To Feast on Copy Cats (Job: Iniki, Itori)

Job Details:

Iniki listened as a man whom she never knew or met came to deliver a letter to the guild, unfortunately no one came to answer his delivery and she was left with retrieving the mail today. "Name your business." She demanded attempting to sound like she was someone who could be reasoned with, the old guy quickly handed her the single piece of paper and was off without a word which left her puzzled. Sighing as she opened up the parcel she took note that it was an assassination contract order for a particular gang causing trouble for some guilds, continuing to read she started to drool at the thought of a free meal of souls with a reward to boot. The records of the target indicated that they were beyond her level of capability to take on alone but that didn't at all nullify her determination to get herself a snack and was immediately off to find one of her sisters. She knew the perfect person who would help her as she knocked on a door to some chamber without windows and the only known way in being the door. "Itori." She cooed making emphasis on each of the syllables in Itori's name to make it sound like a song. "Would you like to help me get a snack." She said as she licked her lips at the very idea of snacking on the Copy Cat Gang. She didn't exactly like human souls but today she was feeling rather ravenous, especially when she was given the task to take their lives without hesitation, something that no one would possibly give a reason not to accomplish.

There wasn't too much for Itori to do at the moment, since she had basically already done everything that she was supposed to do today. Not that anybody had ever given her any commandments on what she should and shouldn't do, not even the new guild master, but her self-imposed tasks had been completed early in the day. The other mages of Tartarus didn't appear to care too much about house chores, preferring to just do whatever it is they preferred to do and if they needed something either getting it there and then, or getting somebody else to do it (this was mostly done by the guild master, who so far had been fairly straightforward in his attitude that he was the king and the other guild members his servants). And they were also somewhat spread out across the ghost town that Tartarus had been located in by the previous guild master. It was a bit of a strange way of organizing the group, but so far it seemed to work.

Part of why it worked so well was because Itori spent a lot of her time wandering from guild member to guild member to do all those little things that they either were too forgetful to do or found beneath them. Cleaning the place, washing the filthy clothes, making sure everybody had enough food. Nobody had asked her to do this, but she did it nonetheless. She couldn't really assume a commanding aura, especially since she couldn't enforce it with a firm tone of voice, but she still also tried her best to make sure each guild member at least followed the rules of basic hygiene. This was mostly done by reminding them of the idea of baths and hoping they got the message. This last part was also partially done because she had a very good nose, so she didn't really like it when she was surrounded by smelly people.

However today she had managed to do all that early on. It helped that she had been doing this for quite a while now, so she had already managed to remove any of the work that had been piling up through the centuries. Of course a large part of the ghost town was still in disrepair, but to fix that up would take too long and be without much use. As long as the places occupied by her fellow guild members lived up to her requirements she would call it a day and go do something else. Of course, with Itori, doing something else quite often meant 'get something to eat'. So now she was sitting in her own chambers, which consisted of a single small room with only a door. She didn't really need any extravagant, and as long as she stuck to this room nobody would bother her about how nice the place was. It didn't even have lights, which sometimes resulted in people asking how she saw anything. The answer to that, of course, was that whenever she was in her room she'd make some foxfires stick to the walls to illuminate everything with their pale blue light. Others might find this somewhat creepy, but Itori liked it.

Right now she was sitting there, slowly making her way through a pile of food while at the same time practising her illusions. This small room also had the advantage that it had few to no distractions, allowing her to use illusions to fully reshape it to her liking without being disrupted with thoughts like how there should be a chair where that tree was standing. And the small size of the room also helped, since the illusion felt more real if she could make it fill the entire room, and she didn't have enough strength to cover a much larger area, especially not for prolonged periods of time.

