WATCHDOGS ♦ job

The easiest and best thing since sliced bread! Well, if only slicing bread were easy... it was a pain, and Izayuki found knives annoying. Bread tasted weird sometimes too, and besides, who wanted slices of bread when they could have a whole loaf? What was the point here? The subject of interest focused on the fact that a loaf of bread was better than just a slice, there was food out there that was better than ice, and overall, slicing bread was not easy. It was not the best.
This, however, was easy! And because of that, it was the best!

Or so the thoughts went through the tanuki's mind. Simple was good, and good was simple. Simple enough, right?
Light pink, rose-hued eyes gazed down at the job flyer once again, proofreading it for once to ensure that nothing was missed. Straightforward it was indeed- babysit a house, get paid. Even better! She would perhaps get a few bandits to toy with... that would be fun! She would ensure they never laid eyes on the house again- torturing the mind was always interesting for any yokai.

Now the question was, was it really worth bringing Seika along with her? As fun as it was to hold her usual pranks and mischief, she was honestly trying to tone it down with the other yokai, who was fine taking things to terrifying extremes. Iza could not really blame her, but knew that the white, cat-like yokai or blue-haired teen, whichever form she chose, could be quite the handful. Ah, well. She would make up her mind soon. Right now, she had something else in mind as she made her way down to the Tavern...

Ah, just the person she wanted to see! She could go grab Seika later, or before long, the yokai would come down to find her and get breakfast. With her recent night terrors, insomnia was inevitable. Thankfully, shapeshifting had its perks- any sign of tiredness in her human body was hidden. This was all, once again besides the point... amazing how her mind just went back and forth.
A sly smirk now on her expression, Izayuki thought through the many options to get his attention. Some seemed better than others, while some possibilities were quickly cast aside, ungraciously dubbed 'boring'.

The chosen feat, however, would be simply, ungraceful, and predictable of her though, yet nonetheless fun. Even if she failed, she would probably figure out some way to counter or get back at him sooner or later. Somehow or other, it would happen. Not minding the public setting, the tanuki observed her target with mischief-lit pink eyes and a daring smile. Ignite in front, Elyx following behind, and Izayuki walking nonchalantly towards them from behind, quickly closing in on them as she kept her pace faster than their's. Finally, as there was only several meters or so of distance between them, the tanuki would close in on her hopefully unsuspecting prey... making a full dash with all of her speed intact and doing a playful pounce-lunge for the Guild Ace. Her goal was to potentially topple him over. Yes, he was stronger and faster than her, but surprise was the key- with luck, it would work.

And... it did!

Upon completing the feat, him on the ground under her, she would give that victorious, taunting grin. "Hah! Mornin' Elyx! I got an easy-as-hell job for us! And you ain't gonna say no~!" Izayuki said, not letting up on him just yet, despite it being in public and potentially awkward. She had not a care in the world for that... there were other priorities at hand.

Pink irises at the corner of her eyes, gazing calmly and unfazed at Ignite, Izayuki proceeded to greet her as well, that sly and victorious look and smile still laced on her facial features. "Mornin' to ya too, bird~"

As soon as the demi-phoenix relaxed, the young mage turned her attention back to her victim, who seemed to relax a little upon realizing that it was just her- an overly playful raccoon dog pretending to be a human. The smirk held at his response, her eyes half-closing and narrowing in a proud and haughty manner as he continued. One quickly learned never to say no to Izayuki... she could care less if he were tired. He dragged her tail on jobs before, so why could she not do the same? Besides, jewels!

"Nah, don't care if you're tired. You're not gonna get out of this one..." she replied with that smile, still on top of him and moving herself to a more comfortable seating position, ensuring he was pinned. "I'll sit on ya all day if I have to. Thankfully, the job won't require much. We just gotta house-sit this one rich boy's mansion. That's all... so what do you say? Sit the house, or just relax with me, and possibly Ignite, sitting on you~?" Izayuki concluded, maintaining that daring smile while giving Elyx his options. Ignite seemed to be on her side at least for the moment. Thankfully, the former-avian liked jewels and forced the Guild Ace on jobs on a regular basis. Only, for once, the canine was doing the forcing.

Izayuki crossed her arms proudly and victoriously as Elyx gave in to her request in his own unwilling and stubborn way. Quickly standing up as he agreed to help in the job, the tanuki girl mentally readied herself to go, quite excited. She had purposely left out the details of the chance of thieves invading the house. The violinist was a powerful ace of the guild, admittedly stronger than her, though she would not confess that out loud despite the evidence being crushing and overwhelming. He would have no trouble blowing away a few burglars with his musical wind. But since that required effort, she remained silent in order to avoid more resistance from him.

