[IC] Fu Sonzai no Genso: An Urban Fantasy Mystery RP(Raineh Daze and VitaVitaAR)(Eventually open to two more players!)

[VitaVitaAR]

Tōnan Gyakuten

---

It was a somewhat dreary afternoon. It wasn't raining, but the weather hadn't been predicted to be particularly pleasant. It didn't take some trained professional to be able to tell that there was going to be rain today. The dark clouds, the heavy air, even that strange smell that permeated the atmosphere, it all spoke of a storm.

Toshiko lit a cigarette, and inhaled. The smoke rushed in, and she took the cigarette from her mouth and blew it out. She raised an eyebrow at the paper before her. She'd received the phone call, and then a fax. The family seemed quite desperate to retrieve what had been taken...

To say nothing of what had been stolen, the circumstances were curious. The room wasn't so much a room as a heavily-protected vault, yet nothing had been destroyed. The walls were intact, so was the door... and it was tightly locked. The spells in place to protect the item were still intact, or at least that's what the family believed. There was no sign of... well, anything, really, as far as the family had been able to tell. The only difference in the entire house was that the stolen item was missing. Toshiko took another drag on her cigarette, and blew the smoke out. This... this was, to begin with, an undeniably supernatural case. And the family was quite willing to pay very well...

To be honest, Toshiko currently found herself utterly without any spending money. A well-paying case, a curious case like this...

Her employee would be downstairs by now, or at least on their way to the agency. It was time to speak to them about this case. Getting to her feet, Toshiko walked through her dimly-lit office, passing stacks of paper and the single old television. She walked to the door and pulled it open, before beginning to head downstairs.

It was time to solve a theft.

[Raineh Daze]

Downstairs, the agency's current sole employee was lounging on a saggy and faded couch, bare legs draped over one armrest. Its out of the way spot was perfect for Ryuuko's uses: good sight of the staircase if Toshiko came down, a sight of the door should some customer miraculously find the building, and in a straight line from a window. Even in her brief time here so far, the beaten-up couch had shown to be a wonderfully warm spot on a sunny day.

Entirely unlike today. The thick air spoke of rain and a grey pallor hung over everything. The heiress had turned on the lights, and resolved once again to get a better lampshade for Toshiko's seemingly endless supply of incandescent bulbs, before taking her usual spot and reading through everything she'd so far learned about the way magic worked. It wasn't very encouraging reading, at least with her affinity in mind: all the simple demonstrations seemed to involve actively doing something. From the get-go, she was disadvantaged in even doing that. No lighting a candle, no breeze through the hair... not without more work.

She sighed, putting the binder aside and falling back. A sound from the stairs caught Ryuuko's attention and she sat up again, looking in Toshiko's direction, "Tea? You're earlier than normal."

[VitaVitaAR]

Toshiko paused for only a moment when she saw the girl lying on her couch. Ah, her... currently single employee, and rather ironically part of an organized crime family. However, that was not the sort of crime that the redheaded mage had formed this agency in order to counteract. Besides, she was hardly about to protest at being employed to teach someone magic, especially if it allowed her to have assistance on cases. She eyed the tea for only a moment before responding.

"I think I'd enjoy a cup of tea," she said, simply, before putting her cigarette in her mouth and taking another long drag. After a moment, she took it out, and the smoke curled into the air. Ah, such a grey, dreary day... not at all reflective of the relative optimism that had risen in the woman's heart. After all, she had a case, at last. Funds were running particularly thin...

"But aside from that," she continued, raising the case file, "We've got a new case. They've been in contact since last night. It's a theft, and they're pretty eager to get us down there."

She offered the file to the yakuza princess.

[Raineh Daze]

Certain parts of Toshiko were more notable than others but they were quickly ignored through a veil of professionalism. Reading the same things so much was boring, even if it had the potential to reshape her skills entirely. Even the ritual of making tea, brought from a fine art to a simple, crass process of making a drink, was a welcome respite from trying to work out the "simplest expression of your affinity": what was simple about an absence?

Ryuuko swung her legs off the couch and set the water to boil, smoothing down today's simpler, green kimono whilst waiting. They had a case? That was a welcome development, since she'd always expected a detective agency to be more interesting. The gaps between cases were certainly teaching her a childhood's worth of lessons on being lazy. It was almost disappointing that it was only a theft...

The detective offered her a file whilst the tea was starting to brew and she glanced through it, noting the oddities. She placed it on a table before removing the leaves and handing the cup over, then looked again in more detail. Stolen without a trace...

