"Aww not again." Khepri whined while dropping a fourth broken spoon on the table. Their eyes narrowed into a squinting glare. That bowl of soup wouldn't keep besting them. Reaching into the open drawer next to them their nails scratched across hardened plastic. "Hmm?"

Welp, they were officially out of spoons. How could they possibly fix this? Their eyes gleamed. A riddle! How can the soup be eaten, the spoon shortage be fixed and the evidence be hidden before Hogo got mad at them? With a waggling tail they stood up. It was time for another adventure!

---

"Happy Chugen, senior!" Khepri cheerily said while dropping more than almost a dozen 'gifts' on the table, both their current batch and the one from back when they tried to dig through the wall. For several long, awkward moments they maintained eye contact with Masao without blinking.

"Well? Do you think you can fix any of them?"

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Tags: Masao Ando

Banished all the way from Egypt for being an annoyance Khepri is here to be one of the roommates of all time!

"Yes, hello?" Khepri said before holding the phone a bit further from their ear. Flipping their grilling fish they waited for the noise to die down before replying. "No I didn't use our private jet to fly fresh Tilapia over to Japan this morning. I have no idea who did that."

Biting a chunk off the skewer she was holding with her tail the catbug continued listening to the shouted complaints, occasionally humming in agreement or offering a short reply.

"Sorry gotta go now my Tilapia are cooked, talk to you later grandpa."

Taking the fish out of the grates they'd put them inbetween they slapped them onto the usherette they were carrying and put on a new batch of fish before they set off. Approaching student after student Khepri handed out fish after fish until their tray was empty once more and the process began anew.

"Grilled Tilapia, fresh from the Nile. Only just caught this morning!"

"Delicious Tilapia, so fragrant it'd take weeks to get the scent out of a private jet!"

"Wonderful Tila- oh, I'm all out. Better luck with the next batch!"

Khepri nodded to themself. Handing out fish had gone much better this time than it had last time. Tapping at their phone they wrote down several notes. 'Grilled is more popular than raw', 'Make sure to gut entirely, not partially' and 'Grill over fire, not water' amongst them. Finishing the next school of fish Khepri made sure to put the lock on their portable cooler just in case anyone would run off with the raw ones before once more setting off to hand out fish.

Their gaze was quickly drawn to a motley group away from the rest of the crowd. What secrets were they hiding the catbug wondered. Khepri smiled. A mystery like that was just what this event needed! They knew keeping a rusty pipe strapped to their back for the past three days wouldn't be for nothing. Khepri's eyes flicked from person to person as they made their way over, wondering which one was the killer and which one was the victim.

"Here, fresh Tilapia! Tell me if you kill anyone!" Khepri said to a tall, blond man on the way there. They were gone again before Shinto could question them. Remembering that their tail was still holding a now cold skewer they took another bite when they finally reached the motley band of murder mystery characters.

"Hehy hevhryone," they began before swallowing, "grilled Tilapia, take however many you want! Which of you is the butler?"

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Tags: Ylva Riis Zipper Freja Helt junsuina Exchange

Khepri had been to many theme parks in their time but none quite compared to the sheer realism UAU managed to put into the arena. To have not only the other students but even the audience fit completely into the underground aesthetic left them highly impressed. Why, the costumes and disguises were so good she only recognized one other student! Someone Khepri had never talked to and only met once when they'd walked into the wrong classroom and sat through an entire lesson without ever realizing it wasn't where they were meant to be. Only when Khepri's far more familiar looking classmates asked about their absence the next day did the catbug catch onto the fact that they'd been in the wrong place the day before.

"Good luck!" Khepri enthusiastically waved back from the other side of the group while looking over their fellow contestants. They didn't recognize any of them and a fair few looked absolutely terrifying but that had never stopped Khepri before. Amongst the crowd there were several that caught her interest and wouldn't you know it, she had just the right tool to form a team! That would have to wait for later though as the scene suddenly changed revealing a cityscape much like the one they'd gotten lost in that one time they didn't wanna talk about. 

"Go, go Khepri bot!" The catbug shouted with one arm raised over their head while the other pressed her Robo-cat's 'on' button. They had the feeling they'd need it if this turned out like the other time they'd wandered into something like-

Oh hey, was that a gleam behind that window over there?! This really was just like- Oh no. That's not good.

As the announcer finished speaking and the guns went off Khepri immediately raced towards the nearest door. It had a gun sticking through the opening that was relentlessly firing their way but the catbug had a plan. Guns only fired from the front. If they could just get behind it they'd be out of the line of fire. Yet as a rubber bullet heavily impacted their side and sent them carreening they realized charging right at the gun might not be as easy as one thought.

...Unless they had rocket boots!

With a tap of their heels they activated the Slam Jam and aimed themself at the door. If all went well they'd be home free!

