Can't back out of a request from family. [Exam]

The tanuki yokai's reason for landing at the Raging Volcano was really vague- to explore, and to experiment. Izayuki had been here more than once, but her prime reason for seeking out the place was for none other than her craving for fun. She had been experimenting and toying with her unique tsukumogami leaves in many different environments and terrains. The myth said that suck magical youkai objects were indestructable, but her being the Bakedanuki she was, that had to be proven. Naturally, she could have just had Irina or Magna or some fire mage help her, but they were limited by their own strength and ranks. She was going to enjoy playing with her leaves in the volcano instead. Well, that was the first reason she was here.

The next two were less shifty, the second being for a bit of training. She had failed in her fight against Black Rose's former guild pet, C.A.S.S.I.E., a giant robot built to destroy. Somehow, the mech had gone berserk and destroyed their entire guildhall, killing many of her guildmates in the process. The Glacier God Slayer's magic had been rendered completely useless against the S-rank summon, which easily went to prove one thing- she had to get stronger. It was now her duty to defend her guild, and the responsibility was much more than before, with claiming the position of guildmaster. The robot had used bullets and explosions, fire, essentially. So what better place to train her ice magic against fire than in the volcano?

The third reason was much simpler- rumor stated that a treasure lurked deep somewhere inside of the earth's furnace, or in simpler language, the volcano. Mages and treasure hunters would be flocking to the place in hopes of finding treasure. That was good- hopefully, Izayuki could find a few worthy challengers to train on. She had been subtly eyeing different people who were making their way through the volcano, and following them in a sneaky fashion, disguising her appearance as small animals, rocks, air, flames, or anything, really. It was good practice for her shapeshifting, but finally playtime appeared to be over. Remaining invisible, Izayuki watched as a ruddy-haired mage took out a group of non-wizards. He did not kill them, but put them to sleep for at least a while. Ambitious, it seemed, to get his hands on that treasure... he would do just fine.

It was only moments later that Izayuki recognized the man's scent as familiar. Tracing through the different smells she memorized, the canine realized it aligned close to Elyx's ever so familiar smell. With her keen tanuki and slayer senses, she was able to identify quite easily, yet this person was not Elyx, but someone else. With that in mind, could he be a relative? It would make sense, after all, as family typically somehow seemed to share a general scent. Activating her ability to see souls, Izayuki closed in on his, plus something else that she could not identify. The latter was not too uncommon among people sometimes, Izayuki included, as she had to deal with all of her pesky Wonderland spirits. The signature of his soul, however, appeared to be very similar to Elyx's as well. Family, no doubt. Of what relation, she really could not know, but maybe she could find out.

Were she in physical form, she would have allowed a sly grin to form on her expression. Her form was literally air right then, a risky shape to shift into, yet very effective for what she was doing. The only reason she felt fine using her air form for so long in the volcano tunnels was because there was no wind to separate her, which would make her transformation to another form not impossible or messy, simply excruciating.
A quick and somewhat cruel plan coming to mind, the devious Bakedanuki allowed herself to shapeshift again. This time, however, she took the form of none other than Elyx Reiaki. Typically, she despised transformation into individuals she knew, or males, but this would be quite worth it. With her perception manipulation, she could mimic his voice and tone perfectly. All physical and magical aspects of Elyx would be mirrored to all. Naturally, she was unable to use his magic or match his strength, but illusions worked just fine if she needed them.

Moving towards the stranger who seemed he would be quite entertaining, the false Elyx, Iza in disguise, approached him with a calm expression. Having been around her boyfriend enough, she could almost perfectly replicate the way he held himself and his calm demeanor- every little detail counted. The hard part would be trying not to laugh if the man fell for her Bakedanuki deception. "That was not very nice," she said, matching his tone of formality as best she could. Izayuki wanted to continue, but would wait for the reaction to feed her more information and fuel to feed off of. Right now, she was testing the waters, so to say, and hoped this stranger would at least be a bit of a laugh. Did she regret what she was doing? Not as much as she should have, most likely. Her instinct was undeniable, and she could only act true to her nature when it came to wanting her love for entertainment and playfulness satisfied.

