V slowly opened his eyes. He and L had spoken for some time about their plan to deal with O.  He was sure it was past midnight when he finally got a chance to sleep: after re-hiding his status of course. Due to the circumstances, L allowed him to sleep in one of the unoccupied beds. As he looked around, he noticed L had already left the room. He hoped she had gotten enough sleep, they would need every edge they could get. Being sleepy was not ideal. He looked out the window. Based on the sun, it probably was not quite noon yet. He headed down to the first floor. Spotting the innkeeper, V called out "How much would something to eat cost me?" The innkeep appraised him critically for a moment before responding. "If you want something warm, it will cost you a silver." nodding V drew a silver out of the small bag he had received last night, tossing it to the innkeeper.

As V sat at one of the small tables arrayed in the room, he considered. "L is doing most of the prep work..." turning his head from the window, to the man, now cleaning the front desk, V asked "Does this town have anyone who can make chemicals? Like uh, acids or stuff that explodes if you throw it?" The innkeeper gave a look of disdain "D..do you think we are so far removed from the big cities that we don't know what an alchemist is?" V shook his head "Uh, sorry. In my homeland, we called them chemists, so I was not sure if you would know the word." The innkeep's mood was not improved. "Sure whatever. There is one a street over, toward the church. Its next to the only strong spirits shop in town."

As V mused to himself about the possibility of the shop selling ghosts instead of alcohol while he waited for his food. Eventually a small girl, the innkeeper's daughter by the look of things, brought out a large plate of cooked meat, and bread with a small amount of butter on it. "Here mister! The cook gave you butter because she said you helped the Samurai lady! She is very pretty and nice. I want to grow up like her!" The small child carefully pushed the plate onto the table with both hands, afterward running back into the room behind the front desk. The girl soon returned with a mug of water, with a faint floral smell. "And your drink. It’s a house special! Daddy told me to say that, I don’t really know what it means though. This is not our house." She bounded up the steps, leaving V to his meal. He absolutely did not know what sort of meat he was eating, but it tasted heavily spiced. He believed it was to cover the gaminess of the meat. This was the type of thing he would expect from a town in the middle of nowhere. He would never tell the innkeep that though.

Finishing his meal, he got up and left the inn. Following the directions he had received, he navigated the streets, such as they were. The town had mostly cleaned up from the night before, although a few people seemed to be carrying on the party of their own accord. Eventually he saw what he was looking for, a shop with a mortar and pestle sign hanging outside. Next to it, was in fact, a shop selling alcohol. The alchemist next to the booze. V decided not to read too far into that as he stepped into the shop. It was humble, seemingly only two or three rooms at most. Dusting a shelf, an old man stood. He leaned heavily on a cane firmly held in one hand as he dusted with the other. He turned to look at V "Ah hello young sir, can I help you?" V responded as he examined the shelves, a few powders, a few flasks that he could only describe as "potions." A few plants. This shop had a bit of everything it seemed. "I hope so. I'm wondering if you could sell me something similar to a substance I used once in my homeland. We called it "Flash Powder" but I don't know what you might call it." The old man put his duster down, and walked over to a desk, setting down and pulling out a large tome, opening it. As he slowly moved, V took a look at his Status.

┌——————┐
Name: Uilk
Age: 78
Race: Human
Class: Alchemist lv 11
└——————┘

Uilk? V was not even sure how to pronounce that. After a few moments the old man spoke up. "I’ve never heard of "Flash Powder" exactly, but I can make you Blaze Dust. It creates a heat wave and a bright light for a few moments." That seemed quite close to what he wanted. "How do you activate it? Do I light it on fire with a spark? Orrr?" The old man chuckled "If you do that, make sure not to be holding it. One would normally activate it with flame magic, but a few sparks should work." V crossed his arms as he considered his options. "Could you put it inside a container? Like glass, and put a fuse in it? Like a candle wick, but meant to burn down quickly?" The old man looked though his tome as he spoke "Ah, like one of the bombs that I’ve heard about being created in the capitol these days. I believe I could do that, but it’s not going to explode like a bomb." V nodded "As long as there is bright flash, that will be all I need." The old man wrote some notes on a piece of paper. "The materials are not cheap, especially the glass. It will come to about seventy silver." V nodded. L had given him money to spend on the preparations for their plan. Apparently keeping the town safe paid well enough. Although she made clear she attempted to turn down the money multiple times. She also made clear that if he "lost" any of the money she would be incredibly displeased with him. He withdrew the coins and handed them to the old man. As the man slowly counted the coins he responded "It will take me the better part of a day to finish your order. It’s not something the people around these parts would normally need. I’m going to need to create the Blaze Dust from scratch.

