- The Riot -

“And Push! And Push! And Push!”

The rioting crowd chants as they use the makeshift battering ram on the palace doors. The relentless assault slowly destroys the door, until the hinges could take no more abuse.

*Douuf

The door gives way to the rioting crowd. They spill over themselves to find an empty hall.

“Huh? Where is everyone?” A rioter questions,

“Th-They must be hiding!” The ex chancellor shouts, “They know our righteousness eclipses theirs! We are just!”

The crowd applauses the ridiculous claim and continues into the next hall where they find their foes.

Upon a platform the newly anointed commander of the justiciar stood proud with her one arm. And a legion of men standing shoulder to shoulder to the width of the hall. Although new, her armor was spattered in a nauseating amount of glitter.

“L-Look!” The chancellor cries, “Look how they live in excess to us common folk!”

“(Ahh… I knew Lyla’s ‘addition’ would backfire…)” Elaine think in a pained expression,

“Glitter is even falling off of her when she moves!” a protester points out,

“No matter,” she declares, “Shield’s up!”

A long row of shields interlock with each other to create a wall.

“Forward!”

The defense takes synchronized steps towards the crowd.

“Oh no! There’s no gap in their defense!” A protester cries,

“T-They’re trying to scare us is all!” The chancellor shouts, “Forwards! We outnumber them, they can’t take us all!”

“Ouuh!!” the crowd cries as they advance towards the wall.

Though some in the back decided the assault to be a fool's errand and ran away intimidated by the advancing shields.

Meeting, the bodies clash against the shields.

“Yes Yes!” The chancellor cries, “We have more men they cannot possibly hold!”

Just then the first stage of suppression begins.

All of the defensive soldiers shakes an object with their free hand.

“Wh-What on earth?!” the confused leader scratches his head. “They don’t have weapons?!”

“Spray!” The commander orders

Just then they crack open their diet cokes and spray the carbonated drinks over their shields. Taro ordered them to aim for the eyes and face!

“AAHHH!!” My Eyes!” The front lines scream,

Many on the front line relents to the assault.

“D-Don’t be discouraged!” The ex chancellor reassures them! “Damn! k-Keep going!”

The second lines does their best to pull the frontline out of the way, and advance as un-affected soldiers.

“Fresheners!” Taro shouts from an alcove above the hall.

“You!” The chancellor angrily sees the boy. “Keep pushing! We’re almost through!”

Just before the front lines of defense, another row of guards puncture holes cans of air freshener and toss them into the rioting crowd.

“Ahh! My nose won’t stop running!” many of the crowd cries,

Overloaded by the intense smell and smoke, much of the crowd disperses as the palanquin holding up the ex chancellor collapses.

“AAh!” The chancellor cries as he hits the ground.

Only the few that remain, feebly attempt to break the shield barrier of the palace.

At that very moment the ex chancellor looks up to see Aoi and Akari behind enemy lines. Akari grabs and lifts the feeble old man by his scruff.

“Ach!” he cries, “I’m not going to relent to authoritarians like you!”

“Oh?” Aoi says, smashing her massive cleaver into the ground between his legs just centimeters from the ex chancellor, “Thinking of becoming a martyr are we?”

“... haha…” he nervously laughs,

…

The chancellor claps his hands loudly in the chamber.

All of the protesters stop and look at him.

“Erm… Haha…” he nervously scratches the back of his head, "There's been a mistake… Ahaha… Go home everyone…"

“W-What?!” a protester complains, “What happened to taking power back to the masses?!”

“Yeah… Come to think of it, we've got a pretty thing going actually… Our tax system is quite generous.” he states, “Let’s all just forget about this…”

All of the remaining men look at each other and shrugged, there was no chance of them winning in any case. They all shuffle out of the palace.

“Haha.. yes… Thanks for coming.” He meekly says as they leave. “Well…!”

“Ah! It’s about time I get going as well?~ Toodles~”

He attempts to sprint away but Akari was still holding him by the scruff. The guards arrive to take the slimy politician away.

The ex chancellor finds himself sleeping in a jail cell that night.

Elaine talks to a nearby Justiciar quartermaster,

“Do you have any more armour sets for me?...” she meekly asks,

“R-Right this way commander…” the quartermaster motions toward following her,

With that resolved, the palace finds its halls calm once more, if only in need of dire cleaning.

“Well I’m sure we can set the old chancellor to get to work on that later, but…Wow! Taro!” Lyla cries as she jumps into Taro, “I can’t believe you did all that without a single casualty"

“Haha! I didn’t think it’d go so smoothly either!” Taro humbly says, “It’s good to find out I can keep summoning copies of the same thing from my room,”

“Regardless, you’ve saved me there! Is there anything I can do to make up for this!?”

“Hey we’re friends it’s what we do!” Taro says brightly, “Wait, there is something actually… “

“Oh?...”

“We need to go to war with the spire’s army.”Taro says seriously, “Save your David, and my Shion.”

Lyla took a face more serious than she’s ever had.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Come the next morning, the group would plan the grand rescue operation. Taro looks over to the dark tower encroaching on the divine realm in determination.

“Shion…” he says to himself, “I‘m coming…”