(Wednesday, 15th of Lover's Harp Moon, 2021 )
Jack was on a massive navy ship, but it's not the one that Mary and James owned, this was a standard ship used by Sanctuary. On this ship, Jack sat on Ebony Horse, which lay parked on the upper deck of the ship. Jack could have summoned it using the watch your mother gave him, but it would have taken up massive amounts of energy. Jack had his trucker's cap covering his face as he took a nap, or at least trying to take a nap. The sound of some guy praying made that very hard to do. Unfortunately, that person who was praying was one of Jack's allies for the mission, Rasputin. Rasputin had short, blonde hair, a cap, and wore black colored priests robes. There was a rosary around Rasputin's neck
"Oh good lord, please let this mission be a success!" Rasputin chanted as he prayed to a golden depiction of the sun. "Let Princess Hina Suiko Tennō arrive at her destination safely!"
"Rasputin, I don't wanna seem rude or anything, but is there any chance you could pray a little quieter?" Jack sat up on the mechanical dinosaur and took his hat off his face, allowing Jack to see that the mesh back of the hat was orange, the bill and front were gray, while the front had a depiction of an orange skull. "I'm tryna sleep."
"Oh I would, but Leia's engine would make it hard for the Lord to hear me!" Rasputin passive aggressively looked at the ocean. "Instead, I feel as though my Lord is hearing the ocean."
"I'm not exactly sure if that's how this works..." Jack commented before putting his hat back onto his head. "Where's Luna and Leia?"
"Luna's gambling like a sinner, and Leia is hovering over the water." Rasputin then eyed Jack's machinery. "You know, I've always wondered something about you. Mind if I ask you a question?"
"Shoot." Jack laid back on Ebony Horse with his hands behind his head and looked at the priest.
"I noticed you're trying to collect all the slayer weapons, are you trying to play a false god or something?" Rasputin questioned, and Jack wasn't sure whether or not that was a hidden insult or not.
"Let me think." Jack leaned back to look up at the sky and put his left leg on top of the right. "I ain't got much of an interest in playing god, all I know is that I wanna get stronger and sleep."
"Ah, good, because if you were, I'd have no choice but to put you down." Rasputin's hand was covered in a golden light, and Jack prepared himself to enter Ebony Horse just in case Rasputin tried to fight him. "After all, there is only one true god, and any one who claims to become a god shall be struck down with my blessings."
"You know, if I can go one mission without running into a religious freak, I'd be so happy."
Lucky for Jack, the fight was avoided with the door to the deck below opened to reveal Luna walking out with six paper bags full of money. Luna's class was gambler, but Jack's not sure about what else there is to her. Luna wore a red and grey striped shirt, a loose jacket that was red in color, a brown skirt, leggings, and shoes. Weirdly enough, her most iconic trait was her messy, white hair that were tied into twin tails behind her head. Luna walked towards Jack with the paper bags of cash and spoke to you, requesting a favor.
"Hey, is it cool if you hide my dough in your giant t-rex looking thing?" Luna requested whilst holding the bags up. Luna also had heavy bags under her eyes. "It hasn't happened yet, but my talent is gonna bite me in the ass in a bit."
"Um, sure?" Jack summoned Harlequin to reach the axe head downwards, and used it's design as a hook. Luna put the holes of the straps of the bags on the axe, and Jack pulled up all six bags and placed them inside of Ebony Horse. "What do you mean by that?"
"Whenever I use my Rabbit's Foot talent, something bad of equal value happens for every good thing I do." Luna informed Jack. "The longer I use it, the worse the incident is."
"Then why do you use it at all?" Jack wondered before making Harlequin disappear.
"Because luck is involved with a LOT of things, and my talent allows me to make it so only the best possible outcomes for me come true." Luna smiled while twirling her chain necklace. "Even if I use it for only a short time, it can mean the difference between life and death."
"I see now why you're a support class..." Jack looked at her badge, which took the form of a white clover. "Is it possible to extend that talent to others?"
"No idea, I just got in because I got lucky." Luna then laughed, and while her laugh did sound like a witch's cackle, it also had its own unique charm to it.
After that, Rasputin went back to praying and Luna decided to take a nap in the shade of Ebony Horse. Soon after that, Leia stopped using her jetpack and landed on the front deck of the ship. Leia was the agreed name for L314, since she was a robot. Amazingly, she looked absolutely human. Leia's head looked human with purple irises and red hair, below the head though, it resembled mechanical armor. But it just looked like Leia was wearing armor. Leia used her jet pack to boost herself a bit to land on Ebony Horse's head, where she sat down to begin charging through solar panels on her back.
"Hey Leia, how's it going?" Jack greeted Leia, who looked at Jack as though she was scanning you.
"We are 3 kilometers from mainland Hinode, by my estimate we should be there in under ten minutes." Leia's voice was robotic, so that was honestly Jack's only way of reminding himself she was a robot.
