Ophis and the Gang

A few days have passed since Mitsuha has joined the Chat Group. As things began to play out as dictated in her novel, Mitsuha has begun to believe the other members' explanations of the Dimensional Chat Group.

For Huang Luan, she has been obediently attending school. Assuming that "obediently attending school" only means physically being on the school grounds. Wu Song has also officially transferred into Kawakami Academy. Under normal circumstances, she would have been sent to 2-S, but since her purpose is to make sure Huang Luan isn't wasting the money of Liangshan Yi, she was put into the F Class where Huang Luan is. Despite this, she isn't really capable of stopping Huang Luan from doing as she pleases and can at most only try to persuade her to attend classes, and even then, the Emperor only attends a couple of them.

Skipping the afternoon classes, Huang Luan is sunbathing on the rooftop of the school. But her relaxation time is cut short as she detects a couple of visitors arriving in the city via teleportation magic a couple of kilometres away from the school.

"Now that I think about it, it has been a few days since Ophis found me. Well, I said I'd help and it's not like I'm doing anything here right now anyway," Huang Luan thinks as she gets up.

As Huang Luan walks up to the school gate, she's met with Tesshin.

"What's up?" Huang Luan asks.

"Since you aren't going to be attending for the rest of the day, I simply figured I would give you this," the old man says, handing Huang Luan a pamphlet. "I don't mind you skipping classes or even skipping school when there's a reason, but I would still like it if you'd participate in school events."

"A school trip to Osaka for the 2nd year's," Huang Luan says looking over the pamphlet, "I'll go, but it doesn't seem particularly interesting."

"The trip will be a week from now. But don't worry, there will be something else later. I'm still getting things prepared, but I'm sure the next school event will be a little more interesting for you."

Huang Luan shrugs, "I hope. Welp, I got things to do and people to meet, so I'll catch ya later."

Leaving the school behind, Huang Luan arrives at the bridge of weirdos and waits for her guests. After a minute they arrive, two Europeans. One, a bespectacled young man with blond hair with a strand of hair across his face, dressed in a business suit. The other is a teenage girl with blonde hair and attire that consists of a sorceress-like dress with a huge blue hat with a black bow and yellow stars and a matching cape with pink flowers and a white interior. The two, likely a pair of siblings.

The two foreigners make their way across the bridge. As they cross, they are accosted several times by the strange people who often appear on the bridge, including the flasher that Huang Luan encountered once before. He was instantly thrown into the river by the young man who covered the girl's eyes.

The two swiftly cross the bridge. The girl's face is bright red while the young man retains a calm demeanour while keeping an eye out for anyone else who intends to bother them.

Huang Luan approaches the two foreigners, "Do you know what this bridge is often called?"

His guard still up, the young man replies, "No, I'm not aware of its name."

"The locals call it the Bridge of Weirdos. Those people who came to bother you are pretty commonplace. So what brings people like you two to Kawakami?"

"We are here to meet someone. But little girl, where are your parents? Do you need any help?"

Initially, Huang Luan was slightly annoyed over being called a little girl. But she knows that there wasn't any ill intent behind it and the man was earnestly asking if she needed help. It isn't the first time someone had asked her this after all, so there isn't any point in getting upset from someone who doesn't know better, unlike Tesshin who will often call her such names to purposely annoy her.

"No need, I'm not as young as I look. So long as you don't address me with such names in the future we can maintain cordial relations," Huang Luan says as she releases an aura that causes the two to kneel to her.

The young man is about to question the identity of Huang Luan, but she releases the pressure, answering his question before he can even pose it, "I am Huang Luan and I should also be the person you're looking for. Assuming it was Ophis that sent you."

"So you are Huang Luan," the man says as he stands back up.

"I wasn't expecting the person we were looking for to appear so young. It's nice to meet you Huang-san, I'm Le Fay Pendragon," the girl says with an outstretched hand and a smile on her face.

Huang Luan is initially surprised at Le Fay's happy smile and willingness to befriend her after forcefully bringing her and her brother to their knees as she introduced herself.

"People like you are quite rare amongst humans. Le Fay, I give you permission to call me Lulu," Huang Luan says in approval, shaking Le Fay's hand.

As the two of them finish shaking hands, the man says, "And I'm Arthur Pendragon, Le Fay's older brother."

"I could tell, from name and appearance alone. You do very much remind me of the late King. Your demeanour and the way you carry yourself is very much like your ancestor. Moreover, I felt the presence of Caliburn and that fragment of Excalibur the moment you arrived. Your identity was very clear to me the very yoctoyoctosecond you teleported into the city. Regardless, let's head somewhere else for you to set up a teleportation circle. I refuse to cross that bridge."

