Atlantis

[Bloodedge]

By the time his vision cleared completely, Miki was within reach and holding a hand against his forehead. What a time to have proper sight it was, as well, considering the first thing... or things he took note of were Miki's more exposed assets just ahead of his face. Speaking of Kou's face... it was reddening, even mimicking a rising fever as his eyes closed tight. This was quite a bit to take in while also hearing about the apparent illness he had, and what had been done to stave it off. "Right, so... I was dying from the inside out, and the only fix was to turn me into a Dragon? Got it. I'm fine now, so... yeah..." he said, clearly flustered even by the tone of his voice. At least he finally understood what he was feeling when he woke up. That certainly couldn't be mistaken.

[Apollymi]

Kou's face reddened a great deal, but the depth of it didn't feel like the fever from before. His follow up summary of the things Miki had to say, let her know all she needed to about his returned disposition. She reserved herself to keep from softly sighing, not because she wasn't happy to see her adventuring partner, but instead because she'd become comfortable. Far too comfortable in the presence of the Dragonoid who gave and took affection in his own terms without any embarrassment. Because of this, Miki had come to rely on her ability to act around him because his feelings about her were rather obvious and made responses easy. In the case of Kou, it was obvious to her that he was flustered by her proximity and she'd known that would be the case when she'd practically thrown herself out of his lap, still she hadn't been able to help worrying about him just a little. "Hai, that sounds about right. I'm glad you're okay..." she said meaning it truly as the loss of her partner would have been quite damaging, even more so than knowing he didn't accept her in his current form. Luckily there was a saving grace from the sort of awkward sadness that could arise from Miki noting the full consequences of the lad coming fully back to himself. And in this case it was Seriri.

"Akashi-sama, is Kimi up yet? Those traders will be here..." she said the sentence normally as if she wasn't at all surprised to maybe find the lass still sleeping in the Dragonoid's lap. There was a pause as Seriri looked up to find the lad who had been the Dragonoid Akashi back to the form that he'd been in when she'd originally changed him over. "Sou ka, you're Kou again. Alright, it took you a few days to change back. You're not dizzy right? No fever or anything?" she asked of the lad going into full Nurse mode within a few seconds of entering. She looked to Miki and upon noticing that the girl was already awake, she looked at her for several seconds steadily before returning her gaze to the lad at hand.

[Bloodedge]

Several seconds passed before Kou decided to open his eyes again. When he did so, there was a bit more distance between Miki and himself. The lad exhaled a deep breath. That was quite the close call, it was. He wasn't even sure why, but he felt as if he didn't need to be in such close proximity to Miki at the time. Maybe it was a leftover thought from his time as Akashi. Whatever the case, he made sure he voiced his appreciation for the girl's concern. "Hai. Thanks for worrying..." he said.

Mere moments later, the rightful Queen of Atlantis entered her throne room. She immediately assaulted him with a pair of questions, and though he was taken aback by the quickness of them, the slightest amount of nervous laughter preceded his response. "Iie, iie. No fever, I don't think, and nothing more than... well, I feel a little spaced-out. It's fine though, I think I'm just groggy from that chair." Speaking of the chair, where was he before falling? Kou looked around to find the only thing reminiscent of a chair nearby. Of course, it was none other than Seriri's throne. Kou had it in him to seem a bit bothered by the idea that he'd taken the throne during his time as a Dragon, so he put forth the effort to kowtow before the queen right away. "Ah, gomen gomen! That wasn't me!"

... He still wasn't quite himself, it seemed. Perhaps it was a side-effect of the forced transformation, either one way or the other.

[Apollymi]

Though Kou had been a bit more reserved and obviously more embarrassed about his proximity to Miki. She'd done the thing she'd been doing for the lad's comfort and put space between them and he seemed to recover well enough after. He even claimed to thank her for being worried for his sake. "Iie, there isn't any need to thank me for that..." the girl said softly. Seriri looked to her friend and her left brow raised, such softness from Kimi was still almost unheard of, her relationship with the Dragonoid Akashi was becoming more and more obvious for why it worked the way it did. 'Sou ka, Kimi is soft and wants to love him, but he's also soft and is less obvious about accepting it... that's kind of cute,' this was the thought of Seriri who seemed to be slowly coming to an understanding of why the pair of Karna and Hikari were so content on trying to get these two together.

Whatever the case, Kou seemed to be well enough to answer her questions in rapid succession even. That was good he seemed to even be remorseful for his actions while he was in his Dragonoid form. This caused Seriri's eyes to widen quite a bit, and she turned to look at Kimi who managed to shrug at the lad's rather obvious show of remorse. Miki had never seen the lad try to get on the ground to apologize, but flustered apologies were pretty normal for him. Seriri on the other hand wouldn't be accepting anything like this from anyone who helped her as much as these two already had. "Iie, don't do that. It's weird. Look, you didn't do anything while you were a Dragon that didn't need doing..." she said calmly. "Kimi said you weren't a bad guy and you weren't as Akashi. He's actually pretty fair minded and clever, and Dragons are supposed to be more of who their base personalities are, and if that's you there isn't any problem," she mentioned offhandedly. "Besides, even I can accept that my inaction, even while not being intentional didn't do good for this place. So..." she extended her hand to the lad to offer him a hand up and a shake. "Thanks for the kick in the ass and I look forward to your continued support!~" she offered with a bright smile. Miki watched this portion of the exchange from her spot this time on the arm of the throne she once occupied with Akashi. She seemed as aloof as she always did, and Seriri was close enough to her to note this change in her demeanor. Perhaps now she could get the lass alone for a bit and prod her brain for extra information.