Before the ordeal with the boy on the ground was over, however, a certain cyan haired teen would be watching them from a table, waiting for the chaos of the other yokai to subside. It was embarrassing... humans did not do that, and would any yokai changeling in their right mind try such a thing? Maybe a raccoon dog... but even a kitsune did not seem that bold. Standing up as the awkward and embarrassing situation ended, Seika walked over to the group to join them. A job? House-sitting? It did not sound too hard. Besides, as humiliating and ignominious as they could be, there was at least some entertainment in store. And if they were 'home alone', well, even better. Nobody around to identify her as 'one of them'.

"Ah! Mornin' Seika," Izayuki greeted the other yokai with a smile before turning her attention back to the boy and his bird. "So, can either of ya fly? Peace Village is a bit away, and sailing or walking is overrated~"

A phoenix and a wind mage who could not fly... of all people! Useless! Giving a sigh, the ice using tanuki glanced at Seika for several heartbeats. She knew what the look meant. Once again, the two yokai were about to prove their use as more than just people and mages of Black Rose. In a sense they were... wait for it... transportation! It honestly did get old at times. While it was fun to dazzle a new guildmember or acquaintance or two, Elyx already knew that she was a changeling, so it was nowhere near as amusing anymore.

As soon as the pink to cyan eye contact had been made and the silent communication exchanged between the two, Izayuki simply turned without a word, for once, and began walking out of the Guild Hall. "All right! Outside!" Seika demanded, beginning to follow the group from the rear, internally sighing at what was coming. It was pathetic to a degree, even if useful. Tiring, yes, but no more tired than their two other teammates were. Once they would walk completely outside and into soft, bright rays of late morning sun, Izayuki would turn back towards them with that ever so familiar grin. She instantly began to shapeshift again, her figure turning to that of a giant vermillion bird phoenix with scarlett-colored feathers. Once outside, Seika followed suit with her transformation into a blue-colored vermillion bird of the same size. Both of them could handle one rider, which was good enough for this.

"Lookie here, I'm a phoenix too, Ignite~!" Izayuki said, lowering down for one of them to get on, Seika doing the same. It would be a fast, easy flight to the mansion, and from there, hopefully some fun!

Flying always had a lovely feel to it. Wind through feathers, gently, flowing, tickling almost until one got used to it. While the raccoon dog preferred being close to the earth thanks to instinct, the touch and grace of the skies was most comforting. Beating wings against the breeze for so long, however, did make her tired. At least in her past, she would spend days on end simply building up stamina and learning to properly fly when she had first discovered her Bakedanuki abilities. She could not say the same for Seika, however, who was lagging behind and travelling, sometimes gliding even, on the wind current pulled by Izayuki.

Finally, the nifty little village came into field of vision, as well as the large mansion- sticking out like a sore thumb against everything else. Banking and going in for a landing, Izayuki glided down gently. She had noticed that Elyx had slept most of the ride and likely was well-rested, or at least halfway, by now. With that in mind, she decided to shift back into a human a few meters up in order to purposely drop the guild ace on the ground to wake him up. He would either catch himself before the fall, likely fully awake, or feel the crash landing harshly and abruptly stir him from his slumber. In the meantime, Izayuki landed gracefully on her feet, turning to watch and monitor Seika's own landing... which was much more rocky and untrained.

Seika managed to land, but with more of a skid, catching herself before toppling over. She let out an irritated grunt before trying to throw Ignite off out of general annoyance at herself and her poor flight overall before reverting to human form. She averted her cyan gaze over to see Izayuki talking with the client, who was just about ready to leave. She was given the key and access to the house- now it was up to them to protect it. "Ya'll comin' inside or what?" she called out at her team, practically inside by then. The mansion was large and neat on the interior, delicately and fancily decorated with many prized possessions... protecting these would be a blast!

One object seemed to be an old piece of decorated pottery of sorts, possibly ancient, and a lovely jug. What it could have contained in the past was an interesting thought, as was the idea of questioning if it had magical properties or not. Quite an interesting artifact, yes, and it was the first to catch Izayuki's pink eyes, being intricately painted with blues and golds. Unfortunately, as much as the tanuki girl liked certain shiny things, the actual value she placed on most objects was very low, unless the subject somehow really stood how to her. The other items in the rich man's collection might as well have just been pieces of junk, having no exterior beauty to stand out as more than what they were- ancient artifacts of an expensive and unique assortment.

Upon the appearance of the bandits, Izayuki cracked another small, sly grin. From what she could sense, they were not what one could consider strong in the least. No magic aura radiated from them, and their strength seemed only what could be seen as slightly above average... some people were really pathetic, weren't they? From what she could tell, the mage could dangerously injure or hurt one of them with use of her magic. While they were supposedly evil bandits, they just seemed to be more like simple people of mischief rather than true villains and violent thieves, only finding their strength in numbers.

