"Hmph," the twintailed girl let out a huff, "It's only when people like you try to interfere. Why are you even here?"

She didn't take a step as Ryuuko suddenly rushed forward, seemingly not intending to do anything herself at all. At least, until a yellow-red light suddenly blazed to life on the wall just ahead of the mage's apprentice. In less then a second's time, it erupted outward with a blast of noise and heat, a small explosion ripping its way right into Ryuuko's path!

The rush of air hit Toshiko before the blow did, and that was the only thing that let her draw another shield rune to deflect it. Down three already?! The sheer force of the blow sent her skidding backwards once more, towards the exit.

"No wonder you took out a trained assassin so easily," Toshiko commented, tossing aside the burning rune as it dissipated into ashes. "Air synergizes well with hand to hand combat."

"Flattery's not going to get you anywhere," replied the onmyouji, squaring herself up for another attack, "You're working for the victims of the theft, that's easy enough to assume. So I won't let you get any further."

Suddenly Bunny rocketed towards her once more. This time, however, Toshiko was a little quicker on the draw, dodging. The air rushed past her as Bunny's fist smashed through plaster and concrete, debris scattering into the air from the impact. It was clear she was using ofuda on her body to boost her physical abilities, to say the least. And as Toshiko moved behind her, even as Bunny swiftly began to turn...

Ofuda on her shoes as well?

When the explosion came roaring out, Ryuuko reacted the same way that she had planned for traps: try and pump mana into it and overload the spell, and failing that hope that her outstretched hand would divert the magic so that the damage would go off to one side and leave her unharmed. Unfortunately, this wasn't a trap and didn't work the same way the maid's runes had and the attempt could at best be described as 'barely successful'. Instead of being significantly disrupted, the explosion was merely weakened slightly and drawn towards her arm--leaving light but noticeable burns and down one sleeve. Her hand got the worst of it but, though the heiress' grip didn't slack. Pain was too little reason to let herself be weaker.

"You're lucky that wasn't worse. My father would never let you go if I were to die to some common criminal," she said, annoyed at being even further back than her initial position. She would have to take this with more seriousness, even though the idea of striking with full force at a seemingly defenceless girl was nauseating.

This time, when she darted forwards, it was with magic reinforcing her base abilities and moving faster than any human had good reason to be. In a race between Ryuuko and Kitty's reactions, she planned to delay the blonde by working out what she was doing. Step one: cut the previous explosion's origin mid-dash.

If that forced her to do something else, she just had to outlast the mage.

Cutting the wall didn't appear to do anything of note. Instead, directly ahead of Ryuuko, a series of explosions erupted outward across the stairs, forming a fiery barrier of sound and force right in the path of the kimono-clad girl. Kitty had taken a step back further up the stairs, folding her arms firmly across her chest.

"You're a complete idiot, thinking you can just rush me like that!" Kitty declared, a hint of pride entering the small girl's voice, "As long as I can touch the walls and floor, there's no way you'll make it to me!"

Bunny's fist tore towards Toshiko once more. The mage could feel the air pressure, the blast rushing past her as she just barely managed to dodge. As it stood, this type of combat put her at something of a disadvantage. Quite simply, she needed to slow the onmyouji down in order to be able to generate distance better. It seemed as if ofuda attached to the bottom of her shoes were what was making her difficult to counter, making her so fast she was hard to do anything to defend against her...

Toshiko packpedaled dragging one foot back along the floor as she adjusted her position and swung it back, and Bunny swifly lowered herself, ready to put on another air blast for speed. And just as she began to move...!

"Ignite!" Toshiko cried. A simple fire spell never the less ignited along the same path as she moved her body, as Bunny moved forward. The onmyouji attempted to stop herself, but the air blast carried her forward... and the ofuda on one of her feet ignited.

"Ah?!"

She stomped her foot frantically, now through the fire, but it was too late. One of her ofuda had burned into an unusuable state.

It was true: so long as Kitty was in contact with some surface through which she could transmit the magic or however she was doing this, there was nothing that Ryuuko's highly limited skillset could do to counter the explosions. What she did have was an assuredly better reaction time and enough observational ability to recognise that if the explosions were being set off to specifically block her, rather than just firing off with far more risk of danger, then Kitty had to be watching her movements.

An observation that would be blocked for just enough time after a previous explosion to get in close. That was Ryuuko's hope, otherwise this could go far more wrong than anticipated.