As she was practising and eating Itori suddenly heard footsteps approaching. Going by the rhythm of the footsteps and the weight behind them, it would be...Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard her sister's lovely voice singing her name through the door, accompanied by knocking. She could remember Iniki's way of walking even after they had been separated for so long. Her memory regarding her sisters was extraordinary: she had been able to notice every single change her sisters had been through since the last time she saw them, approving of some and being a bit less happy about others. Still, that didn't remove the fact that having her sister come visit her made her smile as she stood up, placing her bag of food on her back as she walked over to the door.

Opening the door she saw her sister do something she herself also did quite often, licking her lips to show off a certain hunger. Of course, when Itori did that she was just hungry, plain and simple. She was hungry very often and saw no reason not to indulge herself in that aspect. She was strict on herself in almost every other aspect, but food was the one thing she would never deny herself. Iniki on the other hand mostly had that expression if it involved eating spirits and souls. It was a practice that Itori personally didn't share, but just as she didn't deny herself the food she wanted she also wasn't going to tell Iniki to restrain herself.

Hearing what Iniki had to say Itori also understood that when Iniki talked about a snack she wasn't talking about the kind that Itori has slung over her shoulder. Apparently her beloved sister had gotten the desire to eat souls and wanted Itori's help getting them. The mute kumiho smiled and nodded, glad to be of help to her sister. Her own abilities allowed her to help trap and capture the unsuspecting prey, after which she and Iniki could effortlessly kill the target, allowing Iniki to feast on their soul while Itori feasted in a more physical manner.

Just because she was so focused on everything being tidy and clean didn't mean she didn't have her own strange mannerisms, after all. For her, meat was food, and it didn't matter if it came from some small weak animal, or some unsuspecting human who nobody would miss if they disappeared.

Iniki zipped around Itori quite quickly the instant her sister opened the door to her room, once behind Itori she wrapped her arms around her and held up the parchment in front of her sister so she can read it. "Some gang has been making us look back, don't you think that's a little bit unacceptable? And we get a cash reward for their disposal too, don't you think that's a win win." Iniki grinned menacingly while licking her lips in a rather wide arc, the meal was so perfect that she couldn't even think of passing it up. Once again she zipped around Itori and sort of started jogging in a hyper state. "Lets go for a little run, they are hiding out quite a ways from here." She yipped excitedly, it was rather hard not to act like an actual fox when you practically were one which was yet another mannerism that Iniki barely ever tried to get out of.

The trip took longer than expected and Iniki was grumbling in dismay about how far the gangs hideout was. One would think if they wanted to appear as a dark guild they would at least have a base of operations nearby a dark guild but noooooo it had to be at least a days travel from where Tartarus was actually located. "I'm hungry, why do they have to hide so far away, it's like they're scared or something." Iniki complained holding her tummy as it grumbled loudly, of course she could have asked for one of Itori's snacks as she technically wasn't exempt from consuming normal food but she cared more for Itori's well being than her own thus she chose to starve until her snacks presented themselves. Taking a sniff of the air Iniki attempted to catch a whiff of her would be meals but to her dismay the only scent that met her nose was that of chicken, freshly cooked chicken at that... or was it freshly cooked human that she was smelling. Taking another big sniff of the air she could tell that there was also a strong scent of smoke which prompted her to take a look around the valley. Off in the distance thick black smoke bellowed into the sky which clearly wasn't the sign of a rampant forest fire. Iniki took a moment to think then came to a conclusion. "I suppose this gang was quite intent on killing their own race, do you think they're fresh enough?" Iniki asked turning towards Itori to consult her on her opinion. "ooo ooo maybe they have their own casualties, that would make things a bit easier would it not." Iniki once again theorized as she began to drool at the thought of a double meal.

