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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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 Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 12:03 am
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Shiro just snorted as she knew Crystal was kidding, hell, he himself was kidding about it before looking to Kudamon and Coronamon sighing lightly, and poked Kudamon's cheek, causing her to meep and look back to Shiro "Kudamon that's enough, you don't need to be alienating a teammate."
Kudamon blinked and frowned lightly "But Shiro..." of course the look Shiro gave was a 'but nothing' and she sighed, before curling a bit more around his neck and went to sleep after shooting a death glare at Coronamon.
Coronamon just returned the death glare, before relaxing a bit, and looked to Crystal's Xros Loader "did you guys mention you know the Legendary General of Xros Heart and the Digimon King?" she asked, given she now had a bit of sparkly/starry-eyed look reminding herself of such a thing.
Shiro chuckled, nodding lightly "yeah we do--" of course the turbulence hit, and cause Shiro to jostle and jolt before yelping in pain, both from Kudamon tightening her grip on his neck to stay there, and his trample bruises on his back causing pain "Zapmon! are you trying to get us killed here!?!"
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 12:36 am
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"Right, note to self, don't embarrass Crystal when she's pretending to be a Gundam pilot," Zapmon apologized from inside of the Xros Loader. Really, it was just an approximation of an apology and she wasn't really sorry, although she would have liked to see the look on Crystal's face. She was fairly certain that her human was probably still blushing and trying, unsuccessfully, to make it go away. She snickered quietly to herself.
Crystal sighed. She was just going to have to ignore her partner for the time being. Instead she answered Coronamon, "We don't just know the Legendary General and the Digimon King. They're our friends and we've fought alongside them countless times."
Eventually, the floating island of the resort came into view suspended over the lake in the enclosed valley that surrounded it. Unlike the hot springs in the volcanic area, the hot water at the resort was produced by geothermal heat radiating off of Volcdramon who resided in a cavern at the heart of the island's interior. As such, there was no stench of sulfur. Instead, the scent of various kinds of delicious foods filled the air surrounding the resort. And, of course, Imperialdramon could be seen airlifting non-flying visitors from the valley below up to the floating island.
"And here we are," Crystal maneuvered the Mechanorimon onto the floating island, slowly coming in for a landing. Then she switched off the controls and hopped out of the cockpit. "Home sweet home."
Zapmon materialized from the Xros Loader to perch on Crystal's shoulder. "I've got to hand it to Slashmon. His founding of this resort has enabled so many digimon to live comfortably and peacefully. And he doesn't even like getting wet."
"Certain things aren't done for the sake of ourselves," noted Slashmon as he materialized in front of Crystal. "Sometimes we choose to do things for the benefit of others."
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 11:51 am
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 4:51 pm
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Crystal could have gone through the motions of testing her Wrister to try to get a signal from Taiki, Akari, Zenjirou or any of Xros Heart's digimon who happened to be holding one, but the simple truth was that she knew they were still there at the resort because she could smell them. More to the point, she could track their collective scents to Digitamamon's restaurant where she had predicted they would be. And that meant all they actually had to do was make their way over there to meet up with them.
"Sure," Crystal nodded to Coronamon. "There's something I need to discuss with Taiki anyway."
Gururumon, Lighdramon, Raptordramon, Togemogumon, Thunderbirmon, the Fan Beemonz, Monodramon, Ryuudamon, Yuki Agumon, Hououmon, Dorumon and Gryphomon all dispersed from Crystal's Xros Loader to join up with Zapmon and Slashmon in seeking out a meal elsewhere. Crystal let them go, loading the Mechanorimon she had used as their transport back into her Xros Loader before turning to head for the aforementioned restaurant.
*~*~*~*~*
"Why must the Digimon King be reduced to scrubbing dirty dishes!" Shoutmon complained, loudly, before Digitamamon came over and bopped him on the head with a soup ladle.
"Quit your whining," Digitamamon scolded him. "As king you should have been prepared to settle your dept with me the moment you stepped through that door."
"Why you!" Shoutmon rounded on him in annoyance. He felt so undignified.
Digitamamon whacked him with the ladle again and caused him to fall over backward so that he splashed into the soapy water he was supposed to be scrubbing dishes with. Shoutmon surfaced a split second later and immediately began to sputter and cough up bubbles. Grumbling, he pulled himself out of the water basin and turned away from Digitamamon so he could get back to work.
