The ones who would be coming to this 'grand trip' were Kisuke, Yoruichi, Hestia, and the obvious two, Hermes and Artemis.
"Thank you, kind children." Artemis smiled gently, "You're not in my Familia, but you will be my comrades in this journey." She then put forward her right hand, "Let's take a vow."
Kisuke already heard about this. It was the ritual which the Deities used whenever they would come to journey with children who were not from their own Familia. Kisuke slowly took Artemis' hand and gave it a kiss before stepping away to give way for Yoruichi.
After Yoruichi took the vow, Hermes asked, "Isn't it better to bring everyone?" He thought that everyone from the Hestia Familia would be coming, since they really needed all the help they could get.
Kisuke shook his head, "That won't do. We still have injured members and we can't just leave them alone." Besides, just him was already enough. Yoruichi only came as Hestia's guard and insurance.
Hermes looked towards Kuroka and Medusa and he didn't see the intention of them coming. Sighing, Hermes continued, "I brought some clothes that could serve as armor. I'd like you to try it."
"No need. The clothes we already have are serving as armor." Kisuke and Yoruichi then went towards the room where Hestia formerly stayed to change their outfits.
Hermes then faced Hestia, "Hestia, you should also change, since it might become dangerous. I'll provide the clothes."
Hestia nodded at him and Hermes went out to get the promised clothes. Artemis then approached Hestia, "Hestia, thank you for helping me."
"Stop that. We're best friends, so it should go without saying that I'll help you in your time of need~." Hestia confidently thumped her chest.
Seeing this, Artemis couldn't help but pat her head.
"Stop treating me like a kid!"
Kisuke and Yoruichi got out and both of them returned to their former attire of green shihakusho and orange overshirt with two white straps on her shoulder.
A few seconds later, Hermes returned with a bag and gave it to Hestia and after a few minutes, Hestia was able to change and the group went on their way, leaving behind Kuroka and Medusa.
"I'll leave them to you two."
"Don't worry, nya~!"
"Take care, master, Yoruichi-san."
Hermes, Artemis, Hestia, Kisuke and Yoruichi then started walking towards the southern wall of Orario. It was already past midnight and the stalls for the festival were already preparing to pack up. Along the way, they came across some people who kept tripping over themselves for no reason and after witnessing it for the third time, Yoruichi thought that their faces were familiar.
After thinking about it for a few more seconds, Yoruichi finally remembered where she saw them, 'It's the people who kept calling Kisuke 'Gigolo Master' in the spear-pulling event.' Yoruichi then got close to Kisuke and whispered, "What did you do to them?"
With a bad smile, Kisuke answered, "I've recently started studying about curse magic... I'm really grateful they presented themselves as test subjects~."
Yoruichi could only smile wryly at his answer. Because of this, a strange rumor would soon begin to circulate to the whole of Orario, 'If you call the 'Gigolo Master' by his Alias, you'll be cursed.'
They reached the southern wall and all of them went up. "But why on top of the wall?", asked Kisuke. He also noticed that Artemis was carrying a sword, as if she was also going to fight, but didn't say anything about it, 'This spear... As expected. She's just a remnant. I wonder what happened?'
"Artemis. Do you know anything?" Hestia asked.
Artemis shook her head, "Uh, no..."
Hestia then turned to Hermes, "What's the plan now, Hermes?"
But instead of answering her, Hermes only looked up.
Kisuke and Yoruichi also looked up and saw some silhouette of wyverns coming towards them, "Hooh~, so that's how we're going to travel? I guess it won't be boring~."
Hestia was about to ask what Kisuke was talking about when Hermes suddenly said, "Here they come~."
A few seconds later, three wyverns approached their spot. "Geh!? That's!?", exclaimed Hestia at the sight of the monsters.
From one of the wyverns, a loud laugh emerged from the top of it, "FUHAHAHAHA!" The laughing figure then jumped down to the top of the wall where everyone was standing. More specifically, to the spot where Hestia was standing, "W-wha!"
Hestia hurriedly got out of the way of the laughing God, "G-Ganesha!?"