Itori didn't resist as Iniki quickly danced around her and wrapped her arms around the mute kumiho from behind, instead just wrapping her tail around Iniki's waist in response as she read about the job Iniki had found. Her eyes scanned the paper as she read about how apparently there was a group of troublemakers who had been claiming to be from dark guilds as they committed their crimes. A curious strategy, which could have two main objectives: the first objective was to lay the blame on the actual dark guilds, which would allow those who actually weren't part of a dark guild to continue committing crimes without being suspected. After all, they could just show that they aren't from a dark guild, so they could just wander wherever they wanted without guards arresting them. The second objective could be almost the exact opposite, gather infamy and renown so they would be able to make a name for themselves. If they could convince the general populace that they actually were from a dark guild they would be able to get more done with less work, as they could just throw their supposed status as a dark guild around to frighten most people and force them to give in without even trying.

Either way it looked like Iniki found it insulting that a group of scavengers and troublemakers would try to pass blame to a guild she herself was part of, a sentiment which Itori didn't really share but wasn't going to argue against. If her sister wanted to get food by hunting some people who she felt had offended her Itori would do nothing but try her best to help Iniki out. The lives of humans weren't actually that important to Itori, and if compared to how much she cared for her sister she would gladly sacrifice entire towns for her safety. Such a bond was very strong, but also made Itori quite dangerous when the occasion called for it.

When Iniki let go of her and started jogging before yipping in excitement Itori giggled silently, happy to see her sister so enthusiastic and lively. Being able to see Iniki like this was worth a lot for the mute kumiho, who reached out and scratched Iniki behind the ears before nodding, pointing at herself and then at Iniki to indicate that she would indeed be going with her sister to deal with these troublemakers. Although before she could leave she would have to make sure she had enough food for herself and her sister ready. She couldn't leave the guild without at least a respectable amount of food, and while her sister never ate anywhere as much as Itori herself she still wouldn't let her get hungry if she could help it.

Once they left it quickly turned out that it would take longer to get to the base of the troublemakers than her sister had expected, who began to complain about being hungry. Understandable, seeing how it wasn't very easy to get some fresh souls to eat and she had been so excited about this new opportunity before learning it would take a while longer. Itori herself was just eating her snacks slowly while travelling, almost permanently munching on at least something as her tail wagged behind her. Normally she would restrain herself a bit more, but since she was with her sister, who knew her through and through, she had no reason to try and hide either her happiness or her gluttony. She was happy about being able to travel with her sister and get to work together with her to make her sister happy, giving her fresh souls to eat and getting rid of some humans who dared to offend Iniki. As for her gluttony, that was just a permanent feature of the mute kumiho, who always worked silently but diligently and who only ever in return asked that she could eat what she wanted to eat.

She would have offered Iniki some more food but she knew that just as she would try her best to give Iniki whatever she wanted, Iniki would decline the offer believing that it was better for Itori to eat everything. Well, Itori probably appreciate the food more than Iniki did, whose diet was more about souls and who only ate physical food if necessary. In sharp contrast to the vulpine siren who just ate whenever she got the opportunity, like a bottomless abyss that would never stop trying to feed itself.

Then Iniki began sniffing the air before pointing off into a direction where they could see thick black smoke drifting up into the sky. Itori narrowed her eyes as she tried to figure out which caused the smoke, but whatever it was it was still hidden from her sight. Meanwhile Iniki began to offer suggestions, most of which revolved around the humans having begun to slaughter each other, including the ones which they were supposed to hunt. Itori nodded that it would be fortunate if that was the case. She didn't really like violence. She didn't mind killing, but she preferred killing somebody without violence since that was easier and less messy. If the humans were willing to make the job easier for them by killing each other this foxy lady wouldn't object to it, so she smiled at Iniki and began to motion with her hands, first imitating the arms of a clock which stood close to each other, and then moved one of her arms slightly. It couldn't have been very long since the job to hunt these people down was issued, so any corpses should still be fresh enough for Iniki to be able to eat the souls. She then pointed at the black smoke and then at herself and Iniki before placing her hand before one eye, indicating that they should try to avoid being seen by whoever was at the source of the black smoke. She then began to walk towards the black smoke, casting an illusion on herself and Iniki which would make them look like completely different people, and human to boot.