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

[VitaVitaAR]

Yuuno pointed, quickly, to the right hand side of the hallway when asked about the exterior.

"It's not impossible that they could be using some strange method to bypass the security," Toshiko responded. There was a wide variety of spells for an enormous amount of magical affinities, all developed by magi all over the world for so many different purposes. Certainly, there could be some methods that would prove to be useful at bypassing these spells. But so perfectly, and all of them... certainly, something was amiss. "As for a ghost, it's possible, but a ghost would still be effected by the defenses.

Toshiko followed Ryuuko, investigating the hallway. As Ryuuko looked over the walls, she might notice what looked like a scrap of paper attached to one...

[Raineh Daze]

"Are ghosts common enough that defences against them would be employed as a matter of course?" Ryuuko wondered, homing in on something out of place in the otherwise immaculate, but empty when compared with the rest of the house, corridor. Paper? No, more than paper--it was only a fragment but the hints of its original shape and the characters on one side were more than enough. "Master, it seems that the infiltrator is an onmyouji or styling themselves as one.

"Unless your family would use ofuda in their defences, of course, Yuuno-san."

[VitaVitaAR]

"Mental defenses, at least, would affect a ghost capable of coherent thought," replied Toshiko, approached Ryuuko as her apprentice made a beeline for something on the wall. Ghosts were beings with human thought patterns, and as a result spells designed to effect those thought patterns would still effect them. Even if they didn't set off the more physical defenses, the ones targeting the mind would still be able to detect them. When Ryuuko discovered that scrap of paper, however...

"You're certainly right, Ryuuko-kun," she commented, eyes travelling over the piece of paper. There was no denying what it appeared to be, it was definitely a piece of ofuda. That was only something that an onmyouji would use.

Yuuno stared for a few moments.

"Ehhh? There's... we never use ofuda!" the smallish girl exclaimed, "That's not how a proper magi does magic!"

As Toshiko glanced down the wall, she noticed spots on the wall that seemed slightly... scuffed? As if something had been attached to them...

"... Oi, Yuuno-chan," Toshiko said, turning towards the girl, "Is there any way that these spells could be disrupted without direct magical interference?"

Yuuno paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. "... I guess if the pattern was interrupted, but that's tied to the walls, and the walls are still there..."

[Raineh Daze]

Not how a proper magi does magic? Sometimes, the attitude of western-style magi to to onmyoudo irked Ryuuko: why did they insist on treating their own country's magical style as some secondary and inferior art. As far as she and her family were concerned, it was nothing more than one style, even if a heavily specialised one, that their affinities tended to work poorly with. But unlike alchemy, there was enough similarity with the magical mainstream that they should really approach it as something less exotic...

That onmyoudo could interfere with defences like this was a prime example of why.

"Might it be possible that a charm could match the defences from the outside and then insert it in place before temporarily disrupting them? Onmyoudo is almost a specialisation in the application of barriers."

[VitaVitaAR]

"It's not impossible..." Toshiko frowned as she looked down the wall. Unfortunately, not enough of the ofuda remained to determine what the spell may have been. Whatever the case was, it looked like quite a few of them had been deployed, up and down the wall... And all but this one had been completely removed. It was a shame, if some others had been left behind they may have been able to piece together exactly what spells were being utilized here. But at the moment, there was no way to be certain what was going on.

"... Yuuno-chan, was there anything unusual in the library when your family found out that the barrier had been disrupted there, or do you not know?" Toshiko asked. Perhaps something that happened here had somehow caused the barrier to fail?

"... There was some white dust? That's about it," Yuuno said, after some thought, with a shrug. "Since nothing was taken or changed there, we didn't look into it too much!"

"Hmmm..." Toshiko turned to face the wall once more. Oddly enough, there seemed to be some... damaged plaster on one of the walls?