The God who landed was a muscular man, wearing a red and yellow elephant mask over his face. He wore an orange sash which went over his right shoulder and wrapped around his waist. A gold-rimmed leather plate sat on his stomach, holding the garb together. He also sported white pants with dark brown under the knee boots - also with gold accents. Ganesha had Gold jewelry to further cement the image of a "showboat". His jewelry could be seen as a thick gold necklace and armbands. He also wore gold-rimmed gauntlets. The God of the Masses had long, shaggy, ash-brown hair. He stood up proudly and introduced himself like always, "Yes! I am Ganesha!"
He then turned to Kisuke and smiled ear to ear, "We finally met, Green Crusader: Gigolo Master!"
Instead of getting pissed, however, Kisuke felt funny. Unlike the rest who emitted hostility, jealousy and malice, Ganesha was instead showing his admiration, albeit a little bit jealous. He thought that he was the kind of guy that was difficult to hate.
Kisuke and Yoruichi also did some checking on him and he was a type of God that was very weird, but put more importance to the masses than himself. 'What an amusing guy.', thought Kisuke as he smiled and greeted back, "It's also a pleasure to finally meet the famous Ganesha-sama! The name's Kisuke Urahara, nice to meet you."
"Fuhahaha! Indeed! It is I, Ganesha! I've heard so much about you, Kisuke! And all I can say is...", Ganesha then put both of his hands on Kisuke's shoulders, "I'm a big fan!... I mean! You bastard! You better not be deceiving them!"
Kisuke and Yoruichi couldn't help but chuckle at this amusing Deity, "I'm not and have no plans of doing that."
Ganesha removed his hands and with a big smile, he nodded repeatedly, "Good, good, good. I hope we can get along!"
"I do hope so too. I'm a big fan of Ganesha-sama, after all~."
Ganesha's eyes widened and started laughing out loud again, "Fuhahaha! Great! We should hang out sometimes! And maybe, you can teach me some of you tri--- Ehem! I mean talk about our daily lives and how we can help the people!"
Hestia knew that these two wouldn't stop talking, so she interrupted them, "So? Are we riding this?" The three gray wyverns already landed beside them.
"Yep, I asked Ganesha for help." Hermes nodded in confirmation, "It'll take over half a month to go there on foot, but this will only take 5 days!" He then muttered to himself, "I need to get back there as soon as possible, or Asfi won't be happy..."
Thanks to this, Kisuke and Yoruichi figured out that they wouldn't be the only ones to complete this quest and adjusted some plans in their mind.
"Fuhahaha! Don't worry about these wyverns! We've tamed them since birth and they would listen to everyone! Though that also makes it easier to steal them! Fuhahaha!" Ganesha added.
The group then started inspecting and bonding with the wyverns and confirmed Ganesha's words of its docility. Yoruichi turned to Ganesha and said, "Ganesha-sama, are these all the wyverns?" She noticed that the saddles on the back of the wyverns were only designed for single person usage.
"To be frank, I couldn't gather enough of them!" Ganesha answered proudly.
"So two have to ride together," Hermes added.
It was then that Artemis suddenly approached Kisuke and looked straight into his eyes before saying, "Let's ride together, Orion."
Before he could reject her, however, Hermes suddenly interrupted, "Please grant her request, Kisuke-kun."
Kisuke looked towards Hermes, who was making a serious expression, and then to Yoruichi who only nodded to him, leaving the decision to him,before looking back to Artemis, 'Does it have something to do with this spear?'
A second later, Kisuke came to a decision and smiled, "Alright~. Please take care of me."
Artemis smiled happily and got ready to hop on.
"Then I'll be riding with Hestia-sama." Yoruichi assisted Hestia.
"Are you fine with that?" Hestia whispered to her.
"It seems like there's a deeper meaning to it," Yoruichi whispered back.
"Deeper meaning?"
But instead of answering her, Yoruichi only said, "Please tell me about Artemis-sama during our trip."
Hestia was still confused, but she nodded, "Okay."
"So I guess I'm riding alone... Talk about a lonely journey." Hermes could only sigh.
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Editors argumentative corner:
28th00: I bet I'll have to come back for the commas again… I AM GANESHA is a pretty fun guy though~!
Alexander: Well, sometimes he can be a bit annoying. But he definitely strikes me as the kind of guy, who makes the party go wild.