"No, I mean how are you?" Jack corrected himself to the robot, who seemed to take time processing this statement.
"My battery is at 70% and charging, all diagnostics are running perfectly fine." Leia answered with a somewhat monotone tone. "Thank you for asking, Jack Grimm."
"Just call me Jack." Jack looked up at the sky to see the various clouds swept around it, like the clouds above were trying to mirror the ocean. "You don't have to be so formal though, we're all friends here aren't we?"
"I think acquaintances would be more accurate to our current relationship." Leia was brutally honest about the relationship between the four of them. "However, I noticed you have a lot of friends. So you don't need any more."
"I don't think there's a limit to when someone should stop having friends, we can all get along, we just need to give them the chance." Jack noticed that Leia was right, and he could see the land of Hinode. "So...are you l connected to the internet or something?"
"I use a mix of local internet and cellular systems similar to phones, so I can access the internet almost anywhere." Leia informed Jack in her monotone voice. "Amazingly, I can access it out here because my creator is a good woman and gave me the best data plan."
"So you can make phone calls anywhere?" Jack questioned Leia to keep the conversation flowing, better than just lying around completely bored.
"Yes I can, would you like for me to make a phone call for you?" Leia offered to make a call for Jack, but he rejected.
"Nah, people will think that you're some kind of bot calling." Jack informed the girl, who tilted her head in confusion.
"But I am a bot." Leia responded with a slightly confused expression and monotone voice.
While you laughed a bit, the ship began docking, and you entered Ebony Horse to pilot it off the ship. Rasputin stopped kneeling before the golden sun statue and picked it up before putting it into his bag. The ship finished docking, and you made Ebony Horse jump off the ship, followed by Leia using her jet pack to help her get off the ship. Meanwhile, Luna and Rasputin used the plank of wood to get onto the dock. Upon entering the dock, the four of you looked around, you all looked to be in some kind of market district.
"Odd, wasn't the Princess supposed to meet us here?" Jack examined his surroundings with the radar, but he couldn't see anything unusual. "I think we're a little late, maybe she just got bored and left?"
"We're only 4.568917354196 seconds later than the agreed upon time." Leia's precision was unreal, so much so that Jack had doubts. "Shall I soar upwards to check where the princess is?"
"No need, she is on her way here as we speak." Luna smiled before pointing her finger down the street. "Who else would that royal percussion be for?"
While confused by what she said, Jack used Ebony Horse's binocular vision to look into the distance to see what Jack thought was a parade. There were people playing instruments, jesters juggling, trumpeters announcing the arrival of the princess. Weirdly enough, Jack couldn't see the princess because she was supposedly inside some kind of carriage. The kind of carriage was the kind that had four guys carrying it on their shoulders, with the carriage having a highly decorative roof supported by four decorative pillars at the corners of the carriage. Jack couldn't see inside it because it had decorative curtains, but looking at the heat signature filter, there was someone inside of the carriage. Someone small, possibly even smaller than a toddler, yet they were sitting upright like a meditating individual. The percussion stopped right in front of Jack's group, and the musicians stopped playing music and the four muscular men lowered the carriage. Some guy holding a scroll of paper stepped up and unrolled it to begin reading it.
"Jack Grimm, Lucky Luna, Yuriy Grigorev Rasputin, and L314 K1B0, you four have been tasked with protecting Princess Hina, heir to the throne of Hinode." The man read off the paper. "You will be escorting Princess Hina to the Sunrise Palace into the North-!"
"Are you sure it's a good idea for you to be announcing where we're escorting the princess out in public like this?" Jack used Ebony Horse's speaker function, which was about as loud as his real voice. "Like, assassins and stuff could use this to plan."
"Plus mentioning our identities might lead to possible assailants doing research on our abilities and plan accordingly." Leia looked around the area, as though she were scanning the area.
"The Lord won't like it if I fail my mission because of the mistakes of a single individual." Rasputin smiled evilly.
"Um...ANYWAY, BEHOLD, PRINCESS HINA!" The man then put a stool in front of the carriage, and the frontmost curtain opened up.
The announcer man pulled the curtain aside to reveal a small girl who looked like a doll. Jack would have assumed she was a fae, but she had no visible wings. She stepped out of the carriage and everyone stopped what they were doing to bow on both knees to the small girl. Jack couldn't really bow because Ebony Horse didn't have enough space for that. Rasputin, Luna, and Leia didn't bow either, but Jack's guessing that Rasputin refused to bow for anyone other than his god, Luna's back was hurting from sleeping on the concrete boat deck, and Leia can't read social cues.
"So, all of you are to be my protectors?" Hina questioned while looking up at them from her small stature.
"Question, why is someone barely a foot tall the one running shit?" Luna raised her hand, and everyone simply glared at her in response. "...We should go now..."
"That would be wise." Hina actually agreed.
"So...how are we gonna move you around?" You wondered, and amazingly, everyone else already had an idea for that.