---

TL;DR: 
-Khepri thinks they're in the UAU arena, unaware they got incredibly lost and ended up here in the Underground Arena.
-Takes a look at everyone while replying to Chirp, has hopes of teaming up with several of the other contestants
-Activates Robo-cat hoping for the best
-Tries to get behind one of the guns but gets hit by a rubber bullet and is sent of course
-Activates her Slam Jam rocket boots to shoot towards it anyway.

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Tags: Jinx CHIRP ♪♪ smileyj Taro Yamada

Khepri's eyes dilated as Bun put on her cutesy act, the catbug's predatory instincts set off by the prey animal behavior. With an unblinking stare their eyes locked onto Bun's own before the woman's words pierced through the instinct induced haze and her focus shifted to the crowd, eyes flicking to each possible target in turn while their posture lowered as if they were about to leap. Khepri only narrowly managed to turn back to Bun before her instincts fully took over, their sharp teeth showing as they replied.

"We'll catch up in seconds. Hold onto the stand and don't be sled astray."

The words were barely out of their mouth when they burst forth, one net bridge wrapped around each of her forearms. Khepri hadn't been exaggerating about the speed as they reached the first potential customer in seconds, her pace slowing to match theirs in order to keep pace with them as they ran. Their predatory instincts howled at them, urging them on to continue chasing all the running targets in the distance. For several more long seconds Khepri managed to control themselves before they sped up once more, navigating around obstacles and sand piles lest they end up sled and buried. Over and over the scene repeated itself as they raced down the beach, keeping pace with humans and sea critters alike for as long as they could before chasing the next target. With how often something lashed out or suddenly diverted course their way they sled a fine line between profits and debilitating injuries.

It would surely end up fine. They'd ran many times before without getting injured or crashing a sled attached to them. Which might have been because they'd never pulled a sled but who could say, really? It was good, honest work as their family's patriarch used to say when he got drunk and derisively pretended to be a farmer -or peasant as he called them too-. Khepri thought for a moment. What was the other line he used when mocking the labor of the downtrodden? Ah yes, they remembered now.

All in a sleigh's work!

Or something along those lines at least. Khepri wasn't too sure.

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Tags: Yue "Bun" Tuzi

Delaying the screaming practice until later Khepri listened attentively to what Robert said before nodding along.

"It might be one of them. I've actually met one of the fae once, her name was 'Miss Mafdet, that is not a fairy. Miss Taiyou's quirk allows her to change her size.' which even contains my family name so they really are mysterious like that. Who knows what they can do?"

Following his finger with their eyes Khepri spotted the peak as well.

"That's smart, hiding it up there. No one ever looks up." Khepri confidently stated in a tone that made it sound as if they'd just uncovered some grand revelation. "It could still be in the lake though. Fae tend to hide all of their fancy creations there like Excalibur or even live there like the Gwragedd Annwn." 

There were many examples like that and even more of fae or potential fae trying to keep people away from lakes to hide their secrets. One needed to look no further than stories about kelpies to discover that truth. Some tales even said portals to a realm of the fae were hidden in illusions atop their surface and the Lady of the Lake both appeared from and disappeared through one such portal.

"Why?" Khepri asked, wondering if there was any specific reason he wanted to prevent the screaming practice. Would the fae or whatever other thing was up there be startled if they did? They couldn't help but wonder whether Robert knew more than he let on but for now they'd let it rest. After all, there was already a different riddle to solve. Continuing to listen to his explanation on the peak they figured their previous deduction was correct and returned their full focus to the task ahead until his final line distracted them.

Gaze going to a nearby tree their eyes narrowed. Trees were large masses of wood and attached to them were smaller versions that in turn sprouted even smaller versions. Khepri hummed in thought as she walked further up the mountain, the map still held upside down in their hands.

"Do you think mountains are just sticks for the planet?"

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Tags: solaris

Khepri considered Bun's question for a moment before answering.

"No but it happens a lot."

The sheer amount of weird things they'd ran into ever since they got to Japan was staggering. Not that there had been that much less in Egypt but Khepri had certainly gotten surprised far often over here. Their brow furrowed. Maybe it was just the cultural differences. Perhaps they themself were considered just as out of the ordinary to the people of Japan as the human faced crab or crab faced fish with legs sashaying sideways as it chased a screaming couple.

Khepri could relate to that. They'd had occurences as well where they were just on a chill evening walk until all of a sudden people stood up off their couch and screamed at them, completely blotting out the sound of the movie they were watching. Even when Khepri themself was so nice as to grab the remote to turn up the volume until they could hear it again the people rarily stopped being afraid until their walk took them out of the house once more.

Idly Khepri wondered whether crabfishlegs felt the same as they did when that happened. Taking a sip of the flask they just pulled out of their shirt in order to derail the thought train they offered it to Bun as well in case she was thirsty. Should she accept she'd find it was filled with broccoli cheddar soup.

"Do you think fish would buy shells as well or do they already have enough of them back home? Oh, do you have drinks to sell to all the running people?"

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Tags: Yue "Bun" Tuzi