Jiyu was a very nosy female by nature. If you were not nosy and eavesdropping for information on things next to all the time? Than all the good stuff happened without you being able to get in on it! Kazehime was not the kind to be left out, especially now that her body had been healed by her transformation into a half demon, and she was also not one to never be up to something. Today, just for an example, she was not scheduled for a shift within Silver Moon Inn, yet the wind user was in her mostly modest dress uniform, the apron tied tightly around her waist, attracting stares to her elfin ears and canine tail. When she had noticed their was an opening for her to go to work, despite not being assigned to it or even really needing to? The wind mage had done so, since she could not find any interesting jobs today, not on the board. Notice the reference was only to the board? In truth the wind mage was working today in a bid to distract herself from doing something insanely stupid. Jiyu was lying every single second she said that she had not found anything interesting over the last few days, because in fact she had been hearing very interesting rumors, the kind that if someone figured out what was going on, someone would have to notice the person who fixed everything! Over the last week or so? Rose Garden had started buzzing with words of mysterious spirit like flames appearing near the outskirts, people vanishing and showing up as corpses with no marks on them, the very next day. In many ways? It was a very concerning series of events, that someone should do something about, however the citizens looked to Black Rose for everything and would seemingly never act unless the Guild told them to, trusting the mages to take care of everything that needed done. Normally? Kazehime would have jumped on something like this, the chance to be a hero once more by catching some murderous criminal who was taking advantage of people who only used magic for cute little effects, those who did not have the power of a real wizard! However she had heard the word ‘fire’ very clearly, and that was what concerned her the most, no matter how much she wanted to climb the wizard ranks and do better within the magic world? Jiyu did not know if she’d ever be able to beat fire, it brought her to her knees and frightened the life out of her, and why shouldn’t it, flames had taken her mother’s life and she’d been tortured by fire for the better part of two years! Anyone would have to be truly sadistic to send her on any sort of mission involving fire, sick and twisted in ways she did not think any of her Guildmates were. Of course the half demoness had never gotten the chance to get to learn about Iza yet, if she had the female might suspect something like what was about to take place to happen!
“Jiyu, this is for you, apparently it’s from Izayuki.” it was the bartender on duty who spoke, with this expression of blank curiosity, looking at her as if he did and yet at the same time did not want to know what the Guildmaster requested of the young magic user. In the males large hand, a small envelope eblished letter sat safely, his thumb keeping the wind from blowing it away and yet not holding it tightly enough to cause the girl any trouble taking it. When the head of your Guild sent you a letter? Whatever was contained within was not really the sort of request to be refused, and she only prayed that the task within was trivial, going to another town to fetch an item or something, just anything not pertaining to the fires that had been spotted at night around their home town! Honestly the teenager would do anything that could be requested, maybe even up to being a whore or stripper, just so long as it did not involve fire, she wanted nothing to do fire. The last time she tried to beat her own fear? She embarrassed herself in front of Magna, and she didn’t want to sink any lower than that, especially if it was something involving the mother of black rose.
“Fuck!” and yet when she opened the letter and read the neat tiny pieces of print? It was exactly as she feared. I have noticed your activity and effort within the guild, and your recognition as a Rising Star within the kingdom of Fiore. Screw that! The wind mage started shaking right away, skin paling even further as she bit her tongue with razor sharp fangs, nearly swallowing her own pooling blood, before she remembered what blood did to her, and she went over the closest sink to spit it down the drain and wash her mouth until the bleeding stopped, so she wouldn’t tripper that lust that happened with the power boost given by consuming blood, even her own. Actually thought? It wasn’t all that bad when it was her own blood triggering it, but she didn’t want to go into that sort of state period right now, in front of other people it would be damning. Of course, she got weird looks for rinsing blood from her mouth like this, but it was worth avoiding losing it in public. Once Jiyu was sure she happened to be safe from swallowing blood? She gulped down the saliva that had pooled nervously in her mouth, cold sweat dripping its way down her form. “I think I hate this woman.” and she was referring to Izayuki, grumbling up the request paper and tucking it into the shorts she wore beneath her dress. “I’m taking off shift early.” not that she had a legit shift, but she still let them know before hanging up her uniform, cursing out the Guildmaster within her head the whole way. Once this whole thing was over? She might send an arrow at Iza’s head or something, oh that would be delicious, taking off that cursed womans head for making her face fire! The thought made her chortle, and the other girl in the room changing looked at her weird, causing Jiyu to blush and insist it had been nothing. After transforming into a half demon? She’d had several dark thoughts like that from time to time and it was always distressing when she realized such devilish ideals actually felt pleasing to her existence.