"This really isn't so bad Shoutmon," Taiki noted from a second basin filled with dirty dishes and soapy water. Unlike the digimon, he had been forced by Digitamamon to wear an apron and a hairnet. "You could have ended up like Guilmon and Gabumon last night."
Akari nodded. "Not to mention none of us have broken enough dishes to get stuck on latrine detail like Zenjirou."
Shoutmon shuddered at the prospect. "Alright, you've made your point. But how much longer are we going to have to do this?"
"I'd say about ten seconds, give or take," Crystal stated from the door frame leading into Digitamamon's kitchen.
"You shouldn't be back here," Digitamamon turned on her. "The kitchen is off limits."
"Relax," Crystal held up a hand disarmingly. "I've come to take these guys off your hands." She brought up her other hand to reveal a wad of American twenty dollar bills. "You can thank me later."
"Hm," Digitamamon made his way over apprehensively to sniff at the money to verify its authenticity. Then he snatched it out of her hand. "Very well, pleasure doing business with you."
The next thing any of them knew, Digitamamon was hustling them out of the kitchen. "Your debt has been settled. Everybody out!"
*~*~*~*~*
"And that is how you negotiate with Digitamamon," Crystal stated once they were all outside, with the exception of Zenjirou who hadn't been in the kitchen and therefore hadn't yet been alerted to the fact that Xros Heart was off the hook.
"Why didn't you do that sooner!" Shoutmon demanded in obvious annoyance.
Crystal shrugged. "I didn't expect for you guys to have this much trouble paying him off without me."
"But then that's not the only reason you came back here, is it?" Taiki eyed her seriously.
"Unfortunately there's something rather pressing that we're going to need to discuss," Crystal admitted. "But first, you might want to return that apron before Digitamamon realizes he's missing it."
Taiki's face went slightly red with embarrassment at the reminder, but he didn't hesitate to yank the apron off of him so he could run back inside to return it before they got into trouble with Digitamamon again. Akari quickly did the same, although there wasn't any blushing involved.
Crystal scratched behind her ear. Well, they can't blame me for finding him cute when he gets all embarrassed like that.
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:40 pm
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Shiro lightly came out of the nearest ramen stand a few minutes after Crystal had bailed out Taiki and the others from Digitamamon and popped his bulging stomach with a traced needle, sighing as he stretched, before hissing in pain and rubbing his back, Kudamon popping out and nestling around his neck "why don't you go head for the springs Shiro?" she asked, causing Kudamon to lightly blush, and glance to the fox digimon "simple, i don't know if i want others to see the ears and tail, not to mention we need to talk with Taiki first before i hit the onsen to relax my back."
Coronamon of course came out from behind Crystal's leg, giggling a bit seeing the embarrassed Taiki and all "he seems quite forgetful for a human... " of course, when she saw Shoutmon she blinked, and bowed deeply "greetings, great Digimon King~!" she said in a sweet tone, before spying a walking over Shiro, and deciding to glomp him, with Kudamon glaring at her and causing another soon to be battle of womanly wills and such for Shiro's affection, and same style feelings of glaring could be felt from SHiro's Xros Loader, probably from the other various Kitsune in there at Coronamon.
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 9:44 pm
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"I'm pleased you recognized me," Shoutmon was fully prepared to commence gloating to Coronamon, getting a glint in his eye and a patently smug smirk on his face before Shiro arrived and abruptly stole his thunder. Oh well, he could afford to share the spotlight. He chuckled mildly. "I guess Taiki isn't the only one having these sorts of lady troubles."
Taiki and Akari re-emerged from Digitamamon's restaurant. Taiki immediately sweatdropped at the jealous tension between Kudamon and Coronamon, easily guessing that both had been recruited as Shiro's new digimon. It also occurred to him that Crystal and Shiro must have covered quite a lot of ground given that the two digimon species were native to separate areas.
"I don't know," Taiki observed. "I think I have it pretty easy compared to this."
Crystal sighed to herself. She knew it would only get worse for Shiro if the group of Renamon inside of his Xros Loader lost control and decided to get in on the action. "Right then, before we completely lose Shiro to his horde of hormonally driven Kitsunes, we came here because we wanted to discuss the remnants of the Bagra Empire."