[Raineh Daze]

Ryuuko followed her boss's gaze and noted the... damaged wall? She wasn't an expert of architecture but the general fastidiousness this mansion exemplified from its sheer volume of maids made her expect that something like that would have been immediately repaired. Plaster was made from and could be ground back into a powder, which might explain why there was something in the library... but how was it in the library and what could even have damaged the wall?

"Maybe the damaged ofuda is because whatever the thief was doing worked imperfectly and somehow damaged the wall over in the library? That would explain the damage here and the plaster there. I cannot see how a wall would end up in the library or why that would be a thief's first choice, however."

[VitaVitaAR]

"... I think we may have hit upon exactly what happened, though it's not what you think it is, Ryuuko-kun," said Toshiko, finally, turning away from the wall. Funnily enough, it was what the girl had said that had finally put two and two together in the redheaded mage's mind. If her guess was true, that also meant that this did narrow down who may have done this. At the very least, they knew what kind of abilities they were dealing with. "You're well aware that one of the affinities for magic is air, correct?"

Taking the scrap of paper in her hand once more, she looked it over. "One of varieties of spells traditionally associated with air is known as displacement. It allows the caster to move an object without 'severing' it from its location. For example, you could cut a table in half with this spell, but upon restoring it the table would be one solid object once again. You could even transport limbs and other body parts and still have full control over them when you do so."

Scanning the wall once more, eyeing the spot the paper had been taken from, she continued. "If I'm correct, they may have displaced this wall in segments to disrupt the defences, then replaced it when they were finished. See how they evenly spaced the ofuda?"

Toshiko gestured to the evenly-spaced spots where it looked like something had been attached. There were marks of how the charms had burned away from their use, even. "But one of the walls went to the wrong place, breaking the library barrier and becoming lightly damaged in the process."

[Raineh Daze]

"So they moved the wall and used that to bypass or disrupt the defences," Ryuuko said, following the logic. Well, the logic that existed in something inherently magical that allowed connections to remain despite objects being in an entirely different area or cut into pieces, "But is this really enough of a clue for us to find out the one behind the theft?"

By this point, Yuuno was pretty superfluous--except for keeping an eye on her to see if she reacted unusually to any of the mentioned terms. Toshiko had made it clear that anyone could be a suspect in a family like this, even if the methods employed would seem to rule them out...

[VitaVitaAR]

"It's enough to give us some clues on our perpetrators' methodology," replied Toshiko, looking back down the hall. It was fairly clear to her that they were dealing with someone who had done this before, knowing where to place the ofuda to avoid magical reprisal and still move the walls to a different location wasn't something an unskilled amateur would be capable of doing. Or, for that matter, a first-time thief. And indeed, it ruled out a member of the Daidouji family being responsible for bypassing the defense spells, at least. After all, the Daidouji didn't practice onmyodo. "Given the Daidouji's habits, we can determine that they weren't responsible for breaching the defenses, at least."

It was at this point that Yuuno chimed in.

"I don't understand it, but don't you want to see where the vase was?" she asked, walking ahead and looking back at the detective and her employee.

"Ah, of course, Yuuno-chan," replied Tokyo. Really, the young Daidouji girl was quite cute. With that, she proceeded onward, and Toshiko followed.

It wasn't much longer before they reached the room in which the vase was held. It was circular, with a pedestal in the center upon which a glass case sat. Right now, it was empty.

[Raineh Daze]

So instead of being able to isolate some actual thief, they could just rule out a family member performing the actual theft. It helped that there was more to go on in terms of what clues might be around--paper where it shouldn't be or some measure of misplaced damage--but any actual indications as to who might have made off with the vase...

The "how" answered itself when it came to escaping with what was doubtless a rather cumbersome item: take the exact same way of removing it that had been chosen with the wall. Or keep reapplying the same trick in reverse. Nevertheless, along with Toshiko, Ryuuko wished to see the scene of the crime rather than the approach to it.

"Daidouji-san, was the case protected against being displaced in some manner? It seems unlikely to me that your defences were constructed to be defeated by a single skill."