"If the security was defeated without being disabled, then only someone who knew the security intimately could be responsible. I expect a family member or someone in their employ, as no spy with enough skill would lower themselves to mere thievery," the heiress stated, her own cup clasped between two hands.

[VitaVitaAR]

Toshiko took a sip of her tea, and decided to elaborate a bit more on some matters that the case file didn't exactly clarify.

"Now, I'm not sure if you're aware of the history of the Daidouji family, but I'll give a quick rundown just in case you're not. The Daidouji Mage family has splintered into many, many branches. Every single last one of these branches hates the other. And when I say hates, I mean backstabbing and murder aren't out of the realm of possibility when it comes to one branch to another. Our suspect may be the member of another branch," she explained. It was certainly the case. Toshiko had once met one of the Daidouji heirs. She was a gorgeous girl, short, deep black hair. She had told Toshiko her ultimate goal was to kill her uncle, who had apparently stolen her mother's magic grimoire.

She didn't know if the girl had succeeded, but regardless of if she had or not it was rather clear to Toshiko what kind of family she was dealing with. The fierce rivalries between each of the branches had only grown more and more violent as time went on. Ah, such was the Daidouji.

"Your guess at the perpetrator being a family member is hardly an unlikely one," she concluded, taking another sip of tea.

[Raineh Daze]

Ryuuko's eyes narrowed as the family was described. Old enough to have splintered repeatedly and yet every branch was claiming equal importance... yet owing none of the loyalty to one another that such a description would suggest. To her, someone that placed her family's wishes before anything else, such a self-interested approach to the rest of one's relatives was abhorrent. Well, maybe the Miura's lack of fragmentation helped--for instance, she had no siblings--but to intentionally set out to kill one another as a matter of course...

This wasn't her detective agency, however, and dealing with unsavoury sorts was part of her education. No matter that such a group offended her sensibilities, Ryuuko would stomach them for the sake of their contract. If any information might present itself that might aid her father... well, she'd ask Toshiko when the time came.

The girl took another drink of the cooling tea, looking once more at her teacher: "If this family cannot trust their kin, I hope that we shall not rely on their hospitality. I will be bringing my sword but there is little I can do against magic."

[VitaVitaAR]

Trust their kin? My, the prospect of that was... interesting. Toshiko's own family had once attempted to murder her, simply because she rejected what she saw as a fool's errand. Even now, as her sister's efforts had cooled their rage, they still sought to punish her for what they saw as a betrayal. Even her sister thought she needed some kind of punishment... and for what? It wasn't as if she was the one who had been cheated out of learning ancient magic from the time of Babylon. It wasn't as if she was the one who continued to believe in an impossibility. Humans could quite simply no longer obtain the Origin of All. That bloody ritual that promised the origin to the one who claimed the white night was nothing less then the act of fools. Toshiko took another sip of tea.

"It's not as if I'm unfamiliar with an untrustworthy family," the redheaded woman commented, simply, in an off-hand fashion, "In any case, we should probably get moving. The sooner we reach them and solve this case, the sooner we can get paid."

[Raineh Daze]

The swordswoman set aside her remaining tea and began preparing to go out. It wouldn't make sense to visit a crime scene unarmed and unshod, and she always made sure to have another knife as backup in case things got out of hand. Most people would let their guard down if they saw someone visibly disarmed, no matter how supernatural.

It was as she was picking up the sword, now properly dressed for going outdoors--not that the addition of socks was really that large of a change--that the inevitable downside of Toshiko deciding 'the sooner we reach them' reared its head. Particularly because speed was not of the essence to Ryuuko, as the money made no difference to her...

"Ah, Toshiko-san, could you possibly allow me to drive?"

[VitaVitaAR]

"Ah?"

As Toshiko headed for the door, she glanced back over her shoulder. Ryuuko wanted to drive? Why was that? After all, Toshiko felt that she always made incredibly decent time when driving. They always arrived far under the projected time of arrival, didn't they? Of course. So what was the reason for Ryuuko had for wanting to drive?

"Why do you ask, Ryuuko-kun?" Toshiko answered the question with one of her own.

[Raineh Daze]

It amazed Ryuuko that Toshiko couldn't see how bad her driving was. Even magi didn't seem to be so insular that "everyone else in the world considers doing it that badly to be a terrible idea" and yet Toshiko had gained a car and used it for years without the slightest bit of trouble. More than her magical abilities, it was her ability to get away with such driving that was truly frightening.

But that couldn't be said to her face.

"I believe that we might make a better impression if we arrive in less of a visible hurry." And if she didn't arrive suppressing the urge to throw up.

[VitaVitaAR]

Toshiko was rather quick with a counterpoint of her own.