"What about them?" asked Akari.
"What we're wondering is if you've had any substantial increase in the number of encounters you've been having with them recently," Crystal went on. "Because, it so happens, that we were assaulted twice today in two completely separate regions."
Taiki thought about it and shook his head. "We've been here at the resort all day paying off Shoutmon's debt to Digitamamon." Shoutmon shrunk at the mention that it was technically his fault that they had been forced into doing manual labor to pay for the meal he, Ballistamon, Starmon, and the Pickmonz had indulged in the night before. Taiki and the others shouldn't have even been responsible for helping to pay off his debt. "Of course, even before that," Taiki continued before Shoutmon could start feeling any more guilty than he had begun to already, "the remnants of the Bagra Empire have mostly been staying out of our way."
Shoutmon nodded. "We've only had to put down a small handful like Ornismon, but even then they've been pretty scarce."
Crystal frowned. Then I was right. Whoever has been ordering these attacks must be after me or Shiro, but then that still doesn't answer which of us they're actually after. She shook it off and smiled appreciatively to the both of them. "Thanks for clearing that up. That helps to narrow down who they're after."
"Hold it," Akari placed a restraining hand on Crystal's shoulder. "I know that look. You're thinking about doing something crazy to expose which of you they're after, aren't you?"
"Crazy gets results," Crystal stated simply. "And besides, I'm really more concerned about Shiro because he doesn't have the same experience in this world that I do."
"That's still no reason for you to go out there by yourself," Taiki decided to intervene.
"Who said I was going by myself?" Crystal stepped away from Akari and drew the Dragon Blade from the scabbard at her waist, lightly resting the blade against her shoulder. "Don't forget, I still have Team Epoch to back me up." Then she sheathed her sword and folded her arms over her chest, flashing a quick smile at Taiki. "Of course, it goes without saying that you'll be wanting to assist me just in case I get in over my head. And it's not like I'd try to stop you. The truth is, I appreciate the help. It's entirely possible that I might end up needing it."
Zenjirou poked his head outside of the restaurant entrance carrying a mop, broom and a bucket filled with cleaning products. "Hey, how come everyone is outside taking a break except for me?"
"Oh, sorry Zenjirou, Crystal paid off our debt so now we're free to leave," Taiki explained. "I guess no one thought to tell you when Digitamamon was chasing us out."
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:05 pm
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Shiro glanced at crystal while being laid out from the glomping of Coronamon and sighed when he felt the animosity/mental battle of people claiming territory, before looking up to the sky "... mendokuse." he muttered, before sitting up to look at Coronamon "why don't you and Kudamon go to the springs for nwo okay?"
Kudamon blinked, and pondered, before nodding "yes.. a good soak will do to relax." she said, giggling, before moving down to poke at the Xros Loader, sure enough, the other couple of Kudamon and the Renamon's joined in being outside, and all 12 digimon picked up Coronamon and disappeared in a blur heading for the female side of the hotsprings, leaving Shiro to sit up and scratch his head, showing he currently had the hat off from the glomp (which disappeared, darn tracing) and such, though the tail was thankfully hidden.
Shiro just sighed, and looked to his Xros Loader "the rest of you need anything?"
Gabumon pondered, before shaking his head "i'm good."
Patamon, Tsukaimon, and Guilmon were all sleeping, oddly enough.
Agnimon pondered over things, and nodded, loading himself out of the Xros Loader "ah.. some food would be good. any place to avoid?"
Shiro snorted while glancing to Dorulumon inside the Xros Loader as well, also deeply snoozing before looking to the Spiritual Warrior of Fire "avoid Digitamamon's place, i may have money thanks to Crystal, i'd rather not have to pay that crazy idiot's prices, the burgemon joints are pretty good, or so i heard from Gabumon."
Agnimon nodded, and chuckled a bit "do not forget to try out your new armor, Shiro... and be aware that the other trials could come at any time, and in any way."
Shiro nodded while the spirit wandered off to get some food, as he sighed, getting up and looking to Crystal seeing she had an idea "let me guess, while i stay at the resort, you head on out yourself to see if it's you they are after, and if they attack here it'll be well defended enough and may point to it being me?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 11:05 pm
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"Exactly," Crystal nodded. "The outer perimeter is guarded by the Cannondramon and, in an emergency, Imperialdramon can defend the entire resort from the sky. As such, this is probably one of the most secure locations in the digital world. You'll be safe here even without a sizable army of your own to protect you."