28th00: He's for the people after all. Fun fact, I did come back for the commas, among other edits. They're almost criminal in placement this time!
For the next three days, the group continued their journey uninterrupted. Although the scenery was breathtaking from the start, it started to lose its charm after looking at forest after forest. Hermes also prepared the supplies needed for the journey, so Kisuke and Yoruichi didn't bother taking out their own provision.
One thing they also noticed was that Artemis never ate any food and they heard from Hermes that due to her Divinity, she didn't need any sustenance like any normal Deities in the mortal world.
During these three days of flight, as Kisuke and Artemis bonded and talked about various things, which resulted in them getting closer, Kisuke noticed some changes on the spear, 'Not just Mana, but it also started accepting some of my Reiatsu-Ki? Interesting. Is this what Hermes is aiming for?'
On the fourth day of their journey, something out of normal finally happened as Kisuke, Yoruichi and Artemis spotted a mother and daughter pair being chased by numerous scorpion type monsters, "Descend!" Artemis hurriedly shouted.
Kisuke controlled the wyvern and approached the running pair while Artemis took out her bow and started shooting at the monsters with great accuracy. Yoruichi controlled her wyvern, so that it went towards the direction of the running girls, to secure them.
The scorpion type monsters were jet black, with red-light running through their carapaces. These monsters were as long as an adult person and their pincers could easily grab someone's waist and pinch them in half.
Although Artemis was hitting the monsters with her bow and arrow, the rate of killing them was very slow and the monsters were slowly closing up to the pair. She then came to a decision and stood up, intending to dismount and go into close combat.
However, before she could do so, Kisuke suddenly grabbed her collar, putting her back in her place, "What are you doing!? They're in danger!"
"Yeah, I know. So take the reins. I'll be dealing with them." Kisuke, without letting Artemis refute, suddenly passed her the reins and jumped down, "Kisuke! That's dangerous!"
Not minding her, Kisuke landed and took out his blade while also inspecting the monsters, 'Now this is interesting... It seems that their Mana is connected to a single source. It looks like a cheap imitation of the Dungeon.'
He then started to decimate the monsters with just his swordsmanship.
This scene startled and captivated Artemis. Although he was using strength and speed not any more than what she was capable of, the way he danced through the battlefield with his blade was something that she couldn't hope to achieve.
Different from all the Adventurers she met in the past, and even her own children, this was the first time Artemis witnessed someone move so efficiently and beautifully, where normal Adventurers would just haphazardly use their skills, magic and brute force to kill the monster.
A few minutes later, Kisuke was able to annihilate the monsters which threatened the mother and daughter pair. "Thank you very much for saving us!", said the mother while she bowed down to him.
While Yoruichi, Hestia, Artemis and Hermes were disembarking from their wyverns, Kisuke crouched down to the daughter and patted her head, "Are you scared?"
The kid shook her head and said, "I'm with mom!"
Kisuke smiled, "That's great~!" He then looked back towards the mother, "It seems that your daughter won't have much problems. Though you should stay close to her for a while."
"Thank you very much." The mother thanked him again with greater fervor.
"That's fine, but can you tell us what happened?" With everyone already around, Kisuke asked.
The mother then explained what happened these past few days while Yoruichi entertained the daughter with the wyvern as part of post-stress relief, so that the experience wouldn't leave any emotional scars on the kid.
According to the mother, it seemed that the monsters appeared a few days ago and started decimating villages after villages. Although there weren't many casualties, as they were able to run away thanks to receiving the news about the first attack, they all lost their livelihood from the escape. The mother and daughter pair, in particular, got separated from the fleeing group and was about to rejoin them when the monsters started chasing them.
"I'm sorry that I can't be of much help. I don't have any idea of what's going on aside from that."
After a few more questions, the group finally let go of the pair. As help, Artemis also gave them almost all of their food supply.
After they left, Yoruichi finally asked Artemis, "It's good to help people, but what are we going to do about the food? We only have a few pieces of bread left."
"Eh? That won't be a problem. I don't need to eat." Artemis answered with an innocent face.
Yoruichi could only do a facepalm after hearing her, "What about the rest of us? We need to eat..."
