Catseye
A planetary body of 1.4 size (714,000,000km2 surface area), with a gravity of 1.89. It is highly volcanic on Farside, with evidence of a large body impact that occurred roughly nine hundred standard-years ago.Catseye has a single continent which is dominated by mixed jungle and swampland. Caution should be given to exploring outside the seven domed settlements, as the animal life tends to be extremely dangerous.
"Magic swords, eh?" asked Jiraiya, pausing with his hand over the grip of one.
The storekeeper inclined his head slightly. "THAT one's safe to touch."
"What kind of enchantment?" asked Jiraiya as he examined the odd sword. "For that matter, what kind of sword is this? I'm not familiar with the type."
"Military cutlass, formerly of a group of warriors called a 'Marine' according to the inscription," said the technowizard. "Apparently some precursor of the Marines used by militaries today. The enchantments on it are water-related. So long as you hold it, for example, you can breathe underwater. Named 'Wavecutter' - it's the least powerful of the two - but still quite a nice piece."
"I can see where that would be handy to have if you fought in the water a lot," admitted Jiraiya.
"This isn't a sword, it's just a knife," pointed out Naruto as he picked up the blade.
"DON'T TOUCH... oh. He's still alive," said the technowizard. "Huh. Isn't THAT interesting?"
Jiraiya had frozen at the panicked look on the old man's face, he also noticed the way the old guy had turned pale and was sweating and shaking - though he had sagged in relief. "Why's that knife so dangerous?"
The technowizard used the cloth of the bag it had come out of to handle the knife that Naruto had dropped. "This is of a type called a 'trench knife' - but it's a lot more than that. It's name is 'Breaker' and it isn't something I can sell. Entirely too dangerous. I just keep it with the other two weapons because anyone trying to steal it might grab it - and it has a tendency to kill those it doesn't accept."
Naruto stared at the knife again. It didn't SEEM that bad. It hadn't hurt him when he'd held it either. "You're kidding me. It just kinda felt... weird."
"Hmmm," hmmmed Jiraiya.
"Hmmm," hmmmed Nanoha, adopting the same pose.
The old wizard nodded. "It's a Rune Weapon. Something on an entirely different level than the other two weapons."
"What about this one?" asked Jiraiya, indicating the other sword.
"Ah, now that one I can sell, and it's a beauty," said the wizard. "It's a shortsword, but it has the name 'Eyebiter' and a curious enchantment on it."
Jiraiya tried to wipe his curiosity from his face. "So what is it? Does it turn you invisible?"
"There's something about that name I like," said Naruto to Nanoha.
Nanoha merely shrugged, not understanding the details.
"What do you think, Nanoha?" asked Jiraiya.
Nanoha considered and then pointed. "Are those Shield bracers?"
"Yes," said the old man, not bothering to conceal his surprise.
"I've already got something like that," said Nanoha, smiling. "Big brother and Uncle Jiraiya could use one though."
"Well?" asked Tsunade.
"Lord Jiraiya's idea seemed sound, it's just that..."
"Of course," asked Tsunade, touching her temples as if a headache was coming on. "Once an old fool, always an old fool. What did he miss?"
"Other than the message he recorded for you, we couldn't find the access controls for anything else. When we took it apart to figure out how to manually access it..." The encryption expert spread her hands.
"It's broken?" asked Tsunade.
"Well, we think so," hedged the encryption expert.
"Does anyone have a toad summoning contract where we might reasonably have a chance of getting a message back to Jiraiya?" asked Tsunade, directing her comment to her assistant.
"I'll get right on that," said Shizune, thinking being elsewhere sounded prudent.
Jiraiya remembered doing something like this when he'd gotten that commlink thing. Put your eye in front of the lit circular thing, hold still and wait for the beep.
"Your credit is..." the shopkeeper checked the screen. Checked it again. Blinked. Rubbed his eyes. Checked it a third time. "AAA? I don't think I've ever seen one that high."
"So I can afford these?" asked Jiraiya.
"I'd say so, yes," said the technowizard, now regretting the decision to give the guy a discount. Oh well, if he had a bit part in the third novel - that would more than make up for it.
Naruto scratched his head, bored, as he looked around. All the interesting stuff seemed to be behind the counter. Hmmm. "Hey, what about this thing? This looks interesting."
"Oh, that?" asked the technowizard with a shrug. "THAT is something I came across awhile back. Can't use it myself, just keep it as a decoration."
Jiraiya glanced at it, pursing his lips briefly, then smiled. "Add it to the bill then."
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:15)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.