[VitaVitaAR]

"Any attempt to touch the case would have made anything placed against it get atomized," responded Yuuno, swiftly. Her expression becoming a pout, she glared at the case. "I don't know how they got past that one, I made sure the spell was applied perfectly..."

"Hmm..." Toshiko looked around the case carefully, eyeing it from every angle. It wasn't particularly small, the case's insides were more then large enough to accommodate the vase and... quite possibly something else. Judging from the size of the case, in fact, the vase was rather large itself.

"How big is the vase, exactly?" she asked again.

"Ah? It's taller then me!" replied Yuuno, quickly.

Toshiko's attention returned to the case. A whole other person could fit in there... "... Is there any defenses inside the case?"

Yuuno looked at the case again, and frowned, folding her arms. "I don't... think so..."

[Raineh Daze]

"Your case is not fused with the flooring," Ryuuko stated, eyeing the vase's ultimate defence carefully. Having considered how their thief had bypassed all the other defences, here presented one avenue in that took even less work than moving the wall away: at least the wall was a single continuous structure, "Which leads me to assume that the thief could have removed the floor and worked their way beneath the vase. Or they could have displaced merely a part of their own body to be able to access and move the vase. Even without cancelling the defences on this case, they have displayed a potential ability to move the mansion's walls out of the way and I doubt that a clear container would be much impediment."

[VitaVitaAR]

"Ehh? But beneath the floor is where mother's traps are," Yuuno protested, frowning, "They couldn't even get an arm down there, that's for sure. It triggers the moment it finds anything down there and melts them like acid."

"Still," Toshiko replied, "Isn't there a chance that they could have displaced a limb in there? Or..."

The redheaded mage narrowed her eyes. Hold it a moment, what was... Leaning in closely, Toshiko eyed the porcelain beneath the glass case. There was something curious there... It was a dark print. Too wide and thick to be a fingerprint... a toe-print? The blood, if that is what it was, was dried, and from the shape it seemed like a big toe on a small foot. And alongside it, a couple of blonde hairs...

"... Someone was inside the case, with an injured foot," Toshiko concluded. Sadly this did not exactly help too much, but those blonde hairs... blonde hairs an an injured foot. Unless the culprit had fled quickly enough that at least narrowed down their potential suspects...

[Raineh Daze]

Once again, Ryuuko found herself examining closely something that Toshiko had already noticed. In this case, the blood stain. If there was one, then surely there would be more or a sign of a cut? Then... if she followed their path backwards towards the door she would have to find some clue: anyone that had removed all the previous bloodstains would have solved the last one. Sure enough, back by the door, there was another print that they had missed, a too-wide print that indicated quite a small culprit.

"I am going to trace this further back," the heiress stated, straightening from her position, "And head to the library if I lose the trail to examine it once again."

And maybe she could ask for the maids to not clean up any bloodstains that they found.

[VitaVitaAR]

"In that case, I'll question Yuuno-chan to see if she knows anything else," Toshiko said with a nod, watching Ryuuko walk away. Soon enough, she turned to face the young girl. Right, it was time to get to work and see if she knew anything else that might be helpful.

Meanwhile, for Ryuuko, the trail of blood was not a long one... but it ended at a point that was easily overlooked, yet obvious if you really looked for it. It's likely they would have caught it on the trip back regardless. It was a strip of fabric, looking like it had been part of a sock, perhaps, judging by the texture and appearance. So the suspect(or one of the suspects) had taken off their shoes before making there way inside? And... somehow taken an injury to their foot... though it only took a moment to see what had caused it. A nail sat nearby, long enough to easily(and painfully) penetrate someone's foot, though not enough to go entirely through it. But why was there a nail sitting on the ground, exactly?

There were a few maids a few meters away. Oddly enough, one of them was fiddling with a nail as she spoke to the others.