With use of her Glacier God Slaying magic, Izayuki was able to negate the heat affecting her body both with her ever so subtle Freezing Aura, and her casual Bakedanuki Resistance to such effects and harsh elements. The human, on the other hand, did not seem to be having so much luck against the searing air inside of the active volcano. Hopefully, she would be able to play it off as the form she had assumed's own immense strength. Luckily, Izayuki was able to completely conceal her magic, so it was unknown to those around her of what her real power was like, or what element it could possibly be. Completely in Elyx's form and appearance with her transformation skills, Iza continued walking forward until she stopped a few meters away from the man.

The art of transformation and deception was a tricky one; would she be able to at least act believable, and like Elyx? She could only hope so. He was introverted, yet clever, and held a strong air of formality and politeness around others. He was structured, and adhered strongly to whatever rules were out there, yet at the same time, was quite adventurous and daring in his own way. Or at least, that was how Izayuki perceived his personality from his demeanor and words alone. She could be completely wrong, but was not going to risk too much while she was 'performing'.
What took her by more surprise was the fact that the man had called her, as Elyx, 'little brother'. Did Elyx have a big brother? Izayuki could not remember him ever speaking of one, and if he had, well, she typically remembered such details. He talked as if he did indeed have a specific goal in that volcano, which led Izayuki to assume it was for the rumored treasure resting somewhere inside. Elyx's guild, Golden Phoenix, was a treasure-hunting group, after all. The tattoo of this person suggested he was from the Rune Knights though... how curious.

"It's not that," she explained, carefully choosing her words and continuing to mimic Elyx's voice. The actual verbal performance was one of the hardest parts, yet she was certain that she could do it, and eventually master it. "The real reason you were sent down here was so you could face off with me, in a simple challenge. I want to see how long you can last against the power of a Guildmaster and a Wizard Saint," she said, going out on a limb with the deceiving words, while also hoping that they made sense. If he questioned them, she could simply attack right away, putting the conversation at a possibly indefinite halt while their actions spoke louder than any words. Hopefully, that would not be the case, and he would simple fall for her sinister lure. Heck, Izayuki did not even know his name, but was doing her best to pretend to be familiar. Blinking brown eyes, she awaited his answer, a calm expression on her mask.

Izayuki had not realized that the treasure chest was directly above them. But noticing him look up, she gazed out of the corner of her now-brown eyes upward at the 'hidden' treasure. So that was what Elyx had sent Hero to do, and there was the rumored treasure of the Raging Volcano. She had no idea if the Golden Phoenix guildmaster had hid the chest there, but Hero seemed to guess in that direction, so she could play off of it. Giving a shrug, Izayuki put on a laidback smile in her disguise, the tanuki prepared to respond. He was giving Elyx for being clever? Well, he was not wrong. After all, the former Black Rose Ace of Leaves had been very fond of puzzles and games, it seemed. He had not changed in that aspect.

"Of course," she said in a casual, laidback manner. Elyx's speech pattern was almost hard to mimic, it being so 'average'. That in mind, she just attempted to play it cool, and keep going until he officially noticed something fishy. So far, at least, she seemed to be doing a fairly good job. "But now comes the real challenge; get past me to get the treasure."

With those words left hanging in the air, Izayuki activated her ability to fly- her single wind spell, to move up towards the treasure chest, behaving as if she was ready to defend it. Elyx was rarely one to attack first, she had observed. It would make more sense for him to go on the defense, which was what she decided to do. That, and he surely would not make a task impossible, so there were other ways to get to the chest without directly fighting... maybe. Either way, this was shaping up to be quite entertaining.

