Commotion in the Garden | Jiyu | Private |

Neyvahn sprinted across the slippery shingled rooftop ten stories off the ground. Ahead of him at the end of the roof's peak, another building was spaced across a gap about ten meters wide. The silver haired mage sprinted low and planted his foot against the edge, launching off with as much energy as he could. He leaped high and fast, but it wasn't fast enough. With enough force to cause a whole lot of internal bleeding, Neyvahn's stomach hit hard against the ragged concrete ledge and he was forced away from it, falling towards the solid ground ten stories below him. On the way down, he reached his hand out and grabbed a hold of a windowsill two floors below him. His arm yanked hard, barely able to stop him from falling as his body scraped against the bricks, whose ragged surface felt no better than the ledge.

Upset and annoyed, Neyvahn growled in his throat. "Ugh, dammit!" He pounded his free fist against the pale red bricks. Another failed jump. That made nine this time. Neyvahn carefully made his way down the windowsills on each floor and collapsed on the ground, groaning as his magic sluggishly healed the internal damage his stomach sustained.

"You're relying too heavily on your legs, brother," Kei observed as Neyvahn finally got off the ground onto his knees. "If you coil up the slightest bit, then you can exert more force and make that extra foot of jump distance."

"Yeah, I get that. You told me plenty of times." Neyvahn lifted his shirt to see that the torn and discolored skin was already starting to heal back to its healthy state. Slightly disappointed, Neyvahn straightened his clothes and started walking back towards the guildhall. He was done for today. After another week or so of conditioning and training he'd try again. Neyvahn turned the corner and made his way onto one of the busy streets, crowds of people going in and out of the grand buildings surrounding the brick pavement.

Despite being a high ranked mage and a half demoness? Jiyu spent a remarkable amount of time on the ground, some people prefer the roofs to traverse and bypass normal speeds achieved in cities. However most times the weak bodied ace aired on the side of caution, after-all for her falling from that height would be incredibly painful, due to how fragile her body was compared to other demons or high power mage’s. Kazehime knew better than to even try to push her body after all the training she had done on her magical abilities, she was fairly sure her form had no ability to get stronger anywhere, but at least she could kick someone’s ass now, even if she couldn’t make them let go of her! That was something she would have to fix, she’d have to develop spells to force people into letting go of her, because being held by another, against her own will, that could never be allowed to happen. The thought something like that could still potentially happen, caused her to break out running down the street, her fluffy tail waving behind her as she weaved through the crowd, maybe pushing herself slightly, but she didn’t care. How could she still be weak enough to not have thought about keeping people’s hands off her?

It was maybe thirty minutes later when she finally stopped, panting as she placed her hands on her knees for support, breaths heaving to catch up with her activity. “HELP!” the scream hurt her ears and brought her attention swiftly, whirling on her foot as she tried to see what had happened. Several feet away, a woman was laying down, as if she had been pushed, so Jiyu started from there. Kazehime bent down next to the fallen citizen and aimed to help her sit up gently, one hand on the middle of the womans back, looking down at her. “What happened?” once she assessed the woman was alright, the mage pushed for more, aiming to get whatever this was done with swiftly. “I was robbed!” that was all she needed to hear, passing the woman off to someone else nearby, the robber now had a head start on her. However with Jiyu’s senses she’d likely catch up without much problem, the inu starting to sniff around the area to decide which scent she should follow.

Neyvahn continued walking along the street, his stomach nearly fully healed. A healthy pale peach color covered the area of his belly that was torn up just a moment ago, and no signs or pains of internal bleeding remained. However, Neyvahn couldn't say the same for his mind. His physical abilities were not up to what he had wanted them to be. His speed, his endurance, his strength... none of them compared to the others he has witnessed, and they were nothing compared to that damned bakedanuki. The way she taunted him, mocked him, toyed with him... all because she knows he can't stop her from doing it. Neyvahn tried once... it was actually the first time he had met her. After taking down a sand golem in the crystal plains, a little before Black Rose relocated, she had gone up to him and pointed out everything that he did wrong... pointed out how he used up too much energy. How ignorant was she to believe he could take something that massive down without using everything at his disposal?