[Raineh Daze]

Ryuuko coughed politely as she drew closer to the maids, the trail that she was following ending at a conspicuous nail. For one, it was just there on the floor rather than in anywhere befitting a nail. It was even more inexcusable when one considered the state of the rest of the mansion; a misplaced nail should have been removed or restored to its proper position in minutes rather than unintentionally injuring a thief. Deliberate, then? The maid holding a nail encouraged a view such as that.

"I am Miura Ryuuko, here to investigate the recent theft. Could you please explain why it is that you are carrying a nail?" the girl asked, gesturing with one hand towards the bloodied nail for an indication of why she cared. Her other hand was careful not to stray far from the katana's handle: something about this family made the idea of rebellious servants seem quite likely.

[VitaVitaAR]

"Eh?" the maid looked away from her conversation partner and immediately her gaze zeroed in on the nail. "You found it! I was missing one!"

Immediately she made to grab the nail, but paused for a moment, eyes on the bloodied tip. Her face became an expression of mild confusion at the sight of the clearly-bloody nail. What had happened, exactly? She didn't recall anything unusual... "I had meant to set them up last night, but I was missing one and-"

Her shorter, brown-haired friend quickly struck her sharply on the back of the head, causing the former maid to yelp in surprise. "Do you really think you should just blab about that to anyone? Really now..."

The maid sighed. "Let me explain. You're... Miura-san, right? One of the detectives? The maids under the employ of this branch of the Daidouji family have more skills then doing the chores."

She paused for a moment, and took a deep breath, before gesturing towards the dark-haired maid. "But this blabbermouth idiot seems like she can't keep her mouth shut about it."

"H-hey!" protested the first maid, frowning.

"In any case, it's not as if you aren't here to help, so I feel safe telling you about it," continued the brunette maid, "Besides, I need help convincing this moron that there was a theft at all."

"But there wasn't!" cried the black-haired maid, "Was there?"

A chop was brought down on the maid's head once more, making her yelp. "Stupid. You were so concerned about your missing nail that you didn't even realize the vase was gone."

Something seemed fishy about this. A nail belonging to the black-haired maid had injured one of the thieves... and yet, somehow, that maid didn't remember the theft.

[Raineh Daze]

Ryuuko stood, taking in the maids' various responses--none of which approached something that could even approximate a useful answer. The black-haired one had been planning to set up nails... somehow. Setting up nails? What did she even mean by that? The blood on the one nail might suggest improvised caltrops but no thief would fall for that and still complete a heist; thieves hat had no awareness of their surroundings didn't tend to last long.

"There was indeed a theft, of a particular magic vase. The assailant tracked blood, stemming from this nail no less, all the way to the scene of the crime. Yet you claim to not remember setting it up? Setting it up how, at that?"

[VitaVitaAR]

"Hu hu hu!" the black-haired maid seemed to suddenly be filled with pride on the subject of her nails. Behind her, the brunette softly brought a palm to her face. "My trap nails aren't ordinary nails! Look!"

Pressing the top of nail, the tip suddenly collapsed inward, twisting as it did until there was simply, seemingly, a small flat disc of metal. When placed on the ground, it would be rather difficult to see it at all, even if you were a seasoned thief. "When something stands on top of it, it extends all at once and drills a hole right into whatever touched it! But... I didn't set any up last night, I was going to but... something happened..."

The girl trailed off, frowning to herself as she did. "... I don't really remember, maybe I was tired? Er..."

"As you can see, she's just an idiot," said the brunette with a sigh. "I have no idea how she doesn't know what happened."

[Raineh Daze]

The swordsman could see where such a nail would be more likely to wound someone--particularly if it was slipped under a carpet or otherwise hidden. Unless an infiltrator was wearing oddly thick or reinforced footwear, then simply walking normally could cause crippling damage. Not that their thief had been particularly stymied by the apparent injury but the thought was there. Though... why? "Why would you own or set up something like this?"

Plus the black haired girl still seemed unable to remember her own trap-setting, maybe... "And is there someone else that could have placed the nail?"