”

“Of course.” She nodded.

“On that note, I have already found a first gig for us. It’s not glamorous, but it’s something to build up a reputation and contacts. It’s also something you can do while still applying for graduation.” Chachamaru glanced at Yoruichi. “This is your Pactio partner then?”

The two glanced at each other, Yoruichi lifted an eyebrow in question before both nodded. "Yeah, that's us."

"Alright. Since neither of you is a mage, then it'll be a Knight's pact. I'll arrange a time for it when you return to Mahora the next time." Then she looked at all of them with intensity they were not used to when it came to Chachamaru. "No one has any problems if I handle flying. Right?" Although technically that was a question, none of them were stupid enough to argue.

------

"Hahaha." Wrex laughed uproariously while firing his shotgun, charging in the middle of the enemies while letting his biotics take any return fire. "I knew you'd get us into the best scraps!" He shouted, crushing the skull of a skeletal-looking metallic robot that had previously glowed with green power.

Seraphiel and Kaede came up from behind the Krogan, firing at the disorganized enemies, all protected by Seraphiel’s defensive buffs. Tatsumiya was on overwatch with her sniper rifle, while Yoruichi focused on protecting their client.

“How the heck am I to blame for Father damned Necron showing up?!” Seraphiel protested.

They were all quickly making a hasty exit towards their new ship while several eerily glowing floating pyramids slowly made their way towards them. Under those pyramids marched countless metallic skeletal warriors. Despite what the description might imply, these were not undead, nor were they wielding medieval weaponry. Instead, they were using very high-tech Gauss weapons that would flay anyone and anything apart at the atomic level. Anything not protected by defensive System Skills that is. And perhaps due to their soulless nature, these skeletons didn't benefit from the System nearly as much as many other enemies, making them rather fragile. That didn't make them harmless, just not as difficult of an opponent as they might have been in some other universe.

"So you say, but…" Kaede used her gun to gesture at the devastation around them. This had been a rather sizeable scientific colony before the Necron showed up. Now it was a smoking ruin.

“Look, Chachamaru is the one to get us a job to pick up and escort a scientist! Nobody said anything about any Necron.” Seraphiel protested, mostly in jest.

The Human scientist opened his mouth at that point. “And I’m quite appreciative of that protection by the way.” His words went completely ignored.

“It’ll be an easy job’ she said.” Seraphiel continued. “Something you can do to build up reputation’ she said.”

“Well, this’ll certainly build a reputation!” Wrex laughed, firing at several of the enemies, while simply bulldozing through them. None of the Necrons had anything that could harm a Krogan almost a thousand levels above them with several defensive Skills. “Performing evacuations from a hot zone.”

“I’d suggest keeping things in moderation.” Chachamaru’s amused voice came over the comms. “While you can easily take the Necron warriors, our ship won’t fare as well against their fleet unless you hurry up.”

A sudden sound of a heavy impact sounded behind them, and a mechanical construct similar to the Necron warriors rose from the new crater. Only this being wasn’t a mindless, soulless being, and had more than enough levels to be a problem.

“Time to go. Plan C.” She grabbed the shoulder of Wrex and disappeared, reappearing inside the ship. Even if she didn’t have the power to travel between worlds yet, teleporting short distances was doable.

“Aww. Just as things were getting good.” Wrex expressed his disappointment.

Yoruichi appeared only a second later, carrying their client, while Kaede and Tatsumiya were not far behind, having their own methods of moving quickly. Kaede simply slipped out of a shadow, while Tatsumiya opened some sort of magical gateway, with one of her eyes glowing ominously. “Were all aboard. Punch it Chachamaru.” The magical sniper called out simply.

"Well, that should count as a successful mission," Yoruichi stated happily.

"We still need to get to where we're going," Kaede stated flatly.

“And we still have Sephy along. Right, right.” Yoruichi nodded in sudden understanding. “So prepare for battle.”

"That's what I'm talking about," Wrex grunted, now more cheery.