"And you're confident that you'll be alright on your own even if they decide to come after you instead?" Taiki really wasn't too thrilled about this.
Crystal sighed and rubbed the back of her head. "Well, so far the forces that they've managed to rally together have been fairly unimpressive. And I've been holding back to give Shiro a chance to practice some Digi Xrossing. Really, the worst case scenario is that I might have to actually fight at full power. That is, unless Duskmon makes another appearance. If he shows up, then I might need some more muscle. Otherwise, it shouldn't be too hard to pinpoint which of us they're after and then regroup so we can come up with a better strategy."
"Still, you would think they'd be after Taiki and Shoutmon instead of either of you," noted Akari.
Crystal nodded. "That's what I thought too. However, that doesn't appear to be the case anymore."
Zenjirou had ducked back into Digitamamon's restaurant to put away the borrowed equipment he had been using and then dashed back outside with every intention of never going back in there again. It sounded like he was walking in on a serious discussion, but even so he just couldn't seem to contain himself. He moved swiftly over to Crystal and clasped her hands in his. "Don't worry, we won't let you down."
"Hands off," Crystal shoved him away. "As I've already said, Shiro will probably need more support than I do."
"While I can agree that you don't really need any protecting," Shoutmon interjected, "it's my duty as the Digimon King to see to it that this crisis gets resolved personally. As long as the Bagra Empire is involved, this is our problem too."
"Duly noted," Crystal agreed. "Which is why you and Taiki should take this time to decide who will benefit most from your contributions tomorrow when we move to execute the plan. For now, I think I'll be off to soak at the onsen for awhile." She waved over her shoulder and started to walk away from them.
Taiki sighed, shaking his head. "She really strikes a hard bargain, doesn't she?"
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 6:47 am
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:55 am
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"Say, what's with those ears?" Zenjirou was the first to give them any kind of notice since he hadn't really contributed much to the serious discussion and had more attention to spare. This question, however, quickly led to the rest of them taking notice of Shiro's aforementioned fox ears. Especially once they started flicking around like they were his real ears.
"Kawaii!" Akari for some reason felt immediately compelled to touch them and so she did. "They're so cute! And soft too!"
Taiki coughed quietly, rather puzzled by Akari's reaction to say the least. "Well, it looks like you've had an unusual day," he observed trying to ignore Akari's behavior so he could continue speaking to Shiro without breaking into laughter. It was, as might be expected, rather difficult for him not to stare at those ears though. "So, you don't think the remnants are after Crystal either. I'm pretty sure she doesn't really think so either."
Shoutmon nodded. "That must be why she's trying to talk us into sticking with Shiro even though it might mean putting herself at greater risk just to prove that he's the one they're after."
"Hey, I want to feel them too!" Zenjirou tried to push his way past Akari so he could also touch Shiro's ears to verify for himself that they were real. "Wow, they are soft!"
Taiki sweatdropped. "Uh... don't you think Shiro might not be comfortable with having you guys play around with his ears like that?"
*~*~*~*~*
Crystal reached the girl's side of the onsen. She got undressed and made a point of wrapping herself up in a towel this time before she got into the water, finding one of the smaller single person (or digimon) pools unoccupied so she could bathe separately from Shiro's collection of Kitsunes and their raging hormones. Right now, she wanted to relax.
She was fairly certain that the remnants of the Bagra Empire were after Shiro even though she had no proof of her own. However, if she did go out there tomorrow, she had no doubt that they might come after her anyway. After all, coming after her was also a surefire way to draw out Shiro. Whoever was in command of these remnants was probably well aware of that.
And if something does happen to me, Crystal thought to herself. I don't want anyone else to get hurt in the crossfire. A serious injury on the battlefield could lead to her youkai blood going out of control and then she might run the risk of going after not just her enemies, but also her friends and loved ones. And the scary part was that she might not even remember what happened once it started. She had heard about it happening to Inuyasha when Tessaiga was broken. He had even lashed out at Kagome when he lost control of himself. And, unlike her hanyou brother, she didn't have a special weapon like Tessaiga to seal the influence of her youkai blood. The only thing keeping her in check was her own human blood. There was no telling how long that might hold if she were to actually find herself in a life threatening predicament.