It was several hours later when the wind mage finally got around to even starting to task assigned to her. Most of the empty time? Was spent talking to the families of those who had went missing, and generally people who knew them. From what Jiyu knew of the world, there was always reasoning besides something like this, some sort of thing that would help narrow down her search field from the whole forested outskirt, to some limited area of it. Most of her questioning? Turned up nothing that would give her one location! However she did find enough to narrow it down to several trouble zones. The first of these danger-zones? Was an forest old path near the cemetery outside of town.
Jiyu had chosen to check out the forest path first, her tail swishing from side to side as she walked along this path. So far, she had been lucky enough to not run into a single flame or anything resembling one. In the dark, she saw well as day due to having a dog's senses, no light or flame of her own to attract the attention of the monsters that had been draining people here. However all the peace and thinking nothing was wrong ended abruptly when she stepped on a branch, breaking it, recoiling from the splinter that got lodged in her foot, plopping down onto her short clad ass. “Damn it.” as she removed the splinter, causing a thin trail of blood to trace down her foot? She suddenly heard something, and felt heat race by her race. “SHIT!” and then before she knew it, there were numerous flames dancing around her, the fur of her tail standing on hand as her breathing picked up and the panic settled in. However she quickly noticed something was wrong with the fire, just as she prepared to use some sort of anything to make it go away, to fight it to death. When she went to combat with it? Her demon’s aura peaked, affecting the demon flames, they knew she was a more powerful demon and her aura bit and clawed at them, making the flames screech in agony and slowly extinguish, showing the humans they had once been before dying. Something that turned demon after its death? Could never beat the aura of something born half demon, even if she had been dormant most of her life. Thus the first trouble zone was easily dealt with.
The second danger zone was one where an ancient fight had taken place, one of the sides being tortured for days before the opposing force finally ended them without mercy. Honestly, the ideal of that cursed fight? Set her on edge, and she did not like walking into the small clearing where even grass refused to grow. Why had people come here anyways? The wind mage saw this one as stupidity on civilization part, this place should be a memorial, not some random clearing that people barely knew the story of. Heck, she had to dig to find out what happened where she stood, and that was not good! For someone focused on keeping her mother’s memory alive, the fact people could forget the dead so easily, irritated her. “Why was this place never marked in anyway?” she had no fire sensor or such, so she did not see the creature right behind her, rearing up, until she spoke, when it fell back to the side of several other’s hiding in the area. Her words? For now had intrigued them, and the tortured furaribi, those aimless flames, did not see reason to attack her yet. “You know what? I don’t care if it happened hundreds of years ago, I’m making a stone marker anyways!” the spirits recoiled when she shouted that out, some of them moving forward, other’s backing up, none of them quite knew to what to make of her words, and she had not sensed them, nor seen them. Jiyu picked a stone at the border of the clearing, and bent before it, calling the wind around her hand for hurricane paw, gingerly using it to soften the rock, before forcefully dispersing it and using her claws to carve the rest of the words. “I don’t know any of their name-” it was then that pale flames cast themselves against her flesh and Jiyu recoiled in fear. However instead of attacking her? The first of the lost souls slammed itself into the rock, it’s flames burning a name into the stone, the other’s soon following its example. For some time? Jiyu sat there, fear having overtaken her body, eyes staring at the new memorial stone “I guess they were the spirits after-all, just mad about being forgotten.”
