[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/5FqwUwv.jpg?1[/img]
[h3][b][color=00aeef]Chinami Nadakai[/color][/b][/h3][/center]
[@Dezuel][@Aqutanama][@AtomicNut][@MagusDream]

[color=32CD32][i]"-perhaps there's someone else who could become the symbol of evil and-"[/i][/color]

[color=00aeef]"[i]Alright[/i], that is [i]enough[/i] of that!"[/color] Chinami hissed, cutting off the demon's narration of Reverio's internal thoughts. [color=00aeef]"I don't need the play by play. The actually important cliff notes will do!"[/color] No matter how... [i]interesting[/i] it was to have such deep access, she couldn't help feeling filthy even despite it being granted to her unsolicited. Even knowing the... rather disturbing direction of the former king's delusions, even knowing the tactical value they'd provide, she couldn't bring herself to keep invading his privacy in such a manner. It was bad enough that she was already stalking him.

And besides, even despite making a Deal, she didn't trust the demon within her to actually be narrating what it found word-for-word accurately and not... "tweaking" things to manipulate her perception to its own ends. She knew it. He knew it. But their agreement didn't require she keep herself abreast of the small details, only that she make sure the demon could be. Even if she could stop him from casually invading the privacy of everyone around her, she wouldn't have asked. Even she had enough sense to acknowledge that if she wasn't being spun the biggest yarn of the decade, the stakes here would be... very high if Reverio's stupidity managed to bear fruit.

[color=00aeef]"Damn, he's quick!"[/color] Chinami hissed, hopping down from the fire escape and landing with the protection of her Spirit, as Reverio took flight. By the time she sprinted around the corner of the apartment complex, he was already far too uncomfortably high and gaining distance. She quickly considered her options for catching up. She could take the rooftops, but that ran the risk of him seeing her giving chase... and the possibility of someone videotaping her, thinking she was a parkour enthusiast or something. She could just sprint after him, use the sidewalks. With her Spirit's enhancement, her speed wouldn't lag her behind too much, even if she'd still lose out from not being able to go in a straight line like him. Still, sprinting pell-mell across the city would also presumably get attention. Maybe-

[color=00aeef]"I'm overthinking this,"[/color] snapped Chinami, beginning to jog quickly at a speed half-way to a run. She was just one face in the crowd at the end of the day, and she knew from experience that most people didn't give an actual rat's ass about the "background characters" in their life, not the randos they passed on the street. She could likely get away with doing the bare minimum and suffer no gain or loss.

She didn't need to worry about speed, not really. She knew where Reverio was going already, so it was just a matter of getting there before he left. Speed was almost inconsequential here. After all, the demon could presumably gain access to whatever Reverio learned within moments of her getting close. No rush.

[color=32CD32][i]"This One's scrying is not quite so in-depth as such, misfortunate though it is."[/i][/color] The demon's voice killed her cheer. [color=32CD32][i]"For thine person, a more intensive perusal is trivial. For those This One has not physical contact with, however, what This One may glean is 'surface level', as they say."[/i][/color] Chinami groused internally, but that certainly explained why the Deal had such a focus on staying close, staying within the demon's detection range.

So, a little rush then.
[hr]

Chinami picked her pace up a few notches, but still did her best to maintain a sense of casualness to those she passed. No urgency. No panic. Nothing to see here. Just a girl out for a healthy run on a gorgeous day. A smile here. A nod there. Stopping for the red lights and jogging in place or doing some light stretches for the interval. Sure, this wasn't what she'd been planning to do with her day, but she could multitask and get something out of this bullshit.

[color=00aeef][i]'Ganbattene~! Find those silver linings~!'[/i][/color] she snorted internally.

At one point, she passed through an area that seemed to have ambient... music? It didn't seem to be coming from anywhere in particular. It was just... there, filling the space lightly, not loudly enough to drown out other noises, but certainly pulsing beneath them. Call it a cliche, but she couldn't help but wonder if the tanned guy with the ugly, highlighter-pink hair was responsible. She had the vague sensation that she should recognize him, but he was probably just part of some scene she had no interest in.

