Kire huffed. She supposed that was the best she could hope for out of him. She stood still, her gaze on the empty spot on the ground where he had just stood moments ago. While he was a prick, Kire imagined she’d probably be even less accommodating had she been in his position. She looked over at the remains of the fire and pondered, for a moment, if she should light it again, draw out whoever it was he had been warning her about. This, she knew, standing up straight with a sigh, was not prudent. The urge to be impatient, to get her hands on something to fight, was hard to stamp down, but she couldn’t be picking fights that big on her first day of the hunt. Without the man’s interference, she could at least explore the city. 

Most of it was as she had expected. Ruins, signs of a brutal pillaging, here and there some trace of Ikegai’s malevolent influence. Kire frowned. The man feared her face, and it was possible Ikegai had somehow brought his homunculi here, perhaps to terrorize the poor desert city. But those dolls could only act as avatars of his power, at least as far as she could surmise. They didn’t have the raw might that could level a city like this. [i]If I could find a body, some remnant, anything…[/i] She steeled herself for what she might find in her scavenging; she had no time or energy to spare giving burials all over the city, as much as she felt like they needed it. 

Her exploration didn’t yield much, just more signs of wanton carnage. It was frustrating. Kire knew her quarry wasn’t one for committing violence without some end goal, but throwing indiscriminate killers into the mix was exactly the kind of thing that would help obscure his tracks and motives. [i]Fuck the bastard.[/i] And the weight of all that useless death, that was on her shoulders. [i]From my world to this.[/i] Kire stopped and pounded her fist at another wall, making it crack. [i]If I had caught him sooner, killed him sooner…[/i] She took a deep breath. Her anger and regret, constant bedfellows to her, wouldn’t serve her at the moment. She needed to clear her head, and she needed to get to know this new terrain first.  For now, she resolved to stay here until daytime, when, hopefully, her search for Ikegai’s tracks would be aided by sunlight, and if still it yielded nothing, she would move on to the port city the stranger had talked about. After some more wandering, she came to a home whose remnants formed what looked like enough shelter for the night. The stench of death was everywhere, but that couldn’t be helped at the moment. 

She woke just when the sun had risen, and with a groan Kire eased herself off the ground and crawled out of the meager shelter she had found. She took in her surroundings, the warm light of the new day chasing the shadows off the ruins. It was always worse to look at destruction during the day, when you could see more of it, and when you could imagine more of the life that had once been here, rising to work or start the day. Nearby, she could see what remained of a blue house, hints of turquoise paint amid the dirt. “Right, Kire. Time to work.” 

She did the same thing she had done the night before, combing through this part of the city, leaving markers to indicate where she had already searched. There wasn’t much in the city itself, but there were indications of Ikegai’s magic leaving stronger traces in some parts. These traces seemed to be closer to the outer limits. [i]I suppose he wouldn’t conduct a lot of his rituals in close quarters, or somewhere in disarray.[/i] His hideouts in Amria had either been large caverns, or abandoned places that gave him room for his ‘experiments’. The pillagers didn’t seem to have stayed long in this city, either. [i]Outskirts it is.[/i]