With that in mind, even going physical would be brutal on them. Izayuki was slowly beginning to become aware of her newfound strength... what had caused it, she did not know. Perhaps her growth as a mage in Black Rose, the constant training both by herself, the past Kvasir, and sometimes Elyx, or simple determination. Whatever it was, she could not unleash that force on just some tricky and problematic humans... as fun as that could possibly be, it would be best to avoid killing them.

Taking a step out of the doorway of the house and back outside, Izayuki witnessed the five or so bandits dashing towards her and the open door. Planning to knock over a poor little girl and get through to the opening, hm? Fat chance. As they neared, being only meters away, the yokai only allowed her sly smile to widen as she let loose her Bakedanuki ability- manipulating their perception to see a giant, black, mammalian shady beast standing between them and the house. The monster that only their eyes could see would be enough to send the five running away in terror. Well, that was boring. To her team, why did they run away? Hm, they only had to ask~

Izayuki chuckled a bit at Elyx's comment- they definitely were weak and not quite worth the mages' time. However, they still came at the four of them, targeting the house, naturally, and not willing to give up just yet. Ten more, yes, dashing for the blue-haired, young teenager who had been staring in boredom at the recent failed assaults. First an obvious use of illusions, even though she had not seen it, the scared faces and retreat had made it quite evident to the yokai of what Izayuki had done. Elyx continued to use his musical instrument to produce strong winds to blow the thieves away. Quite unfortunate that he had to bother with using magic power, but it was not like Seika really cared. But now they were coming for her? This was quite annoying.

Well aware of the powers and elements of the people with her, Elyx, Iza, and Ignite, the girl knew that she had to pick a single one to copy for magic. Wind had already been used and seemed quite lame. Besides, she personally knew that she had to practice more with that element and hopefully master it. There was fire, an old favorite of hers, as she had a lovely blue colored blaze in her flames. However, something directed her towards the element of ice which belonged to the Glacier God Slayer. While Seika could not replicate the darkness laced in the tanuki's element, ice was something she was still trying to master, but nevertheless confident in.

Feeling instinct kick in at the idea of being attacked by ten lowly humans, Seika summoned a shower of ice shards above her head, numbering a hundred or so. Individually, they would not cause much 'spell' damage, as this was no spell. However, they homed in on those bandits, penetrating deep and striking painfully. Ice needles never seemed to fail her, did they? Three managed to run away, being wise enough to escape. The six others were struck, two of them falling and in what was most likely some serious pain. They would live, yes, but Seika must have hit them in some rather painful places... eyes, legs, she could not tell. One bandit in particular, however, keeled over as a fairly large ice splinter made its way into his chest. Dead. Hm. Damn. That was too bad, but oh well. "Oops," Seika said with a sigh and shrug, crossing her arms and approaching the dead human casually, gazing down at him with cold cyan eyes.

Izayuki was too late to stop it. She had seen the ice needles and thought it was a bad idea, but had not counted on somebody actually dying from one attack. How weak and pathetic could these guys get? This had been far from anticipated, and pink eyes could only widen as she realized what had happened. Three people down and one of them dead. She instantly sprinted over towards them, a look of desperation and disapproval in her gaze towards the yokai she had taken in. "Seika, why?!"

"No shit, captain obvious," Seika huffed, keeping her arms crossed and gazing out the corners of her cyan eyes coldly, first at Izayuki, and finally at Elyx. She had honestly only overestimated them, and that had resulted in an untimely death when met with her ice needles. So weak and pathetic, yet she was the one blamed for what had transpired? That was most annoying. "I didn't do it intentionally, if that's what your asking, dumbass," the yokai retorted, glaring down at the lifeless body of the bandit that she had killed. Surely he could see that they were just that weak, and unfortunately easy to pick off, right? Whatever.

Izayuki, with a hand at her own face in a disapproving manner, gazed from the dead body to the other two who were seriously wounded. She personally was not one to care about a meager human death, but knew that many humans definitely took the heavy topic to heart. Seika would have to be taught better on that in order to avoid future trouble from human society. This world was no place for a yokai, yet they could still try, and would. "Enough," she said, throwing Seika in a deathly-icy glare before continuing. It was mostly for show, to display just how serious she was, especially around her teammates, but still there nevertheless. "Seika, I'll be dealing with you later... for now, shouldn't we help these other two? There's still time..."

Her rare mature side was showing... damn. This was irritating. Ah, and ten more bandits! Either appearing for revenge or to help their fallen comrades, Izayuki did not know. Still, she would be trying to possibly gain their assistance, or just freeze them over and scare them off. After what had happened, were they really so stupid as to continue advancing? It seemed so.