[Bloodedge]

When Kou looked up, there was a hand being offered to him. Along with it, came the explanation that the Dragon Akashi hadn't done anything truly harmful, and had actually been of help to the Atlantean Queen. He took the queen's hand, and the following shake, while rising from the floor. "Iie. Don't mention it. Still... I didn't mean to take over your throne or anything," he said, gesturing to the very same throne for Seriri to sit upon. "You can uhh... go ahead and have that back. Oh, and... thanks for the save."

After this exchange with the queen, Kou rubbed the back of his head while seeming to be in deep thought. He really had no memory at all of being Akashi this time; not even the sensation. Just the same, he had no earthly idea why he couldn't remember. It was quite the perplexing scenario for Kou to find himself in, but at least he hadn't been taken by this... Devouring disease. "So, what's the sitch? I'm still a little spaced, but I'm guessing there's still something we need to do."

[Apollymi]

It took a moment, but Kou did accept Seriri's hand and her thanks for what had been done in his Dragon form. It seemed he didn't have any memory of his time as Akashi and really hadn't himself intended to take over her throne at all. He even motioned that she should go ahead and take it back now that he wasn't in a position to simply take it over again. Seriri looked at the throne and where Miki sat on one of the arms and simply shrugged. "It's probably fine that you did. I wasn't doing much with it anyways, and simply sitting all the time isn't good nor something I really want to do again. Kimi deserves a good seat for a while..." she said looking back at the blonde lass who had something rather flippant to say but it wasn't something she'd intended to allow to leave her head. "It's not like I want it. It isn't exactly the most comfortable seat," she said in direct contradiction to the fact that she'd even been comfortably sleeping atop the throne. Seriri looked at the lass and chuckled. "Whatever you say... anyways, there also isn't any need to thank me for saving you. I might not have without a kick in the ass, which came from Kimi and your little sister," she said honestly. After finding out the lad would become something different from who he was she wasn't exactly keen on making his Resurrection. The assurances and threats of Kimi and the faith of Hikari had been what made her follow through with the action.

He still seemed rather spaced out, before answering his question Miki looked at him with her eyes seeming to be searching him for something. He claimed to not remember anything about being a Dragonoid this past time, and it would make sense considering Akashi had forced him down enough to be in control of himself. Before Miki could speak though, it would be Seriri offering her best approximation of an explanation for his lack of memory. "Gomen, that might be the fault of the treatment. Forcing an Avatar switch makes that Avatar the most dominate thing within the player. Avatars created in this world are as close to being their own people as one can get, and will act of their own accord, even with the same personality as their base. Don't worry too much about it," she offered to clear his mind of the potential issues. Miki finally opened her mouth to speak to the lad and it would be a pretty direct bit of her understanding of the rest of the situation. "Before yesterday, the main force of everything within the Kingdom was a man called the Banker. The Banker was..." there was a pause from Miki as she remembered the previous day and tried to decide how best to explain the situation. "The worst possible individual to have that sort of power. I took care of him and everything wrong with his business practices directly yesterday. It was my plan to fix the economy here all along and that part is done..." she mentioned but there was a bit more to it than that. "But.. Akashi said, fixing the economy would cause other problems to arise. That the people would show themselves for what they were. I knew this as well, but not fixing it wasn't an option. And I am not a people person..." Miki said, this caused a snide chuckle from Seriri who quickly covered her mouth and turned away trying to hide the fact that she was having a more than reasonable laugh at the blonde's expense. "I assume the people problem will be making itself obvious, now that everyone doesn't have the Banker's Tyranny to fear. And all known situations point to you... being the best suited to dealing with the people issue," she said her eyes never left this lad as she spoke. And when her final sentence was over she shrugged. That was the gist of the situation and all she could say.

[Bloodedge]

"Ah... sou ka," he said, understanding that it had been the nudging of others that prodded Seriri to aide him. He'd have to repay the favor to Hikari, wherever she was, but first he looked to Miki again. "Arigatou." It was made apparent to Kou that he could have blanked out within himself due to the forced shift into Akashi, rather than any fault of his own. That didn't seem right, but there were more important things to worry about than that anyway. Most specifically, there were the concerns raised by Miki after she explained the goings-on in Atlantis while he was in the form of Akashi.

"Hmm." Kou took several moments to think. It didn't seem many good things had gone on while he was 'unconscious' in a way, but now, he could at least work toward whatever conclusion his other self had come to in days prior. "Well, it would be very easy to figure out what's going on in the underground if this Banker has been dealt with. If he's that bad, he won't come clean at any cost... but, I can figure out the lines between the lies. Can you show me where he's being kept?"