Kazehime now thought to get up and head to the third troubled zone within the forest surrounding Rose Garden, it was a simple spot, an old fox den, where people claimed a several hundred year old fox had been killed by a hunter in the last few weeks. Right away upon finding out their info? Jiyu had been concerned, after two hundred years, any fox turned into a two-tailed kitsune, it was a well known fact, well rumor really. Thus a kitsune had been killed at the den she now crouched in front of, her frail hand feeling along the base of it, finding the moss lining fresh despite it’s old and slightly burned appearance. Clearly? Something was still living in the den, and the sight of several chewed items that looked as if they were for teething of some sort? Confirmed the mages fears, so she got out the blindfold she had brought along. If it had been the foxes mate avenging her or something? This would have been easier to deal with, she’d have asked another Black Rose member for help disposing or relocating the fox. However the tiny paw prints, the small bite marks, it all told a story much sadder than a couple being separated by death! Jiyu needed to do this, and if she could see the fire, than she would not be able to, so the wind mage tied the black blindfold around her head, feeling fear take a hold of her form. Sitting there for hours like that? Was torture, you could see it, heck the blindfold was moist, but it was the only way she knew to prevent herself from running or shutting down when the fire appeared, and now she could feel the flames dancing around her. “I know what you are, kitsune.” she heard an angry snarl, and she could almost see it rushing at her, with its dancing flames. How had she gotten herself into this?! Jiyu somehow managed to do what she initially intended to, hugging around the beast's neck as it’s fangs nearly pierced her shoulder and chest area. Clearly? She was terrified of the kitsune and its flames, but the fire started dying down as she held the kitsune around it’s neck, fingers dug into its fur and massaging against its skin. “This won’t bring her back.” a choked sob came from Jiyu, trying to regain her composure as she felt the fox move, pinning her down with it’s paws instead of trying to bite her, hot breath bathing across her face. What the wind mage was doing? Happened to be incredibly reckless and dangerous, the fox could kill her whenever it wanted and she would never see it coming, oh gods she always swore whoever killed her would have to stare her in the eye as they did it, but! “You can kill as many of them as you want, but your mother will remain dead.” it seemed this ticked it off the beast and it reached up, Jiyu extending her arms to force the monster against her chest, preventing it from biting her once more, hugging it. “She died leading him away from you didn’t she? Protecting you. If you keep this up, they’ll come back to try and kill you. Do you really want to insult her love for you like that?” the kitsune suddenly seemed to calm, and she could hear sobbing, hand swiftly removing her blindfold. For the first time? She got a look at the fox, small and gorgeous, clearly a child like she suspected, just another child that lost her mother like Jiyu had, both their mother’s dying to protect them. “Don’t worry, you're not alone, i’ll be your family now.” just like Black Rose became her’s, she’d become this fox's mother from now on, even if she feared it’s flames, she could power through somehow. No one else? Would understand what it was like to have the most important person in your life die to protect you, she knew, this fox needed her.
“Come on, I have one more place to check before we can go home tonight~” she cooed it, standing up with the about foot tall and three foot long fox dangling in her arms, cradled like an infant, before it climbed onto her shoulder and they continued into the forest. This time? Jiyu was going to a recently made logging site, where most of the corpse’s had been found, and oddly most of the bodies were woodcutters! Thus she suspected whatever was killing people here, might actually be the tree’s protecting themselves, meaning they were older tree’s with guardian spirits and the logging operation would have to move, or everyone would die. “If These Tree’s Are Protected I Want To See Proof!” she shouted it out, eyes clenched shut and fists balled, she couldn’t take anymore fire tonight, and yet it was flames yet again, the wisps dancing and dropping from the tree tops. Crap! She suddenly hit the ground, shaking, the kitsune jumping forward trying to bite at the flames, causing them to retreat back to the treetops, not seeing any real threat nor a reason the girl had shouted for them if she couldn’t stand the sight of them. Several hours later? “That’s a kitsune!” the first shift arrived and noticed the fox before they spotted the rising star “What does black rose want with us?” they asked it, backing up slightly as Jiyu walked forward, flicking her hair behind her shoulder, as her new pet leaped onto her shoulder once more, snarling at the men. “Stop the operation, your comrades have been dying because these tree’s are protected by flame spirits, your losses will stop when you cease” that was enough for the men, and they ran off afterwards, leaving Jiyu to slide down against on of the tree’s, removing the fox from her shoulder and holding it above her head, watching it squirm cutely. “That’s our job done.” she laughed slightly hugging the vulpine who yipped happily and lashed it’s two tails in delight. Later on when she had the strength back in her body to move? She would go attempt to murder Izayuki for this, making her fight fires all night long. "To think none of this would have happened if people did their research first, huh girl?" the fox curled up in her lap, and Jiyu tilted her head back up towards the sky, deciding she might take a nap before returning to the guild and telling Iza she was done with the job. So for now, she stared up at the clouds above her.
by Guest 19th August 2016, 2:31 pm