Once some measure of her attention was directed that way, however, her Spirit (partially invisibly manifested to try and keep an eye on the increasingly distant Reverio) couldn't help picking up on the... phone call that was occurring between Pinkie and some foppish shitstain. The conversation sounded eerily reminiscent of... Well, honestly, she could only compare it to a fresh-faced talent being taken advantage of by their controlling, greedy staff. And a child at that. Pinkie looked young.

Chinami found, despite the urgency of her current task, that her pace had slowed, and she finally decided that stopping to lightly stretch her legs instead of half-heartedly jogging in place looked more natural. She would admit, despite that it had exactly fuck-all to do with her and that she already had too much shit on her plate, her curiosity was piqued.

Pinkie was moving again, rather conveniently in the direction she had also been originally. Good fortune? Who knew, but she'd take advantage of it. Flicking her ebony hair over her shoulder, Chinami wiped a bit of sweat from the back of her neck and rubbed it into the corner of her sweater, as she restarted her pace, now slower. Honestly, these hot, concealing things weren't the most ideal to jog in, and she found her eyes drifting to what looked like a nearby clothing store. Pinkie stopped. There was a nearby television broadcasting some sort of military parade... from Vauquelin.

Chinami ignored it. She didn't have the pity to spare for a faraway nation and people that had nothing to do with her. If she let herself get obsessed with every little worldly indignity, it would... Hah, it would make her like Reverio, right? He was perfect proof of the foolishness of unsolicited sympathy. In which case... Why did she care what Pinkie had going on in his life? She was just some rando on the street, and she knew that if she were in his place, she'd have despised the idea of being offered advice out of the blue.

The yet unspoken words Chinami had been mulling upon dissolved into nothingness, as her pace increased once more, taking her away from Pinkie and into the nearby clothing store. Now with her mind back on an actually relevant track and the library practically around the corner, the thoughts on clothes had sparked an idea, and Chinami's lips curled up in satisfaction.
[hr]

Mere minutes later, the bell rang, as a pale beauty left the establishment. A bone-white bob of hair swayed about her chin. The lightest accent of blush, mascara and concealer redefined the contours of her face and routed attention to the inquisitive ruby eyes set behind the reading glasses perched on her nose. A collared white undershirt was accompanied by a grey sweater for a top layer... one that brought into much sharper definition shapely features that were normally concealed by baggy clothing. A navy backpack rested comfortably on her shoulders. Hers was a quiet, bookish ambiance, as each low-heeled black pump clacked on the sidewalk.

[hider=Sweat stripped away. Concealer applied. Demeanor reserved. Rough to refined.]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/NxhLyGU.jpg[/img]
[/hider]

[color=00aeef]"Li-li-ya..."[/color] her low voice intoned in a hush, before what have might been classified as a frown downturned her lips on an otherwise stoically passive face. Honestly, she was satisfied with the overall result of her little side-trip, but her voice still sounded far too distinctive. That wasn't to say that she [i]couldn't[/i] pull off a different inflection, intonation and tone. She had the talent... but not the practice to uphold this stunt consistently, especially if she had to raise her voice or speak often. The more times she pushed her luck, the bigger the risk she'd slip... which was where the persona she'd chosen came in. A quiet bookworm, a quietly nosey and inquisitive observer, the quintessential kuudere... and exactly the sort of person to blend into a library with ease.

On the purely physical level, however, she was more than satisfied. With her Spirit's absurd speed, it wasn't the work of more than 5 minutes from beginning to end to rapidly browse for what she needed, clothes, makeup, a wig and a backpack to conceal her prior change of clothes. A quick trip to the bathroom to throw the ensemble together had only added another minute or two. For all that she didn't use them often due to her physical lifestyle making maintenance a bigger pain in the ass than she felt like upkeeping, she was still a goth, and she knew her way around makeup. Her Spirit had made getting the wig flawlessly secured and applying the makeup a breeze, able to apply them with speed and precision that any morning person would envy. And on top of all that, she currently wore her invisible Spirit over the top of it all, taking advantage of its selective tangibility to ensure that nothing could disturb the physical integrity of the facade.

While she'd perhaps hesitate to use such an extreme word as "perfect", she felt her disguise came pretty damn close.