[Apollymi]

She looked to Kou when he offered her thanks for saving him, and a small smile came to her face. He would thank her for what she'd done there, but she was more happy he simply didn't remember the shift in her personality, keeping them from more awkward interactions than she wanted to deal with. "Iie," she mentioned not wanting thanks for doing something like that, especially seeing it was more than a bit selfish on her own part.

"Gomen, no easy puzzles today..." Miki said in an offhanded way. Kou had asked where the prisoner was being kept, but there was no prisoner. A good number of underground people had been killed over the last few days between the two women standing in this room. "The Banker died in the streets yesterday. He was a sadist involved directly in bad contracts and torture the likes of which couldn't be ignored. He didn't let go of any secrets, and with his last breaths he tried to convince me to work for him while very obviously thinking about torturing me..." she stated still not making eye contact with anyone. "Most of the people directly associated with his organization also died..." Miki mentioned without looking at anyone. Once again her mind seemed to wander very far away from the moment she currently occupied. What was more she was gripping the arm of the throne she sat upon caught with her cloak between them. "Well, except for one... but he might not want to speak about it. He's been through a lot, and he still only talks to Tsu-chan," she said of the only person alive who might truly understand the motives of the Banker. "Kimi..." there was the statement of Miki's given name, but Seriri came to the conclusion the girl wasn't nearly as okay as she'd seemed the previous day, especially when she considered that she probably had a great amount of problems with what had taken place in the Shark's Den the day before. "I told you, I'm the last person you need to worry about," Miki confirmed though she still wasn't looking at anyone. Adding an actual interaction with the Banker to that, and it was no wonder when they'd returned to the palace she'd simply cuddled up in Akashi's lap and gone straight to sleep.

[Bloodedge]

No easy puzzles, she said. Kou could immediately tell there was nothing left of the Banker, but further speech revealed that he, and his underlings, had actually been killed. It was worse than Kou thought, then... especially given the mention of Miki's potential torture, and the lack of direct eye contact from the girl. "..." Kou wasn't sure what to say initially, but he could piece together what was most likely going on with the Banker. He'd have killed the male as well. "Sou ka..."

Miki's expression was concerning, to say the least. Kou had no knowledge of this other person she spoke of, but his mind was off-topic at the time enough for him to not work toward incorporating that person's existence. In the end, he came to a singular conclusion, based only on what he saw in the blonde. "You... can rest up. I'll take care of the other issues here. It shouldn't take much; I'll just go check out the streets. Sound good?"

[Apollymi]

Whatever Kou thought was going on with Miki, it probably wasn't good. She hadn't been directly tortured or anything of the sort, she'd just been reminded of something very traumatizing in her life, that she couldn't seem to escape even in another world. Whatever the case, the lad seemed to understand just enough of the situation to try and formulate a plan based on the information he'd have to gather himself. At his mention that Miki could rest up and he'd go off looking for the information he needed in the streets, the blonde lass gave a gentle shake of her head, though his idea wasn't bad. She couldn't really rest anymore, after all she still had a bit of work to do, and a busy mind was much better for her psyche than being left alone with her own thoughts. Her coping mechanisms came to life in this moment. "Iie, my resting right now isn't exactly an option. You could go out if you wanted, but the traders who wish my assistance are coming here to seek business advice. I have to get them to a point where they can be trusted to make their money without compromising their morals. That being said, you could see some interesting people here today, and I'll stamp out all unsavory business practices and root out anything remaining that shouldn't be allowed to flourish," Miki said. "Besides, I'm still mentally designing a financing plan for the Kingdom for our eventual departure. One to help back whatever social policies you put in place and make the system self-sustaining with minimal guidance and the best chance to resist moral corruption. I'll leave everything else to you," she said sounding rather sure about this though she'd been rather quiet in the moments prior. She had faith in the lad to root out the social problems and come up with a proper solution. And she knew how to make the necessary funds to make it happen and not put any more strain on the monarchy nor all of the citizens.

With that Miki turned to face the doorway knowing that the traders and merchants would soon come seeking advice. For an extra 10 percent fee she'd be able to make quite a bit of money while simultaneously rooting out all of the ideas which abused morals, people, or exploited aspects of the markets. Seriri stood a moment longer staring at Miki and seeing once again the face of her black haired friend as she remembered her. She couldn't say anything to the lass, but she'd seen this coping behavior before, she threw herself whole-heartedly into things she could control and understand and let the problems of her mind get washed away in the grind of working. Which was an aspect of her personality which gained her an unreasonable amount of respect as a gamer, but still made the Queen worry for the mental stability of her friend. "Kimi... I'm..." she paused thinking about it. Obviously the lass wasn't ready to speak on what was actually going on in her mind. As such she could leave it alone for now, and perhaps be given the time to work towards a better conversation with her later. "Going to see if I can find out anything from Diva. I can't promise he'll speak with anyone else though, he's still pretty skittish."