With the help of Leia using her jetpack to fly upwards, the town citizens actually managed to lock the princess' carriage on Ebony Horse's back, further solidifying its place as a mount. Amazingly, the shape of the carriage paired with the shape of Ebony Horse's back allowed the small carriage to fit perfectly. For safety reasons, straps were attached to better hold down the carriage by the bars that the men were holding to carry the carriage. After the straps were locked into place, Leia picked up Princess Hina and set her down in her carriage.
"Hey, Luna, Rasputin, you two wanna hop on too?" Jack asked the priest and gambler.
"Your kindness will not go unrewarded, dear friend!" Rasputin commented as Jack lowered Ebony Horse's torso, allowing Rasputin and Luna to get onto the mech.
"Well then, let us move."
(Later.)
After a full day of walking through the forest, Jack's group finally found a hotel. Completely contradicting the town from earlier, this hotel was more modern. After parking Ebony Horse outside, hidden in the tree line, Jack's group checked under the hotel. Upon reaching the front desk, Jack discovered there was already a reservation for you and your group.
"Weird, I don't recall any of the servants telling me about already registering a room." Princess Hina sat on Rasputin's shoulder as she was handed her own room key. "Wait, is this the penthouse suite? And why are my guards in separate rooms?"
"Unfortunately, we don't have a penthouse suite, so we focused on making your room as luxurious and accommodating as we could." The hotel receptionist informed Hina's group. "At the cost of luxury, we had to move your guards to separate rooms."
"So you gave us rooms that were on opposite sides of the hotel?" Jack examined the number on your key, which was 13, Leia's room key was 276, Rasputin's was 152, Hina's room was 420, and Luna's was the storage closet key.
"Because those were the only four rooms available for us to give to you." The receptionist answered Princess Hina's question. "All the other rooms are occupied with residents."
"Well Luna and I will share a room, since I don't think the storage closet will be good for her back." Jack grabbed the storage closet key out of Luna's hand and put it on the counter.
"I suppose this is for the best, a Princess needs her privacy after all." Hina sighed before grabbing the key. "Rasputin, take me to my room!"
"I listen to no mortal, but since the Lord wishes for me to follow your orders, I shall oblige!" Rasputin then walked to the elevator and pressed the button, but there was no response.
"The elevator's out too!" The hotel receptionist shouted from her desk, and Jack began to wonder if this hotel is really that unlucky.
"I guess we'll just take the stairs..." Jack commented, and he began ascending the stairs, followed by Luna, Leia, Rasputin, and Hina, the latter of whom was still on Rasputin's shoulder.
Jack's room was on the right a little distance away from the stairs, so he used his key to open it. Leia, Hina, and Rasputin kept on ascending the stairs because their rooms were on the higher floors. Luna stayed behind with Jack as they entered the hotel room. The room they both entered had two beds and looked like your average hotel room. There was something off about it though. It was quiet. Too quiet. Especially for a hotel that was supposedly full at 8 in the evening. Jack then got an idea. He summoned Rumplestiltskin and walked over to the nightstand.
"I want to see if every other room in this hotel has people." Jack rolled Rumplestiltskin on the table, only to get a 4. Nothing happened.
"What are you doing?" Luna looked over Jack's shoulder, and her neck chain necklace rattled with her movement.
"Trying to get a 20." Jack then grabbed the dice again, only for the dice to land on an 8. "With a 20, I could probably see if every other room in this hotel was someone in it."
"Maybe I can help..." Luna closed her eyes, and Jack felt immensely luckier. "Try it now."
"I want to see if every other room in this hotel has people." You repeated the sentence again and rolled the yellow D20 dice, and amazingly, the dice landed on a 20.
In an instant, Jack was able to see through every room in the building as though he had x-Ray vision. Best part was that Jack's brain was able to process all of it. There was no one in the rooms of the first three floors, but the fourth floor was packed with people. Jack saw that the people in the fourth floor were all dressed up as ninjas, holding onto a variety of weapons. The worst part was that the fourth floor is where Hina's room was, and Rasputin just left her room. Rasputin was walking through the halls, oblivious to what was really going on. Then Jack remembered something.
"Luna, you said your Rabbit's Foot ability gave you crazy good luck, but in exchange, something bad is guaranteed to happen?" Jack turned his head to face Luna.
"Yeah, it gets even worse the longer I use it." Luna answered Jack's question, only to be hit with a follow up question.
"And nothing has happened yet since we left the ship, right?" Jack remembered that everything from the ship to that moment went pretty good.
"That is also correct." Luna needed a moment to think before answering that question.
"So what if it's possible that your Rabbit's Foot ability led to ninjas suddenly setting up an ambush to possibly kidnap Princess Hina?" Jack basically told Luna what was going on, but Luna thought he was being hypothetical.
"That wouldn't be the weirdest thing that my talent caused." It still didn't click for Luna. "Why do you ask?"
Then they both heard Princess Hina scream.
"Because that's exactly what's happening."