Artemis' eyes widened and she looked towards the rest of the group who nodded at her. Realizing her mistake, she immediately performed the greatest form of asking for forgiveness which she learned from Takemikazuchi, a dogeza, "I'm very sorry! Please forgive me!"
"What the hell... She's way too naive..." Yoruichi muttered with a twitching mouth.
Chuckling, Kisuke asked Hestia, "Is she really like this?"
Hestia sighed and replied, "I also wonder how she ended up like this. Back in Heaven, she was so strict and cool that some were even afraid of her."
"If somebody was to peep on her bathing, she would be like, 'Know your worth! You shameless swines!', and hang them up for a few months up to a few years on the tallest tree in her domain. Though some people would still continue to peep on her, most of which were arranged by Hermes because he and his group liked being scolded by her."
Kisuke and Yoruichi then gave Hermes, who was nodding to himself proudly, a dirty look, "Ah, good ol' times~." He then proposed to the group, "Well, the sun's going down. Let's call it a day, stay here for tonight and leave in the morning."
"W-what about the food?" Artemis asked.
"We can skip it for today."
"I'm really sorry!"
Hestia then suddenly faced Kisuke, "How about you take it out now?"
Hermes and Artemis looked at them with a confused expression.
Kisuke only smiled and said, "Yes, yes. But we first have to find a good spot for the camp."
A few minutes later, the group found a good spot and Kisuke, from the bag that he took with him, started taking out a bunch of foodstuffs that you can only find in various parts of Orario.
"W-what is that!?" Hermes stood up and asked in shock.
"A little tool that can carry more things than usual," Kisuke explained simply while distributing food.
"W-where did you get it?" Hermes asked again, 'If I can get this for Asfi, things would get a lot easier for them! And maybe, she'll be able to replicate it!'
Kisuke grinned at him and said, "I made it."
"Y-you made it!?" Hermes was even more shocked, "So you have the 'Mystery' Development ability?"
"I don't have any obligation to answer that," Kisuke replied.
Hermes knew that he was about to step over the line with that question, so he backed out from interrogating him and instead asked, "How about you sell one to me? I'm willing to pay the price!"
Kisuke stayed silent for a moment before giving a reply. He already figured out the connection between the 'spear' and Artemis in front of him. He was already 90% sure that this wasn't the real Artemis but she should be closely connected to the original.
Thanks to that and the fact that they were now going on a monster subjugation quest, Kisuke came up with a few possibilities and a few of those were not so good. If one of those possibilities happens to be true, then during this journey, Hestia will surely figure it out and she would be asking for their help. Kisuke and Yoruichi didn't have any intention of staying deaf to any of Hestia's pleas.
"I can give it to you for free~." Kisuke gave Hermes an answer.
Hermes knew that there was nothing more expensive than 'free' so he asked, "What do you want?"
"I just need a favor."
"What favor?"
"I couldn't think of anything right now, so I want to save this favor for future use."
"You know there's no way I can agree to that."
"I know. That's why I'd like to limit this favor to something that will help Hestia-sama's wellbeing. How about that?"
Hestia was a bit surprised when it suddenly became a topic about her, but she thought that it was just Kisuke's good gesture and smiled happily.
Hermes stayed silent for a while before finally nodding his head, "Alright. If it's about Hestia's wellbeing, then I don't mind."
"Great. I'll give you the bag to you once we've returned."
During their talk, Artemis only stayed silent and stared at Kisuke. It was unknown what was on her mind.
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Editors
Alexander: I've never seen the movie, but was Artemis really like this? Seems a bit forced to me, that she becomes such an easy heroine.
28th00: I didn't see it either, but I assume it's because she's a wisp, a shadow of herself? She's a fragment of a fragment, it's kinda impressive she's still sapient at all. She's on a timer though. Favours for Bestia are obviously for the best. I don't think that girl has a single malicious bone in her body. I think her epitome of evil would be to harass Loki with magical girl costumes… Wait a second, that's not evil, it's diabolical!
Goyya: Yeah, even in 1.5hour movie, within half of that time, Artemis already fell in love. I can only attribute it to her not having an experience and tried to push for it since her time is already limited. She wanted to experience love before she's gone.