The purple-haired apprentice took up her stance again and moved forwards nearly silently in comparison to the sounds of Toshiko and Bunny's fight or the explosions themselves. She took the inevitable explosion gracefully, reinforcing primarily her legs to land and recover--then dashed forwards as soon and fast as able, despite the head and risk of burns. If she could get through then her blade would find a nice spot on the blonde's neck...

And it would be over.

"Hmph, you should just pack up and leave!" Kitty declared, triumphantly, assuming that the explosion had blocked her opponent's progress. "Don't you get it? As long as some part of my body touches any surface of this building, I can set off an explosion! I've placed a network of explosive sigils on every single surface, event the ceiling! All it takes is-eh?!"

She was not, however, prepared for Ryuuko's landing, nor the sudden dash towards her. Damn it, she was so close...!

"La Re-"

Before she could attempt to cast a spell, however, she felt a blade at her throat.

As Bunny spun to continue her attack, she caught sight of her partner as well and immediately stopped.

"Kitty?!"

Toshiko came to a halt.

"Good work, Ryuuko-san," she said, craning her neck to look back at her student and employee, before her focus returned to the onmyouji. "Now, I'm certain your partner won't come to any harm, but it'd be better for everyone if you would guarantee that by surrendering."

Bunny clenched her fists.

"Don't make the mistake of assuming that I won't cut you down if I have to. I am Miura-sama's sole heir and he made certain of my ability to finish an enemy before I was left to live away from constant bodyguards," Ryuuko stated helpfully, moving the blade closer for a second so that Kitty could feel the cold steel, "I doubt your magic is enough to break this blade in any timespan to escape alive."

It was of course her employer's prerogative to begin any interrogation over the location of the stolen vase--or who might be behind the pair's unusual choice of theft. Once Kitty accepted her defeat, of course.

"..."

Kitty's shoulders sagged with defeat.

"... You jerk," she spat, a remarkably tame insult spoken in the most biting way possible, as she simply stood there and waited for Ryuuko to stop threatening to cut her head off in the wake of her surrender.

Bunny, too, slumped and let out a sigh.

"... Just... let her go and we'll talk, okay?" the black-haired onmyouji began, "Please don't hurt her."

Toshiko folded her arms. It seemed as if Ryuuko's tactics had worked out, certainly... and perhaps that the two girls weren't entirely committed to this theft. There were several ways Toshiko could see displacement being utilized in this scenario, and yet the thieves had decided to cut their losses and surrender rather then keep fighting.

In one fluid movement, the sword was retracted and once again sheathed, albeit with a sigh. There was something plainly disappointing about a battle without the slightest bit of bloodshed, with only the light singes on her arm showing what had happened. All of that build-up and potential without any satisfying release of the tension. Hopefully, this whole investigation could be over soon so she could find something to practice on.

"You know what we want to know."

Out of the two thieves, it was Bunny that spoke first.

"We were paid," she said, simply, "And it was enough that we couldn't ignore it. Even though we're thieves, we can't exactly just run off with that much money without doing what we received it for, can we?"

Grumbling, Kitty averted her eyes with her arms folded, making her feelings on the matter known before she even spoke. "I thought we could."

"Who is paying you?" Toshiko asked. That explained why it was such an unusual theft the pair of girls. It wasn't something they had wanted to steal for the spectacle of it, it was something they had stolen because they wanted to be paid, and it was an amount of money that neither of them could simply ignore. "You must have some kind of name."

"He was an older man," Kitty spoke up this time, with a huff, "Kind of a creep, I'm pretty sure he was a Daidouji himself, too. He knew an awful lot about the layout of that mansion. Like he'd lived there or something."

"Could you draw a picture of some sort? Did he have any distinguishing features?" the apprentice asked, wanting to do a thorough job... even though she wasn't sure that recovering a piece of stolen property and identifying the real hand behind the thefts extended to 'hunt down the mastermind and exact the appropriate punishment'. Unless they'd already gone ahead and delivered the vase. That would make retrieving it considerably more awkward... a mage and a mage-in-training trying to recover a magic-draining urn from somebody that had an active interest in it?

"A picture?" Kitty asked, "Well, I guess I could try, but..."

Bunny almost immediately picked up the slack when Kitty trailed off.

"She's a terrible artist, so don't bother."

"H-hey!" Kitty protested, stepping forward and pointing her finger at her partner, "That's not it at all! It's just because he's going to be here in about a half an hour! If they wait, they'll meet him anyway!"

Well that was certainly some interesting and fortuitous information.