It seemed that her trick would not last as long as she had wished. Hero had rushed at the walls and was attempting to skirt the obstacle, his fake relative, who was flying in midair. The Bakedanuki's focus was elsewhere, though, as she recognized a familiar scent almost instantly. After all, it was the scent of the one who she loved and was committed to more than anyone, so it was not easy to miss. A grin formed on the fake Elyx's face as she slowly began breaking character, knowing her chance at continuing her facade was ruined. As expected, her fiance made a grand entrance, and naturally, the first words out of his mouth were directed at her. As soon as he let his angry question hang onto the air, awaiting a response, Izayuki slowly began to remove her disguise. Out of her form of being Elyx, silver ears and a tanuki tail were the first to appear, beginning the transformation. Part of this was done on purpose- after all, who did not look adorable with mammal features, especially her own? Followed by fangs and short claws, Izayuki continued shapeshifting. The change was so fast, that one would miss it if they blinked; brown hair growing longer and changing to a light pink hue, and the figure itself growing smaller- not to mention the clothing change from Elyx's normal outfit to loose-fitting pants and a long-sleeved black shirt, her own comfortable style. For the last bit of the reverting to her human form, brown eyes changed to a bright pink, familiar to the young mononoke. "How was I supposed to know this was an exam?" the tanuki girl asked with a pout before allowing a sly smile to reform on her features, only to continue on with a laugh. "I was only having a bit of fun~"

After completing her yokai transformation, Izayuki cancelled her wind spell and landed gracefully on the ground before Elyx, her attention more on the other guildmaster than the other man, at least, until he spoke up again. With her large fluffy tail waving back and forth behind her, Izayuki turned towards Hero and gave a rather satirical half-bow-half-curtsy, despite such motions being foreign to her. "Perhaps apologies are in order for the earlier deception, but don't hate a poor Bakedanuki too much for just doing what they're good at," she began with a shrug and widened grin, closing her eyes for a moment before re-opening them, crossing her arms, and continuing. "The name's Izayuki Hyoujin, Guild Master of Black Rose, and fiance of your 'big brother', if what you stated earlier is true~"

Elyx's complete and purposeful ignoring of Izayuki made her subtly and casually turn and walk away from Hero, as she finished her introduction, and attempt to affectionately hug and lightly hold onto him from behind. Her chin resting on his shoulder, she would continue to gaze at Hero with a smile as Elyx talked, and finally, his 'brother' responded. From the sound of it, it seemed like her boyfriend had plenty of tricks up his sleeve as well, when sending his family member on the adventure into the volcano. She grinned even more as he mentioned ‘idiot’ girlfriend and apologizing for her. No, that was not quite the case, but after the larger man replied, Izayuki would add in her two cents.

“I can apologize for myself, thank you very much~” she began with a chuckle, despite her earlier apology having been barely there. If anything, her actions contained little to be forgiven for. She had been training her shapeshifting, and had challenged a stranger, but had not hurt him in any way- only confused and deceived him, which was her primary goal. With Hero’s statement of it being water under the bridge, Izayuki would attempt to hug Elyx a little bit tighter. “See? No harm done~” she continued gently and warmly, her voice laced with a sincere innocence, for once. “Besides, I didn’t know it was an exam, and from the sound if it, it looks like your ‘brother’ didn’t really know either. We can’t read your mind, y’know?”

Hopefully he would not fight her anymore on it. Coincidences happened, and would he really continue to blame her for just training an essential part of her being, even if it was on a relative? Her goal was to gain information, which she had done, so she had been successful. Izayuki had not hurt, disrespected, or defamed anyone, for a change. Honestly, she really had been trying her best. What did he have to say next to attack or harass her? If he was not ready to let it go, she was curious as to what it would be. That, or would he try to run off again? There was no reason for it, if he was thinking about it. She, at least, was not trying to go against him, but civilly explain herself. If anything, it was an improvement from months ago, when she would be hotheaded and quick to argue, and get the last word in. It was nice to calm down a bit from those days; peaceful, even. “Nice to meet you too, Hero, and congrats on joining Golden Phoenix~!”