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

[VitaVitaAR]

"Ah, good work, Ryuuko-kun," said Toshiko, rising to her feet with a smile. Indeed, it was more then Toshiko had managed to find. Outside of those few clues that they had already discovered already, there hadn't been much of anything. But now... that was interesting. A western mage and an onmyouji? It was a shame to interrupt her little talk with Yuuno, who was now rather nervously shifting in her seat and looking back over her shoulder at Ryuuko, but this was important.

"Both a Western Mage and an onmyouji, huh? That's interesting..." she trailed off for a few moments. "And one was blonde, too... do you know anything about the other? One was small and blonde... was the other taller and with black hair?

Toshiko was having growing suspicions in regards to the nature of the theft.

[Raineh Daze]

"According to the maid, her partner matches that description, though she couldn't provide more details because of being knocked out right away," Ryuuko said. So these people were already known to Toshiko? It was hardly enough clues to construct a legal case but when you were dealing with magic that had never been an option in the first place. It seemed that their job might already be finished despite the relatively short time that had been spent here.

She was a bit confused by Yuuno's reaction. Was her sword more prominent than it had been before or was her backup knife showing? The younger girl had seemed perfectly comfortable around her earlier in the day...

[VitaVitaAR]

"... Then I have a feeling I know exactly who was behind this," Toshiko replied, "Though I have no idea what end they might be seeking, this doesn't sound like their normal fair."

After a moment's pause, where the redheaded mage thought over exactly how to reveal what she knew.

"The thieves are, most likely, a pair of girls known as Kitty and Bunny," she said, finally, "They're typically known for stealing high-profile items using magic, then return them roughly a day later without any explanation. They're in it for the sport, in other words, rather then to keep whatever it is that they've taken. The mundane media regards them as phantoms, and to be honest so does quite a bit of our community as well. However, that doesn't mean we don't know what they look like. Kitty is a short, doll-like girl from Italy with blonde hair. Bunny is a taller Japanese girl with short black hair. Kitty is a mage, Bunny is an onmyouji."

After a moment's pause, Toshiko continued.

"I'm not certain it's them, but the more I hear about these details the more I suspect it's the case.

Yuuno remained silent, giving an occasional nervous glare towards Ryuuko.

[Raineh Daze]

From the sounds of it, the thieves would normally be returning the stolen item sometime tonight, which would make this whole theft nothing more than an elaborate test of the mansion's security and payment for doing absolutely nothing useful on their part. They could simply identify the perpetrators to Tomoko and be on their way. "What makes you think that this is any different from a normal theft? We can simply wait for tonight and for the return of the vase."

"Have I done something, Yuuno-chan?" Ryuuko asked, smoothing her kimono in case it was something about her appearance, even though the girl didn't seem the type. Being looked at so harshly for no apparent reason was quite unnerving...

[VitaVitaAR]

"Well... their thefts are normally high-profile, mundane items," Toshiko explained, adjusting her glasses as she did. "They take it long enough to generate a buzz and speculation, then return it just like that. They're not in it for anything more then the sport, the entertainment. They want to see people run about in a panic, only for the stolen item to be returned as if it had never disappeared in the first place. So a theft like this, for them, is very strange... strange enough that I'd suspect someone else if not for those descriptions. Something strange is going on."

Meanwhile, Yuuno simply averted her eyes and let out a huff, blushing faintly.

"I-I was talking with Toshiko-san, I don't like being interrupted!" she said, quickly.

Toshiko simply smiled. "Of course you don't. In any case, the we can't count on the vase being returned."

[Raineh Daze]

"If they wouldn't normally do this, do you have any idea how to contact or trap them? My family has a lot of reach and we might be able to arrange buying it off them if we can supply a reason for knowing they have it... then just take it," Ryuuko suggested, treating the idea of robbing the thieves entirely too easily. She'd extort them without a second's thought, too. "Though I would rather deal with this without falling back on my connections."

Yuuko's explanation, as shallow as it had been, was accepted without question: there were more important things to deal with right now than how angry a teenager was at someone walking into the room. She might be able to find out the real reason why later but the job took precedence.

[VitaVitaAR]

"I don't think that will be necessary. Given the circumstances, the time since the item was stolen, and the size of the item, it's likely they haven't left the local area," Toshiko replied. Before she hadn't been so certain, but even the phantom thieves were unlikely to be able to take an object that large particularly far this quickly. And to be frank, she expected that they were being paid, or perhaps extorted, to steal this item. It was after all out of the realm of their usual operations. "It means our next move is to attempt to locate them. If I'm correct, it might be possible to scry their location."