"So, that means the vase is still here, then?" Toshiko asked. Bunny nodded.

"It is, we were waiting for him to arrive," she explained.

"If the vase is still here, then it would be prudent to take us to it. We must insure that it is secured; to leave it in a state where your employer might be able to leave with or activate it would endanger all of us," Ryuuko surmised, resting her chin on one hand. It was true that they were all unfamiliar with the inner workings of the urn. This would make securing it more difficult; they didn't know how to use it themselves. Yet to do nothing with a magic-ripping artefact around and only her combat skills being entirely capable of functioning without the supernatural was just risky.

"I guess I'll take you to it..." Kitty complained with a sigh, before turning to look at her partner. "Bunny, carry me."

"Carry you?" Bunny commented with a raised eyebrow, "You can walk on that foot, can't you? I thought-"

"Carry me! It's your fault in the first place!" Kitty declared loudly, waving her arms in the air angrily, "Besides, you seem to want to get embarrassingly close every other time..."

The small blonde blushed as she looked away. With a sigh, Bunny headed back up to the other girl and picked her up, proceeding up the stairs at a relatively slow pace.

Eventually, all four of them reached the thief pair's room. It was exactly as Ryuuko had seen in the scrying spell, quite a mess and with a semi-intact couch. Bunny sat Kitty down carefully on the couch, and the blonde pointed.

"There it is," she said, simply.

Toshiko's gaze followed her arm.

Indeed, there it was. The vase was tall and pitch black, looking all the world like some kind of hole in the air. It didn't even shine from the light filtering in the window. Just looking at it gave a sort of unnatural sensation.

"Interesting... it's definitely an abominable thing," Toshiko commented, raising an eyebrow.

Ryuuko, displaying a surprising degree of boldness, walked over to the vase. It was strange to imagine that something like this could be dangerous, though it looked wrong. Oh, she had seen pictures of a similar material made by far more mundane means. It didn't have the strange presence of a magic-ripping vase, even if it was deactivated. Not that the presence was going to stop her from sticking her hand inside to check that there was an inside; the opening could have been a flat top from the lack of shadows.

"Could we simply put runes or ofuda inside the vase to disable him when he arrives?"

Thankfully, the vase was inactive. Nothing happened when Ryuuko placed her hand inside of it.

"I don't think that anything placed inside would be effective, without destroying the vase," Toshiko said, approaching to look the magical object over. "Or hoping he stuck his hand inside of it, I suppose."

Admittedly, she wouldn't exactly have mourned the vase's destruction, if not for the fact that the Daidouji appeared to want it retrieved, and not obliterated. She wasn't exactly keen on the existence of an object that could perform such a thorough draining of mana. To put it simply, the existence of such an object was discomforting to Ando Toshiko.

"He might notice the damaged doorway, as well," she added, giving a glance at Kitty, who let out a huff and looked away. "I think it's possible to trap him rather easily, however."

Toshiko looked around the building.

"There's plenty of places to put traps," she continued, "And I'm assuming that Kitty-san's explosive sigils are still set around the apartment."

"... Can we keep the money he would have given us?" asked Kitty, folding her arms, "This was a stupid waste of time otherwise, and I got stabbed in the foot for nothing if we don't get to keep it."

"... I have to agree with Kitty," Bunny added, "She was hurt because of this job."

"The money belongs neither to us or our employer. As far as I'm concerned, if you can keep it then do so," Ryuuko stated, not seeing any particular reason to take the money off the thieves simply to give it back to those behind the theft in the first place. It was apparent that the Daidouji's wealth was distributed around the family anyway and, consequently, taking the payment wouldn't leave their current employer any worse off. Nor did they owe it to the family to do so.

On the subject of trapping, she had little to say. It wasn't her speciality to plan such things or set up magical traps of some sort: lying in wait and ambushing was more in the vein of the girl's skills.

"It's not as if I care about where his money goes," Toshiko commented, "You can have it."

"Great!" declared Bunny, pumping one fist in the air. Her level of enthusiasm had gone up rather sharply at that news, and she turned to face her partner with a smile. Kitty was smiling, too, if only for a moment.

"He'll be here soon, though," continued Bunny, turning to face the detective and her apprentice. "So if you want to have Kitty-chan help you set up traps, we'll have to work fast."

Toshiko nodded, before turning to face Ryuuko. A basic plan had formed in her head, now. Ryuuko was more suited for a rapid, close-range attack, something that couldn't be avoided in a room like this. And so, if the Daidouji man managed to bypass any traps and reach this room... he'd be ambushed by Bunny and Ryuuko.

