Nightmare Inarnate

job info:

Passive Ability: Gold Rush Lineage - Gain +1x Strong Weapon/Armour/Magic ITem

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Food. Lots and lots of food. So much that even if somebody spent a whole week they wouldn't be able to eat it all. If they tried to force the issue their stomach would most likely explode. There were countless dishes, of all types and sorts, prepared with pretty much every method that was available. It was obvious that whoever was behind this knew their cooking very, very well. Also they were extremely enthusiastic and didn't know the meaning of enough food. Well, in this case the cook did know the meaning, she just never had to deal with it herself. She was wearing her usual attire, except with the addition of a snowy white apron. Three long white tails swayed gently behind her as she kept at it, preparing more and more food while displaying a level of multitasking that could be considered impossible. And it was usually. It was just that cooking was a special exception for this person.

Itori would have been humming to herself, if it wasn't for the fact that she knew very well what would happen if she hummed and somebody happened to hear it. She really wished she didn't have to pay attention to whether people could hear her or not every single time she was alone and she was doing something which would normally be accompanied by humming or other small sounds. She was used to it by now, so she didn't have to fear accidentally slipping up, but it would have been nice if she could just use her voice from time to time without worry. Well, it wasn't the first time she had thought that. It wasn't even the dozenth time. Honestly she couldn't keep track of how many times she regretted being born with her voice. It was truly annoying and she was very determined to find a way to deal with it, one way or another. Even being mute had to be better than having a voice but being unable to use it. The fox girl shook her head quickly. She knew better than to truly believe that. Having to be careful with her voice, lest something went wrong, was still much better than being completely incapable of ever speaking. It was like comparing something particularly frustrating with something utterly awful. And Itori should know, since she had played the role of mute many times in her life, and as an illusionist possessed a notably strong imagination and ability to change her perspective (both being an absolute must if you wanted your illusions to be believable).

At least it didn't actually interfere with her love for food. Although that in itself made Itori wonder sometimes. From what she could see she was pretty much a typical Kumiho. She preferred illusions and deft manipulation over outright conflict, she looked down upon the simple brutes, she had a talent for dealing with spirits, and she was significantly more beautiful than any of the humans that surrounded her. Yet at the same time she had been given a metabolism which allowed her to eat as much as she wanted without ever feeling full, and a hunger which matched that endless hole that was called her stomach. She had yet to encounter any creature, be it Kumiho, human, or some kind of giant beast, that could match her gluttony, because everybody else seemed to have normal stomachs with a limited volume. Itori didn't have the faintest clue why it was different for her, but she couldn't resist the hunger, and eventually she had learned that it was better to learn how to satisfy her stomach to the best of her ability than to be annoyed at it. So when she learned that the Sabertooth guild hall had a particularly good kitchen and that most of the time it wasn't in use she was nearly ecstatic. Of course she had to make way if somebody else wanted to make something, but most of the time the fox girl had complete control over the place, which meant she could keep on making new dishes (mostly for herself, although she was also willing to give anybody who wanted anything a large amount of food. And her sisters automatically got as much food as they needed). Even as she was cooking she was already eating some of the previous dishes she had prepared, creating a continuous cycle of eating and preparing more food to be eaten.

It was during this that she heard somebody approach, soon after which Miyuki entered the kitchen. The fox girl smiled at the girl before returning to her cooking. She wondered if the girl was hungry, so with one tail she pointed towards some of the dishes that were lying on a nearby surface, indicating that if Miyuki was looking for food she could grab one of those. Miyuki might not that while there were countless different dishes, every single one seemed to have some kind of meat in it. Itori was as much of an omnivore as humans, meaning she could also eat plants, but she had never really been able to enjoy plant food as much as actual meat.

One might wonder where Itori was getting all these ingredients to satisfy her hunger and desire to cook.

When Miyuki said that she needed Itori to look at something for her the fox girl looked at the female half of the twins with raised eyebrows. That didn't happen very often. She knew Kaede didn't like her, and Miyuki didn't seem the type to ask for help like that. Well, she didn't mind helping, and she had to keep up the image of compliance anyway. Making sure that all the food that was still being prepared could take being neglected for a bit Itori turned towards Miyuki and bowed, heading over towards the human girl and looking at the objects that Miyuki wanted her to inspect. A book which looked like it had seen much better days, and a lachrima meant to record sound. Itori had once tried recording her voice and letting somebody listen to her like that, but it seemed that her curse wasn't so easily defeated.

Hearing Miyuki comment on her ability to cook and her appearance Itori smiled at the girl, reaching out and gently petting her on the head as a comforting gesture, before returning her attention to the two items. First taking the book Itori quickly flipped through it, her vulpine eyes scanning the contents. Her eyebrows slowly lowered as she realized what she was reading. A woman had been possessed by something, and the fact that an exorcist got killed trying to help her it wasn't your average demon that managed to get inside a human. Then again, it was a human exorcist. Who knew how good those actually were at their job. They could just as easily have been lucky with their first demon and thought themselves skilled. Well, that didn't remove the fact that this possession sounded like a serious one. Giving Miyuki the book back and taking the recording lachrima. Listening to the contents the fox girl's frown only became graver. That definitely wasn't your average demon. As little as she thought of most humans a whole squad of Rune Knights wasn't an easy opponent. For a demon to be able to take them all out, toying with them as if they were naught but little mice... Itori looked back up at Miyuki, her expression more serious now as she began to draw words in the air, a vermilion line following the movements of her finger so Miyuki could actually read what she had to say as the words hovered in place. As one would expect from Itori, her writing was very refined and cultured, like that of a woman of extremely high stature and nobility. It wouldn't do to have one's writing look like that of a brute, after all.