Secondly, he was going to need a few throwing knives. After wandering for a good thirty minutes, he discovered a blacksmith shop. Approaching, he could already feel the heat of the forge. "Who in the world would ever choose this as their job?" Even at this distance the heat was unbearable. A young boy, maybe ten or twelve years old approached V. "Wat can I do for ya'? the masta' is busy fillin an orda'" The boy wiped his soot covered hands on his apron. "I was looking to buy four or six throwing knives, depending on what you had and how costly they were." The boy nodded "Aeh well. Da' knives we got layin' round aint all tha' great. Not a popula' tool round town. Ya' could have a few made, but it would be a da' or two." V shook his head "No, I don’t actually expect to do any damage with them. As long as they don’t fall apart mid-air, anything works. The boy shrugged "Whateva' it’s your choice." the boy opened a blackened chest, after some clanging, he pulled out four throwing knives. V figured that was the "Clearance Chest." The boy showed the knives to V, "Tha' is wha' we got. Nothin' fancy but they aint goin' to fall apart on ya." Good enough, they looked solid enough to V anyway. "How much is this going to cost me?" V withdrew the considerably lighter money pouch that L had given him. It only had 100 silver in it to start. "A' well. We will sa' 4 silver a piece. They aint very good." Shrugging, V counted out the money and handed it to the boy.

V's last stop was to see the guard captain. He would have preferred to leave this errand to L, but she was already dealing with more than he was today. So this business fell to him. As he wandered toward one of the town guards, he hoped that L believed that he only had fourteen silver left over, otherwise, this partnership was going to be short. "Excuse me, I know this might sound strange, but would you be able to take me to the head of the guard? I have some important business I would like to speak to him about." As V spoke to the guardsman, he laughed lightly to himself, he would not have thought that his first interaction with the law of this world would be to work with them. Made for a nice change of pace. The guard looked V over "We can't bother the Captain every time a citizen has some concern or other, if you wish to report a crime, I can take down the information." V shook his head; he expected this response. "The crime has not happened yet. I have information that might save some lives, but I must speak to the Captain about it." The guard gave him a look, "Sir, everyone thinks their concerns are the most important in the town. If the captain listened to everyone who had an "important tip" he would never leave his office." V shrugged, and replied in a flat voice "Alright then, so when there are bodies all over the road, and families are asking why their loved ones had to die, I suppose I should point at you and tell them that you decided their lives were not worth the Captain's time? You know, I just want to get our stories straight while we have the chance." The guard shifted uncomfortably and gave V a harsh look. A good thirty seconds of silence passed between them before the guard replied. "Alright fine, but if you waste the Captains time, I’ll see that the town guard look the other way next time something happens to you.

Inside the barracks of the Town Guard, V walked into the Captains office. The man inside was younger than V would have expected, probably in his mid-twenties. The man looked over, "Oh, I heard about you from the other night. You match the description of the man who assisted L in driving off that she-devil." He gestured at a chair "Set down, I certainly have a few moments to spare for someone on O's bad side." Well, this was going well. V supposed it made enough sense. If O had indeed been terrorizing the town, the captain would want as much information on her as possible. People who could stand against her included. "Thank you, I was told you were busy, so I will not take much of your time. Actually, the reason I have come to speak with you is in reference to O. Me and L plan on stopping her; For real this time." The Captain took a deep breath and sat down at his desk. "Admirable, but before you ask me to send the town guard after her with you, if I could afford to do that, we already would have. Even if we sent the entire force after her, I estimate we would lose ten or more of our men. In a town like this, the loss of ten good men is unacceptable. Before long thefts and murders would be common, and if the beasts from the forest attack, we would have trouble fending them off. V shook his head "No not quite. I already assumed as much. Actually, I wanted to ask you if there was a part of the town's outskirts that were abandoned. And if not, if you could arrange for the people living there to be evacuated before evening." The Captain furrowed his brow "Strange request. Mind explaining?"

"Well you see, we figure that a direct assault against O is the most costly and dangerous plan. Instead, we plan to ambush her. I am going to lure her as close to the town as possible. L intends to hide on the roof of one of the buildings, and once she is close enough, ambush her from above. We hope to finish her off in one swift, surprise attack. We are only going to get one shot at this. L and I have the highest chance of success on the first blow. The reason we would like it to be deserted or evacuated is obvious. Should our plan fail, the battle could spiral out of control. L did not want any civilians to get caught in the chaos." The captain sighed and leaned back "Well, that is the best plan I’ve heard yet, in terms of dealing with O. I'm sure I can arrange something... The buildings closest to the forest are mainly used for storage. I’ll tell the owners we are going to inspect them tonight, and that they can give their workers the night off. I’m hoping to keep the real reason hidden. Both L and O are famous/infamous in our small town, I’m sure that if people know what was really going on we would have people lining up to see "the big fight." Despite the risks." He took out a scroll from his desk, and started to write down orders "tell me, do you really think you and L can handle the she-devil? Even with a good plan, I’m not sure the two of you can do it." V cleared his throat "Well, that is the other matter I wanted to speak with you about." he paused for a moment as the Captain looked up from the scroll, "While we do not intend to ask you for manpower, L intends to recruit a few people who have suffered at the hands of O. I know at-least one of them is in the guard. We intend to tell them that it might be a suicide mission. I wanted you to know that one of your guardsmen will be joining us, and perhaps even a citizen or two." The Captain slowly nodded. "Well, I can’t stop a man for taking revenge for his wife. To be honest, I wonder if death would be a mercy for him at this point. If had to see my wife like that...." he shook his head, trying to rid himself of that image. "As for any civilians that join you, that is their choice. Considering L is with you, I will give you the benefit of the doubt." V thanked him. "I have to get going, I’m supposed to meet up with L in roughly two hours, and I would like to get a good look at the edge of town first." As V stood and turned to leave, the captain spoke up "Give her a kick for the town, would you? And if you can manage, take her head alongside it."