"I concur. I would rather we not have to deal with those people again," Arthur says.

Le Fay remains silent as she blushes, remembering the brief sight she saw just moments before while following Huang Luan with her brother.

Making their way to a dead-end alley, Le Fay opens a magic circle for their teleportation.

Stepping through Le Fay's teleportation circle the three of them arrive in the building being used for the meeting site for the Khaos Brigade. They arrive in a well-lit room with minimal decorations. Looking out the window, one would see the moon high in the sky. In the room, are three other people. One is Ophis. The others are a handsome young man with light silver hair and hazel eyes, and a young man with short light-coloured hair in ancient Chinese armour, and a beautiful young woman in a black kimono with a voluptuous figure, long black hair with split bangs, and hazel-gold eyes with cat-like pupils, two black cat tails and cat ears.

Before anyone can respond, Huang Luan approaches the young man in Chinese armour, "What's your relation to that rambunctious stone monkey?"

Confused, he says, "What's with this child? I thought you guys were bringing back a new member. She's-- ack!"

Since Huang Luan is concealing her power, as for as the two unknown men in the room are concerned, she is a simple child. Ordinarily, she would give a pass to the ignorant, but because he reminds her of someone annoying she instinctively punched him, knocking him out and sending him flying into the wall while also breaking a few chairs on the way.

The pendragons are looking at Huang Luan with an inquisitive expression as she replies, "Sorry, he reminds me of an annoying monkey."

"Well, he is kinda annoying sometimes. You're pretty strong for a human, but I can't feel anything from you. Anyway, I'm Kuroka. Since you seem interested, the one you knocked out is called Bikou, the current Monkey King and descendant of Sun Wukong, nya."

As Kuroka finishes, the silver-haired man steps forward, "Vali Lucifer, a descendant of the original Satan Lucifer." Vali then manifests white Dragon wings on his back, with eight energy feathers, "I'm also the current generation's White Dragon Emperor."

Huang Luan uses her Domineer ability, sending everyone but Ophis to their knees, "To call yourself an Emperor in front of me? You've got guts. Have you not learned your lesson since I last beat you up, Gwiber?"

"Of course I did! Why do you think I haven't said anything since you arrived!" A voice yells out from around Vali.

"Teach your hosts better, Gwiber, no you go by Albion now, don't you," Huang Luan says, deactivating her Domineer and taking a seat in one of the few chairs that aren't broken.

"Albion, you know who she is?" Vali asks as he picks himself up.

"I know what you're thinking Vali. Don't try and fight with her. You will lose."

Seeing how Albion won't give him an answer and the woman in question is mostly ignoring him, he turns to Arthur and Le Fay since they've spent the most time with her out of his team.

But Arthur shrugs and shakes his head, "She only told us her name."

"Speaking of which, she hasn't introduced herself yet, nya," Kuroka says while taking one of the two other chairs still intact for herself.

"Huang Luan."

"..."

"Nya? That's it?"

"I guess you could say I'm an Elder of Liangshan Yi," Huang Luan says, refusing to elaborate any further.

"I've never heard of your name before. How did someone of your strength stay hidden for so long? We should fight later," Vali says, ignoring Albion's previous statement.

"History has long forgotten my given name. And will someone explain the who or what this Khaos Brigade thing is? I'm only familiar with the name."

Letting his sister take the last remaining seat, Arthur explains that the Khaos Brigade is an organisation consisting of various races with the current goal of removing the Great Red from the Dimensional Gap. That there are a few factions within the Khaos Brigade, each with their own personal agendas and that they belong to Team Vali, whose main goal is to fight strong opponents.

After the explanation, Huang Luan, Le fay, and Kuroka make small talk, while Vali and Arthur wake up Bikou. With a few slaps to his face, Bikou wakes up.

"Ow, I know why most of my body hurts but why the hell does my face sting so much?" Bikou questions, rubbing his aching body as he gets up. "I didn't expect to get beat up so bad by a little girl."

This sentence earns Bikou a cold glare from Huang Luan, but the man doesn't seem to realise it.

"So who is she?" Bikou asks.

"She said her name's Huang Luan and that she's an elder of something called Liangshan Yi. She seems to be Chinese, maybe you know her?"

"I've heard about Liangshan Yi, they're a mercenary group that started in the Song Dynasty. But I've never heard of someone named Huang Luan before," Bikou says.

"Albion?" Vali questions.

"If she isn't going to say anything, then I have no reason to speak," Albion replies.

Without an answer from Albion, Vali, Arthur, and Bikou look towards Ophis who has remained silent until now.

"A monkey," Ophis says, causing some confusion amongst most of the others in the room.

"How rude, I'm not just a monkey, I'm a Curly Haired Baboon."