She paused for a moment.

"Not by looking for the vase, but by using that scrap of ofuda."

[Raineh Daze]

"Is my help required for this, or should I prepare for possible violence?" the apprentice asked, thinking back to the maid's statement about being... well, hit in the face. If they actually went out to recover the vase in person and one of the thieves was injured, it seemed quite likely that things would get out of hand.

[VitaVitaAR]

"Scrying is something any mage worth their salt should know how to do," replied Toshiko. Yuuno shuffled in her seat and grumbled to herself, giving Ryuuko another look for a few moments as the redheaded mage approached her apprentice.

"It's only natural to introduce you to it when it's become relevant. You'll need to participate in the spell," continued Toshiko, producing the ofuda scrap again, "By using this scrap of ofuda, we'll be able to trace their location. This was pretty clumsy of them, when you think about it, leaving something like this behind."

She paused for a moment. "More specifically, we'll be tracing Bunny's mana. There's still traces of it inside this piece of paper, which means that by using scrying we should be able to lock onto her. I can't imagine Kitty will be far away."

[Raineh Daze]

The apprentice studied the scrap, then took Toshiko's recently vacated seat, one arm propped up to support her head. "So because your affinity colours your mana when it's used, it can be linked back to you. How, though? Most scrying in western traditions seems to use water or mirrors... something that can hold an image."

Maybe a magic circle of some sort? Was scrying the sort of thing that could be improved by having multiple people working on it? Not that they seemed to be a trio with particularly useful affinities for this sort of thing, with all of them tending towards spells that would be better at causing damage than actually finding something out...

[VitaVitaAR]

"Yuuno-chan, you might want to go and tell the maids there's going to be a bit of a mess to clean up shortly," said Toshiko, giving a glance towards the girl. After a moment's hesitation, and a huff, the girl hopped to her feet and left the room, leaving the redheaded mage and her pupil alone. This was mostly an exercise in trying to teach her student a basic skill of many magi. Scrying was, of course, a skill possessed by almost every mage.

Rummaging through her bag, Toshiko produced some chalk and what appeared to be a small, portable blackboard.

"This is a skill any mage should possess," she began, as she turned to face Ryuuko, "Most accomplished magi can scry, and I'm certain you don't want to be left out."

Toshiko pulled out a sheet of paper. On it was a magic circle, intricately designed and featuring a variety of different symbols. "I need to to replicate this on the board. If you're struggling I can help. After you've done so, I'll begin to help you perform a successful scrying spell. It's not a complicated process, but if you get something wrong you're going to end up with a waste of mana and nothing more."

[Raineh Daze]

Ryuuko took a look at the complicated design, then the sheet of paper and pursed her mouth in thought. It was complicated, certainly, but some of the skills her family had pushed her to work more on made sense in light of her need for magical as well as mundane education. Calligraphy, for instance, not only served to indicate her refinement but to make the replication of a design like this simply an extension of abilities she already had.

Not that she was entirely happy about having to do it with something like chalk.

Soon enough, the sound of chalk clicking against the blackboard replaced the opulent quiet of the dining room, the humble sound of the circle's faithful replication being almost entirely out of place in such lavish surroundings. Pouring molten gold into marble etchings would really have been a better flavour for this house.

[VitaVitaAR]

Toshiko watched her pupil carefully. Indeed, this seemed like a case of Ryuuko's skills perfectly playing into the task at hand. Replicating a magic circle was really not far outside of calligraphy. As a result it wasn't too long until they had a full circle.

"Now, Ryuuko-san," Toshiko began, "Our first order of business is to place the scrap of ofuda in the center of this circle. The scrying circle will be able to take the information it needs from it in order to locate our target, but you'll need to provide the activation mana."

There was no vocal component to this spell, as the circle did most of the invocation work itself.

[Raineh Daze]

All she had to do was feed mana to the circle? Hopefully, Toshiko would get around to some explanation of the design at a later point; knowing how to use a spell but having no idea what it was--or how to tell it apart from something of similar operation but vastly more danger--seemed to be a rather big risk to take.

So, place the ofuda in the circle--a quick flick of her wrist was enough to pull the shred of paper from Toshiko's fingers and allow it to float into position--and then feed mana to it. Repeat the same visualisation exercise from earlier, her fingers forming a bridge for mana to be sucked down into the circle. The circle that, in its own way, knew more about what was going on than the apprentice herself did...