"Ah, but if it looks like we just took our time, wouldn't that make the clients believe we aren't taking things seriously?" she asked. Toshiko was, in general, rather pleased with her driving abilities. She never hit anything, she didn't think anyone was in danger, and the police never got after her. All in all, it was pretty good for someone with no driver's licence who had never taken a single lesson. Self-taught driving was just as good as anything else, right?

[Raineh Daze]

Such a counter-argument was easily dismissed: "Arriving within a time obeying all speed limits would have us looking punctual. Rushing would make us appear desperate whilst costing more in fuel." Maybe the monetary argument would sway Toshiko into letting someone else drive for once? Looking up to see near miss after near miss... if she could find where Toshiko's keys were kept, she would have tried to bribe or blackmail her employer into taking proper lessons.

[VitaVitaAR]

Toshiko was about to protest... but then she paused for a moment. To be honest, it was hard to argue with that logic. While speedy driving that the redheaded mage preferred was efficient, it did burn more fuel... and at the moment, Toshiko's funds were remarkably thin. That crystal ball had cost a lot for something that turned out to be a total dud... Therefore, doing something that would save them money would help a lot. But the concern about the possibility of being seen as not taking it seriously still worried her... however, desperation was another thing to consider...

"You have a point there," she said, simply, "I'd like to avoid spending too much money right now... but I'm still worried about seeming like we're not taking this seriously."

[Raineh Daze]

"How would it seem that we're not taking it seriously if we arrive as soon as reasonably possible? Even police forces can take longer to respond to reports of theft," the heiress stated, glad that she'd found some chink in Toshiko's desire to drive there at hair-raising speeds. "If I drive, you can explain what the magical protections are that might have been bypassed. Being distracted in control of a high-speed vehicle could be costly in more ways than fuel."

[VitaVitaAR]

After a few moments of silence, Toshiko sighed.

Yes, there was a lot of logic in that statement... and the mage's biggest concern, the money, weighed rather heavily on her mind. In the end, it was quite simply a fact that she could not deny. It would take less money to go more slowly, no matter how much she wanted to drive as quickly as she possibly could to get there.

"Fine, Ryuuko-kun," relented the woman, at last, "I'll let you drive just this once."

[Raineh Daze]

Without even a second's delay, the purple-haired swordswoman held out one hand expectantly: "Keys." Toshiko had relented, so she wasn't going to wait on her to unlock everything. Aside from being demeaning, Ryuuko couldn't shake the feeling that the mage would change her mind once in the car and undo the brief effort. Besides, she did want some idea of the potentially bypassed protections instead of acting as a complete novice on arrival...

[VitaVitaAR]

After a fair amount of hesitation, Toshiko finally handed over the keys. She had almost changed her mind in those few moments, but at last she handed over the keys. It was with great reluctance, after all.

[Raineh Daze]

Graciously taking the keys, Ryuuko lead the way outside and to the car... wondering once again how Toshiko had so few dents on its red paintwork with the way she drove. Thankfully, the saloon wasn't a sports model or brand new, since with her employer's driving there was even more a guarantee that she'd hit something unexpected...

Once the car was open and the younger of the two seated firmly in the driver's seat, not forgetting the seatbelt, she waited for the detective to get in as well. Fortunately, she didn't need directions: the file had included the location of the crime and she'd made sure to learn the local area pretty well when she'd joined the agency. It would be no good to not know where any jobs the agency was hired for were going to happen.

[VitaVitaAR]

"I don't think I need to tell you the directions since you know the area and you read the file," said Toshiko as she climbed in and belted herself into the front passenger seat. For a few moments, her eyes almost mournfully lingered on the keys, but she was quick to look away. "Besides, it's not as if it's really likely that you'll simply miss the Daidouji mansion."

Really, it wasn't as if there was a wealth of old, stately, western-style mansions around the city. It was only natural that a building like the Daidouji mansion stood out rather clearly given its location. That being said, someone entirely unfamiliar with the area would probably have had some trouble getting to it. But that wasn't a concern today.

[Raineh Daze]

Silence reigned aside from the humming of the engine. For once in a blue moon, Toshiko's car was being driven with all due respect to the law--and not pushing its components to their absolute limit. It wouldn't be long before the tires needed replacing, as well as the brakes... let alone all the essential maintenance running a car nearly as old as either of them entailed before you decided to push it as much as possible. Ryuuko suspected magic was involved, though Toshiko didn't seem that knowledgeable about mechanics...

After a few minutes, she started the conversation again: "What protections could mages use against theft? Onmyoudo is traditionally used for barriers and protection even without real magic. Though not in the sense of stopping thieves..."