Investigation at the Rite
After Sibley's body tried to figure out where to regenerate each of her parts from the fall, she got up, her clothes all red, and feeling very stunned, "I dinc ni drein is still- oh here it is." She said when her brain finished regenerating, "Paimon's surprised everything regenerated in the right place..." She commented still feeling queasy from seeing Sibley splatter all over the ground, "Alrigh, now we have some questions we need you to answer." Aether brought up, "Spill." Sibley instructed, "What did you talk about up there?" He asked, "For the second time, it's official SpiritCatcher business, if you come to the Rite tomorrow you might see, but that's up to you." Akemi told him once more.
When Akemi spoke Aether decided to bring up the second point, "Also, who is this?" He asked pointing to the fox eared spirit, "Apparently my Freedom Matrix." Sibley responded, "Your Freedom Matrix is alive!?" Paimon questioned in shock, "All Freedom Matrixes are made from spirits! How do you think they work so well?" Akemi asked, smiling coyly and floating upside down in front of Paimon, "Wait, Rite of Descension, right, it's today." Aether remembered, "Today?" Sibley repeated confused, "It took you a long time to regenerate." Aether explained, "Shit..." Sibley let out looking at her bloodied clothes, "I need a new dress..." She lamented remembering she doesn't have any money.
Akemi floated behind Sibley, hugged her neck and whispered something in her ear, "Oh really? Why didn't the Freedom Matrix do anything?" Sibley asked her, "I'm the Matrix remember?" Akemi remembered, "Oh yeah! Aether, Paimon, you two go ahead to the Rite! We'll join you in a bit!" Sibley told the two, even making shooing motions at them, and since they didn't want to miss the Rite, they agreed and went back to the Harbor, "So do you explain to me how to make these machines or do you make them yourself?" SIbley asked, "I made an app in the Matrix that let's you copy existing machines as blueprints and I put the blueprints of what you'll need in there." Akemi explained, prompting Sibley to begin.
At the Rite of Descension.
"Sibley is sure taking a while..." Paimon commented, "I honestly don't know if we should trust that spirit." Aether told her, "What? Why?" Paimon asked, "Think about it, one almost killed all three of us AND Klee, another actually killed Sibley, and three more turned a building into a warzone." He recounted making Paimon see his point, "Paimon understands where you're coming from... But this Akemi doesn't seem so bad." Paimon pointed out, "If she's actually the Freedom Matrix then how bad could she be?" She asked, "The question is: Did she lie? Is she actually Sibley's Matrix?" Aether explained, "That's quite a pickle when you put it like that..." Paimon conceded.
As the two talked about the spirit, Ningguang proceded with the Rite and called the CORPSE of Rex Lapis, causing an uproar in the crowd, "Oh fuck!" Aether exclaimed as he grabbed Paimon and began running, "I see what she meant when she said I would understand what would happen..." Ningguang said with a horrified face, "Wait, it already finished!?" Sibley questioned having just arrived with new clothes, "And Aether and Paimon are gone, what the hell happened?" She asked seeing Rex Lapis' body, "The Rite finished and two people ran away right after." A voice told her from behind.
Turning around, Sibley saw Sol and Luna, "Ah! Fellow SpiritCatchers!" Akemi cheered coming out of the Freedom Matrix, "Ah Sibley!" Sol said "Your spirit is a lot more talkative than ours..." Luna continued, "You two are boring!" Their Matrixes said at the same time, "What happens now exactly?" Sibley asked looking at the two shorted SpiritCatchers, "Easy, first we have to scan the body." Luna started, "Then we figure out how he died," Luna continued, "And we go from there." Sol finished, "Sibley, you did show me them, but I thought there was an error in the projection." Ningguang commented looking at Sol and Luna.
"So that's why no one is stopping us..." Sol realized, "Usually investigations are a lot harder..." Luna added, "As your junior I thought I should be helping." Sibley told them, "I may also have given her a push." Akemi admitted, "In any case it helps!" Sol reassured, "Thank you very much for it!" Luna thanked for her brother, "If you want you could stay and watch." Luna suggested, "Look and learn the job." Sol added, "That would be an occasion! But for now I should probablt go fetch my traveling companions before they figure out no one is after them." Sibley told the two before hurrying away to find the idiots.
With Aether and Paimon.
After quite a while of running, the two finally realized that no one was chasing them, "...Did we lose them?" Aether asked, "Paimon doesn't think we're in danger at all..." She responded, "Hold on... Could the thing Akemi referred to be the fact that Rex Lapis is dead?" Aether suggested, "That could be it... Multiversal Law Enforcement probably includes dealing with Gods dying..." Paimon rationalized, "Well, I still don't want to be framed again." Aether told her, "Paimon neither!" His companion agreed, "Hey absolute dumbasses! Have you gotten the running out of your legs?" Akemi asked floating in front of them, "...Where's Sibley?" Paimon asked before a stone got dropped on her head, making her look up and see Sibley sitting on the roof.
After dragging the two back.
When they got back to where the Rite got performed, Akemi took the occasion to tie the two of them up cause fuck them for bailing, "You lost your walking privileges for the day." The spirit mocked before floating to Sibley who was assisting Sol and Luna, "How do we proceed with this exactly?" The Novice SpiritCatcher asked, "First things first, we scan the body." Luna started, using her matrix to scan Rex Lapis' corpse, "This will tell us how he died, and if a weapon was used, where that specific weapon is." Sol elaborated, "The perfect investigation device." Akemi commented, "I noticed that by scanning a tool or weapon it tells me chronologically who used it, so that's one thing, what about if he was killed by stragnling or something?" Sibley pointed the loophole out, "In that case we need to be more precise." Sol and Luna said at the same time
The scan finished soon after revealing something no one in the area was expecting, "Apparently Rex Lapis retired..." Luna said outloud, "Retired? From being a God?" Ningguang asked for clarification, "That's what it says here..." Sol confirmed, "So what? Does it count as him being killed by his humanity? Is there a now human Rex Lapis going around?" Sibley questioned confused, "That law is quite... Vague..." Akemi commented, "It goes as such: It is prohibited in every world to kill a God." Sol started, "There's no exception to that law, maybe we should ask to make it more specific." Luna thought outloud.
Hearing this eplanation Ningguang put a hand on her face, "Why would he retire though?" She asked, "We would retire any moment nowdays." Luna revealed, "But Shiva Samba still hasn't figured out how to go about making a SpiritCatcher retire." Sol told them, "So he was just tired of being an Archon, got it." Sibley understood quickly, "Paimon never thouht someone could get tired of a position like that." The pixie commented, "I guess our objective now should be to find the human Rex Lapis?" Aether asked, "That seems to be the case yes." Seibley confirmed.
They thought about how to find him now, and Aether got an idea, "Sibley, you weren't there when it happened, but Venti told us that the Fatui member that attacked us wanted his Gnosis, an item given to the Archons." He recalled, "Are you suggesting we find Columbina and Childe?" Akemi questioned him, "That's not a bad idea actually, they should know stuff if they want something from him." Sol agreed, "Let's go look for these two." Luna said as they left to search for two Harbringers, "I guess we''ll be going too." Sibley told Akemi who nodded and they started going away, "Hey! Aren't you going to untie us!?" Aether questioned, "No walking privileges for today!!" Akemi reminded as she went in Sibley's Matrix.