Resisting the urge to steel her shoulders and maintaining a relaxed facade, "Liliya Montoya" rounded the corner and finally laid eyes on Rhea's Grand Library. While she'd been here plenty of times before and long since gotten over the novelty of its grandeur, somehow, the occasion and purpose of her arrival managed to make the structure loom larger in her mind's eye, a shiver of anticipatory nerves shooting down her spine.

She wasn't exactly expecting a fight, not really, not in a place this public and surely secured... assuming what Reverio hoped to find was indeed here. But even so, she had planned for it. Her Spirit presently overlapping her body -with no plans to release it any time soon- was not just to protect her disguise but also to shield and enhance her physically. If it came down to a fight while she was in this state, she'd just have to make do with pretending to be a mere speedy brute with a clever head on her shoulders.

As she neared the Grand Library's steps, a rather swanky-looking vehicle was pulling up, and the impression of wealth was reinforced by the backdoor opening to admit a rather... oddly discordant figure. He was tall, nearly as much as her even, but there was a strange youthfulness to him, a wiry bent to his musculature that just seemed to strike an odd chord. The youthful impression wasn't helped by the way his eyes seemed to only focus on the technological apparatus on his head, darting around and observing the world almost unseeingly otherwise.

...[i]Aaaaand[/i], suddenly, he was just approaching randos on the street, making a beeline for the library. [color=00aeef][i]'What the hell? Troublesome.'[/i][/color] Her Spirit's acute hearing couldn't help but pick up on the repetitive inquiry being posed to anything with tits. Initially, [i][s]Chi-[/s][/i] "Liliya" almost chose to blatantly ignore him as several other women had, but when the hulk of a boy approached her just as she was reaching the front door of the Grand Library, she couldn't help shooting him a dead-eyed expression and toneless, [color=00aeef]"...Creepy,"[/color] before going on her way. She had to side-step briefly to avoid the new annoyance all but barreling though the doorway and her prior space in search of continuing his freaky quest.

Upon entering the establishment, "Liliya" -as she was now doing her best to mentally refer to herself- did not waste time gawking, as she passed through the reception area wordlessly, doing her best to ignore the sound of the nutbar still approaching random women. For a second, she could have sworn he even asked the receptionist, who looked about half a second away from calling security on him. Liliya tried to put that out of mind, as she entered a general walking area, and panned her crimson eyes ov- A familiar blond head stood out in the distance... accompanied by a new -if similar- one.

[color=00aeef][i]'There you are...'[/i][/color]

Face impassive, Liliya ambled closer, taking a moment to draw a random book from the nearest shelf and open to the table of contents. Feigning reading, she listened from a respectable distance with her Spirit's "ears", as Reverio propositioned for aid someone that was apparently... his [i]cousin[/i]?! What? How? Wasn't his family wiped out? Did he forget to mention her... or was he lying before? Tch'. Either way, it hardly changed that his foolish goal was still intact. Whatever he hoped to find was indeed under guard, and now he was hoping to access it so easily as making a scene?

Whatever. Maybe it would work out. There hadn't been any major incidents regarding the library that she'd heard of in recent times, so security was probably pretty lax, all things considered. If Blondie got himself arrested or killed? Well, that would be as much to her benefit as his success. The escape clause of her Deal would be applicable, and while that meant her soul would still take much longer to naturally heal, without the threat of the Ancient Evil being brought back by some pessimistic moron, that was time she had in spades.

[color=00aeef][i]'Ah... Oh dear. That girl's name was Darla...'[/i][/color]

The nutbar named Maverick had approached Reverio and his cousin, and oh... The menacingly gleeful look that sprouted on the latter's face raised Liliya's hackles. The following shrill scream of faux terror made Liliya once more thankful for her Spirit's enhanced senses being protected from sensory overload, but she still cringed at the act. Honestly, what the hell?! Were all of Reverio's relatives idiots?! Well, at least if there was some sort of silver lining to all this, it was that Maverick's expression in response to Darla's unexpected bitchery was just... glorious to behold, truly a gem of schadenfreude.

Doing her best not to be caught up visually in the surely developing scene, Liliya made a little healthier distance and stepped behind a shelf near to the guarded doorway Reverio seemed eager to invade. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to blow this disguise on this one incident by getting dragged into the madness in some public capacity. It hadn't been all that cheap, considering the rushed nature of her purchase.