Hopefully, this worked in a manner she could make sense of the results.

[VitaVitaAR]

"Admittedly, we're relying on some assumptions here, that they haven't somehow placed defenses to block scrying. But if they're attempting to avoid too much attention..."

The chalk was suddenly filled with a silvery light, travelling slowly along each line. Eventually, the entire chalk outline was glowing silver, and the symbol seemed to be pulled inward from the center, each layer of the circle descending further then the previous. Finally, at the bottom, the center circle grew translucent... and was abruptly filled with greyness.

"It's attempting to pinpoint their location," Toshiko explained, helpfully. "Any moment now... and..."

The grey was quickly proven to be a cloud layer, as their viewpoint rapidly rushed through it. It gave an unnerving sensation of falling when directly looked at. Below was what was an obvious aerial view of the city, becoming larger and larger as the scene rushed up to greet them. Suddenly, their viewpoint halted, and jerked to the left sharply, before giving the both of them a view of what appeared to be a somewhat dilapidated apartment building. It was in a rather more run down area of the city, buildings that were due for, but had not yet been, demolished. The viewpoint sank lower, sinking through the roof...

"When is our client going to be here already?!" one voice, squeaky and high-pitched, whined. The Japanese was fluent and there was no hint of an accent, but it belonged to a short blonde girl. She was resting on what was a remarkably preserved couch, one foot bare, elevated, and bandaged. "Waiting this long in a crappy place like this is just ridiculous. We can't even get any good wards set up here! Jeez!"

"They said they might not be able to come very fast," responded the other girl, taller and with black hair, "So just try and relax. You should be glad this room has a nice couch."

"Hmph, relax... my foot still hurts..." the short blonde continued to complain, "Stupid maid..."

The taller black-haired girl paused for a moment.

"... Do you feel like you're being watched?" she asked, looking about. The blonde sighed.

"What, do you think there's ghosts now or something?!"

"No, I-"

It was about then that the scrying spell reached its limit, fading away into regular chalk once more.

[Raineh Daze]

Confirming the identity of their culprits was nice, though Ryuuko wasn't paying too much attention to them (or even the successful spell, though it was nice to succeed) instead focusing on their surroundings. The scrying hadn't given an aerial view for long but she was confident that it was enough... she'd seen enough maps of Kawa. It helped to keep up to date on where her family was doing business and one of their more legal ventures was specifically in buying up and replacing dilapidated property.

Not that everything that happened in the meantime was legal.

"Ando-san, I know where this building is. It's certainly in the New Development district." the purple-haired girl stated, referring to a place that had been 'new'... after the war, though the name was going to be accurate again. Not the exact street address but finding a large apartment wouldn't be difficult at all--if their quarry was even in the same building when they got there, "Will you need directions?"

For once, Toshiko's horrifying driving would work in their favour.

[VitaVitaAR]

"No, I think I know where this is, too."

Toshiko quickly informed the family of what they were doing, and hurried out of the mansion. There was no time to lose, the longer they took, the more of a chance there would be that the client who had hired the thieves might show up, and that would mean there would be much less of a chance of recovering the vase.

The trip to the New Development district was... intense. Toshiko's remarkable ability not to get pulled over for dangerous driving was absolutely a factor in their safe arrival, as was the fact that many other drivers were terrified to be near the vehicle that could quite possibly kill someone at any moment. And yet, the made it their casualty-free.

The building was tall and decrepit. An apartment, most likely, that had never had any real inhabitants. Though someone had lived their at some point, if the couch was any indication.

Toshiko swiftly pulled her car up, and moments later got out. From what she could detect, there was nothing out of the ordinary. However, this was a conflict between those people who could use the existence known as magic. Caution could not be forgotten. Toshiko placed one hand in her pocket as she approached the front door. The chains keeping it shut had been broken.

"Ryuuko-san, stay back until I've checked the entrance," Toshiko began, as she approached the doorway, "There's no guarantees that it's not tra-"

Suddenly a series of symbols lit up around the doorway! Toshiko barely had time to tug something from her pocket before there was a high-pitched whine and-

The doorway exploded, and flames immediately engulfed Toshiko. Her form vanished in fire and sound, entirely obscured from view for a few scant moments... even after the fires cleared, smoke and dust rendered what had happened completely invisible for a moment...

Until a reddish glow became visible as the smoke cleared.