She leaned back in the onsen and closed her eyes. Suffice to say, she was having a bad feeling about tomorrow. And, if anything did go wrong, she would be relying on her own digimon to subdue her. It was a tall order, to be sure, but it was far better in her mind than the possible alternatives.
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:50 pm
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Shiro had actually been thinking of other things at the moment that people finally noticed his ears, he blinked and just was about to say they were fake when a low rumble of a purr emitted from his throat as he heard a laugh coming from within his Xros Loader he sweatdropped, and actually tried, failing miserably to ignore the feelings "actually, the ears whiskers, and other changes actually comes from when Crystal and i first landed at Miko Sakuyamon's temple, apparently there was dormant kitsune blood in me, and being at the temple awakened it, so now i'm kinda part digital, part human, part demon." he shrugged lightly "truthfully I'd say i'm just all Shiro and get it over with." he sighed, grumbling a bit "it also explains why i have so many fox digimon. they glomped onto me because of my animal magnetism, and me somehow unconsciously emitting pheromones that any fox can pick up and instantly want to glomp me."
Gabumon snicker lightly, while deciding to point out "he also has a tail under the cloak, and i'm surprised no one noticed the whiskers as well."
Shiro of course had the decency to blush and glare at the Xros Loader "Gaaabumon!!" he shouted, while his mind just thought ~Crystal seemed pretty aloof... she usually does when she's about to do something crazy, but... it's also usually a bad omen...~ he thought, starting to frown physically when thinking about it.
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:30 pm
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Zenjirou immediately went around behind Shiro to lift up his cloak when Gabumon mentioned that he also had a tail. "He really does have a tail!" he exclaimed as he reached down to grab it only to have his hand caught by Akari.
"Would you cut that out," Akari scolded him. "It's rude. Not to mention, even if he's only part fox, grabbing his tail might still put a curse on you."
Zenjirou pouted. "Then how come it was okay for us to touch his ears?"
"Honestly, have you ever heard of anyone getting cursed for touching a fox's ears?" Akari sighed in exasperation. "Kitsunes have always been said to be most protective of their tails."
This was all news to Taiki.
"Anyway," Taiki decided to change the subject. "Why don't the rest of you go on ahead to the onsen so Shiro and I can talk in private." He got the feeling that there was still more they needed to discuss. And he decided it would be easier to do so if Akari and Zenjirou weren't there to distract things by fawning over Shiro's ears and tail. However, before they left, he pulled Akari aside so he could whisper to her. "I want for you to do me a favor and keep an eye Crystal. She was acting strange, moreso than usual. Just make sure she doesn't take off by herself."
Akari nodded. "I thought so too."
She and Zenjirou left, taking most of Xros Heart's digimon with them, except for Shoutmon who opted to stay behind with Taiki so he could be there to monitor the conversation with Shiro.
"So," Taiki started hesitantly. "Can you think of any reason why Crystal is being so distant? Because it definitely seems to me like there's something she isn't telling us."
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:10 pm
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Shiro sighed and lightly re-traced a cap to hide the ears for now while also tracing a chair lightly to sit down, wincing when his back protested "truthfully,it's partly she's still sorting out her feelings with you, ro so i think." he sighed, shaking his head "but this plan.. the only times she's actually been this aloof is when something bad's soon to happen, she can pick up on these things more than i can." he twitched an eyebrow lightly "in this case.. i honestly believe whoever is using the remnants is probably Duskmon.. and in this case, i think they're targeting me, but in either case, she's also distant because she doesn't want others to get hurt in case her Youkai powers decided to go berserk if she was pressed into a corner."
Guilmon looked out from the screen lightly "shiromon..."
Shiro shook his head "she'll be fine guilmon.. i trust her to stay safe. i'm more worried about what might happen here should all Crystal meet is a distraction force while another one comes here aiming to either attack me, or kidnap me."
Gabumon spoke up "then why don't we leave first, without letting anyone know?"
Shiro shook his head "i don't have a decent constant flier. DeviDorulumon doesn't count because the Digi-Xros might end while we're in the air. our ground speed isn't all that fast either."
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:30 pm
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:50 pm
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