"Kitty-san, come with me," Toshiko began. Immediately, Kitty frowned.

"Why do you get to make the orders?" she complained. Toshiko simply continued without pausing.

"Ryuuko-san, you'll stay here with Bunny-san. Ambush him if he comes through that door."

Bunny nodded.

"It's alright, Kitty-chan, just go with her and help her set up the traps. We'll be rid of this guy, this vase, and we'll have a lot of money."

Kitty huffed, but eventually relented. Toshiko helped her out of the room and down the stairs.

The culprit's arrival could be moments away.

The sword so recently sheathed was drawn once again; though she had some practice in it for breadths' sake, iaijutsu was far from the focus of Ryuuko's abilities. Then, taking up position by the door, she shifted stance: in a moment's notice, anyone coming through the door would find themselves a good deal shorter. At least there would be no need for a haircut afterwards.

If Bunny didn't just cave in the culprit's chest, she supposed.

Bunny cracked her knuckles, hopping from one foot to another. Ofuda were drawn out of her pockets and attached to her shoes, a few more attached to her arms as well as she stretched, and rolled her neck. Finally, she took up a fighting stance opposite the kimono-clad, katana-wielding girl, bracing herself in case anyone opened the door.

There weren't many words to be said, at this point.

Downstairs, Toshiko and Kitty were swiftly organizing as many traps as the could as quickly as they could. Most of these were situated around the ruined doorway, which would ideally still manage to catch him off-guard. After all, there wasn't exactly any other place to enter even if it looked like the building had been hit with an explosive.

When a car pulled up outside, the small girl and the woman quickly hid themselves, just out of sight.

It was difficult to see the figure that entered through the doorway, but almost immediately the automatic sigils around the door blazed red before igniting in a furious explosion, tearing it to pieces.

After the blast, Toshiko could see just what had happened. Paper-like fragments, smouldering, fell to the ground before dissipating into mana. Familiars? That's what seemed likely to her. So the Daidouji man was suspicious already... well, that was hardly the end of it.

Almost immediately, several dozen other figures, all paper-like creatures as well, rushed the entrance with no hesitation. Yes, indeed, it was clear that their enemy had sent ahead one familiar to activate any traps, before sending ahead the others to swarm the building in overwhelming numbers and kill everyone inside.

Kittty stepped out of her hiding place, grinning, and winked.

"Bye bye!" she declared, to the onrushing swarm of paper men, before snapping her fingers.

The entire floor blazed red, and a column of fire erupted beneath the familiars, tearing each of them asunder.

"Haaah, I guess I should give you credit, Ando-san," she said, watching the smouldering bits of paper descend to the ground before scattering into mana, "Predicting he'd try to flood us with familiars was a pretty good guess, especially since it let me blow them up!"

As the smoke cleared, however... there was no-one in sight. Just an empty car.

"... I have a feeling it wasn't enough."

---

The moment the first familiar had been dispatched, he'd already made his move.

The floating disc was a useful item, a magical tool that allowed him to quickly ascend. to the room he desired.

His magic allowed him to silently eat a hole through the wall.

Bunny released only when a hand was pointed at the back of her head that something was wrong.

"Attempting to set an ambush for me?" said the voice. It was deep, and by looks the man was older, in his fifties or sixties, with dark hair. "If you surrender, I'll only destroy one of your limbs each. Your compatriots have already been overwhelmed by my-"

It was at that moment that the second trap was triggered, an enormous explosion rocking the building.

"What?!" he cried, eyes wide. In this moment of distraction, a furious Bunny grasped him by his arm and pitched him forward, hurling him over her shoulder and across the room.

The sound of flames downstairs was the signal to shift the grip on her blade, anticipating that the target would be coming through any moment now. Then he did--just not through the door, and not in a situation that she could have struck at him. Even with all the speed in the world, the most likely outcome would have been to cut Bunny's head off first; the situation wasn't desperate enough to start sacrificing allies in the name of victory.

Bunny's brains were safely not blasted across the room by an unexpected explosion, the roar of which briefly made the yakuza wonder how on Earth they'd managed to get her mother to show up here--drunk. Reality asserted itself as the Daidouji went flying, being launched by necessity in her general direction. There was no chance of getting his head from here (and she didn't wish to try splitting his brains in two) but from the angle there was a chance...

The old man had wanted to remove "only one" limb each? Let's see how he liked losing an arm before even reaching the floor.