Toshiko stood, one arm covering her mouth, the other holding up a burning piece of paper. A rune was scrawled on the charm, and soon enough it burned away. With it, the red-tinted cage of light that had formed around the redheaded mage flickered out of existence.

"Damn it, it was longer range then I thought!" she snapped, craning her neck to look back at her student. "Ryuuko-san, there's no time for us to take it slow any longer, they must know we're here! Follow me!"

[Raineh Daze]

As usual, Ryuuko coped with her tutor's abominable driving by closing her eyes and focusing on other things, like trying to examine her limited knowledge of magic to prepare for the possible battle ahead. Keeping an eye out for inscribed symbols, ofuda, and focusing on avoiding palms to the face in particular stood out as useful approaches given the known abilities of their adversaries. This seemed like a conflict where traps would be a particularly large problem...

As proven when Toshiko boldly made her way forwards and nearly got herself set on fire. Even though such an anticipated trap wouldn't take out her teacher so easily, her heart jumped to her throat before the smoke cleared and Ryuuko's expression was reined in, the swordsman having removed her sandals and the socks beneath. Better to fight when she could feel and grip the floor directly.

"Ando-san, might I remind you that if I stay behind, my main skill here is useless?" she said, producing her blade and holding it in a semi-guarded position, stopping behind the redhead for a moment, "My survival ability isn't so little that I need be rendered ineffective by staying behind you."

The apprentice continued on, accepting the risk and looking ahead for signs of something simply out of place by its sheer orderliness in this abandoned apartment. Ryuuko was confident in her ability to survive even if she missed something: her sword would endure the more focused attacks and, from her experience earlier, it felt like she might be able to disrupt the worst of less distinguishing traps if Toshiko failed to react in time.

[VitaVitaAR]

"Ah, sorry, sorry," Toshiko said, waving her hand, "It doesn't really make sense not to let you go forward, now, does it?"

Still, Toshiko kept a close watch on her student as they hurried inside. So far, it seemed as if the response wasn't immediate, which likely meant there was more traps. The lobby was decrepit, and with no power there was no way the elevators would work. That meant heading for the stairs!

Once they reached the stairs, it was easy enough to look up and see the strange spiraling structure as it went upwards. It was an unusual design for an apartment building, to see the stairs at the center of the building spiral upwards. Perhaps that was one of the reasons that the apartment now laid abandoned.

The moment they stepped onto the stairway, there was a rush of wind from above, and a greenish blur seemed to rush down the center of the stairway!

Frantically, Toshiko swiftly drew one of her shield runes as swiftly as she could, just in time for the shield that blazed to life to block a sudden blow from a black-haired girl. However, the force of the punch was not fully deflected, and Toshiko found herself rocketing backwards into the lobby, skidding along the ground on her feet before catching herself barely, the rune burning away.

"Bunny, huh?" Toshiko commented, as the onmyouji used several ofuda to propel herself a little further before landing in the lobby herself. "Displacement and air onmyodo seems like it perfectly suits you, after that stunt."

"I don't know who you are, but I'm not going to let you interefere," commented the thief, simply, raising her fists.

Before Ryuuko could attempt to join the fight, however, there was a humming sound ahead of her.

An unseen ofuda lit up, and directly ahead of her appeared the second figure that had been seen during the scrying spell. Her blonde twintails bobbed as she huffed, placing her hands on her hips.

"Hmph! So you're the intruders?" she asked, cocking her head to one side. Her feet were bare, and one bandaged. "I'm not going to let you gang up on Bunny! Your opponent is me!"

[Raineh Daze]

The lack of traps on the way to the stairwell was more unnerving than another explosion would be: it could mean too many things. Maybe they were too late and the first trap had just been to dissuade them, or maybe they'd already missed it and the whole building was about to come crumbling down around them. The less expected outcome was for one of the thieves to drop down the stairwell--something even a swift cut wasn't able to react to in time--and force space between Ryuuko and Toshiko.

It was still two on one, though--until the injured girl showed up. What was she even thinking? After the nail, there was no way that she was going to be able to keep up if Ryuuko got in close. In an area like this, the one that couldn't move was going to lose before the attack was even made.

"One theft gone wrong and so many thieves will turn to violence to clear up after themselves," the purple haired girl mused, meeting the blonde's eyes with her own sharp gaze, then darting forwards without further warning. Though the girl herself was a threat, it was the area around them that was taking more of her attention: someone had rigged the entry to explode and someone had sealed the maid's memories with a rune, and it wasn't the onmyouji. There could still be any number of traps.