'This definitely is a case of demon possession, and a very strong one if neither the exorcist nor the Rune Knights could do anything about it. I don't know what else to tell you about it, except that I know none of the people involved and haven't encountered this story before. How did you acquire these items?'

The last question was quite important. If it simply turned out to be some horror story Itori would be much happier. If it wasn't...

It's only been a few days since she first arrived at the guild so Aleta was still pretty new, and had to deal with some D-ranked jobs but things weren't to bad she liked taking things easy but she wanted a bit of a challenge but she couldn't do any c-ranked because she didn't know anyone who would be able to take her and she doubted not many of the guild-members had trusted her or anything but all was swell for Aleta right now in Saber tooth she was sure that she would be able to make friends quickly in her new guild. The black-haired girl had strolled through the halls the guild was rather empty figuring that most of the members were out on jobs trying to solve someone else's problems. Sighing Aleta figured she would check the job board again to see if she could take some other D-ranked job she didn't take already. On her way to the board Aleta spotted a boy almost similar to her age standing alone in the hall. Deciding to be friendly Aleta had approached him giving him a friendly smile and a eager wave. "Hey! whats up dude?" Aleta had asked simply her smile growing.

Itori nodded in confirmation when Miyuki asked whether she really could grab some of the food. Itori had been preparing it all for herself, but there was enough that she did not mind if others also took some of it. One of the important parts of being a cook, even if she trained to satisfy her own stomach, was that you could also make sure that the people around you were well fed. That and from Miyuki's behaviour the Kumiho got the idea that showing kindness and being helpful would drastically improve the girl's opinion of her. Unlike Kaede, who was not doing a very good job of hiding his view of her (maybe he wasn't even trying to hide it. Either way, his opinion wasn't very positive) his sister seemed to like her to some extent. The fox girl wasn't sure why, but if she had to guess it was largely a side effect from the fact that as a Kumiho she was a fairly entrancing figure to most humans. Anyway, being nice towards Miyuki should reinforce the positive image, making the girl more inclined to return the kindness which would make future interactions go smoother.

While Miyuki took some of the beef jerky Itori had prepared the fox girl continued studying the two objects the human had brought to her. The broken story that was told by both the book and the recording lachrima was a rather grim one. It wasn't the first time that the Kumiho had seen examples of what demons could do, so it wasn't as shocking for her as it might otherwise have been. However it was still alarming. She thought that the humans of this land had managed to protect it against demons, but it looked like the demons were a bit trickier than that. She would have to take that into account in the future. She also remembered that encounter with the dark mage who had sold his soul to a demon... The Kumiho frowned as she went through all the implications in her head, at the same time listening to Miyuki with one ear (that ear was in fact turned towards the girl). From the way that the girl was talking she was only thinking about the current situation. It was only Itori herself who was thinking further ahead. Well, that was to be expected. Humans knew about demons but they only saw them as monsters from another realm. As a Kumiho Itori had a lot more motivation to think about demons and how to deal with them.

Miyuki got both the book and the lachrima from a box which was sent to her through the mail, and from the way she talked the box hadn't contained any information about who it might be from. And as Miyuki pointed out she didn't know anybody aside from Itori herself and Mashyuu (and her brother, but that goes without saying). Itori didn't know a lot about Miyuki, but what information she had suggested that there was no reason for the girl to be famous enough that people would sent her things like this purely because they hope she would be able to solve it. If this was sent to her the sender had some motivation more sinister and suspicious than that. Worst case the demon who had possessed the woman had found some way to gather these items and use the mail, hoping to catch another victim. Although even then the question would be why Miyuki of all people was chosen... Miyuki said she didn't know anybody involved, so why was she the one who received the box? Was the box just thrown into the mail, the sender expecting it to end up in the hands of somebody who could be lured into the claws of the demon? Her tails swayed behind her as a lot of thoughts went through her head at the same time, trying to figure out all the possibilities. She only interrupted her thoughts when Miyuki spoke about quickly beating the demon up, at which point Itori's head snapped up and she looked at Miyuki with a serious expression. Shaking her head she began to once again write in the air, a bit faster this time.

'Do not underestimate demons. This demon was capable of resisting and killing a known exorcist, and toyed with an entire squad of Rune Knights before killing them. If these items were an attempt from the demon to lure more victims to its lair that confidence would be your undoing. We can not leave a demon be if we know where it is located, but we shall be treading carefully. Demons are tricky creatures. I will try my best to counter any tricks it has prepared for its newest victim, but even so do not expect this to be easy.'

With that Itori returned to her cooking, grabbing a sausage and gnawing on it as she made sure known of the stuff that had been on the fire when Miyuki entered the kitchen had been burned during her absence. Satisfied she finished the current batch of food, then finally stopped her cooking as she instead focused on eating pretty much all of the food that she had been preparing so far, which was as already mentioned before enough to take at least a week of gluttonous eating to get rid of otherwise. As she talked she wrote more in the air with one of her tails.

'I have dealt with demons before, being a spirit mage and a Kumiho. During this mission you should listen to my advice, since I doubt you or Kaede have encountered any demons before. I will not try to boss you around, but if I realize that the demon is trying something I would ask of you to listen to me and not ask too many questions. This is an entirely different matter from dealing with thugs or fighting slavers. You and Kaede know strategy but your knowledge is simply insufficient. Demons don't follow the same rules as human opponents.'