After criticizing his fighting style, she actually believed that she could just walk away without another word. Of course, how was Neyvahn to know that she was just going to toy with him like that? It was humiliating. Ever since then, Neyvahn made it his point to avoid that vixen. All she did was bring bad news.

"HELP!"

Neyvahn was forced out of his mental rant as a woman shouted out for help. At the same time, he could sense some unusual movements in the previously river-like fashion of the crowds: one figure running much faster than the rest, while another figure was stopped about 5 meters behind him. The stopped figure, probably the woman who had yelled for help, was 10 meters to Neyvahn's front. Another person went up to check her and help her up. By now, the running figure was 10 meters from the woman... but only a few feet away from Neyvahn. The sneaky purse thief zoomed passed Neyvahn and kept running with the stolen goods.

"Hey!" The silver-haired bakeneko growled, giving chase. The thief was fast, but Neyvahn still had the advantage on that, running 10 MPH faster than his target. However, the thief was using a much less conventional route to get away, climbing up the side of a building using protruding bricks in the masonry and ledges in the design. Neyvahn just groaned. Doing something like that required ridiculous fingertip strength to keep a grip on such shallow ledges.

Nonetheless, Neyvahn gave chase and followed as close behind as he could, sometimes using his magic to morph the ledge and make it easier to grab. Sure it was kinda cheating, but since when should he play fair against a purse stealer? The thief had made it to the rooftop by now with Neyvahn about six feet behind him. The struggling mage continued to climb when he sensed another off figure in the crowds below him. He looked down to see a vaguely familiar face from the guild. It was a newer one, with dark hair that had orange highlights to it.

He couldn't remember her name, but it looked like she was going after the thief as well. Whether she would follow them on to the rooftop, or stay on the thief's tail through the streets, she would probably lose sight of them at some point if she didn't have something to follow. Neyvahn waved her down and tried to get her attention, then shouted his words as clear as he could. "Follow my aura! I'll stay on him!"

Neyvahn didn't stop for another second to see if the mage heard him or not as he finally made his way onto the rooftops. Once he got up there, he regained a visual on the thief and gave chase.

You could determine lots of things from how something smelled, the direction someone was going in, how swiftly they were moving, gender, age and many other things were carried in the scent of someone if you had a nose sensitive enough to find those traces. Jiyu contained that sense of smell alongside a dog’s instinct to hunt down it’s prey without mercy, relentlessly until it would eventually get her claws into whatever she desired. Kazehime barely noticed anything beyond her nose locking in on the scent she desired, a trail that had the overly perfumed stench of the woman whose purpose had been stolen. Since the woman was still behind her? The smell was from the item, so she could follow that trail to find her target. The inu slid her hands together, feet coming to each other’s heels, sparking her paws to life, body crouching to stand on all fours, with her paws active she ran far faster. Even if she was faster than any mere civilian due to her status as an a-ranked mage? The half demoness wished to be safe, ensure her victory, it would not look good for her if she was to suddenly not be able to take some common criminal into custody for any reason. Short of her own death, she was going to get this man, turn him into the cops and return the purse to the woman. However she was willing to share the spotlight if someone else happened to join her self motivated ‘heroics’ of sorts. Cause make no mistake, it didn’t matter if she wanted to help or not, the half demoness was doing this for the recognition it would get her from any onlookers that happened to be around, that was her only motive!

She noticed the other mage as she drew closer, catching up so swiftly as she inhaled the scent of the other magic user, realizing he was one she often smelled around her guild. So two roses were after this guy? That worked. However she could not let anyone besides Iza or one of the other Aces show her up, certainly this man was none of the above, so she had to beat him to actually capturing the villain, win this unspoken match. Kazehime was one of the sorest losers around. It was far too risky for her to tread upon the roofs with them thought, this battle did not require her to take that sort of risk, not yet anyways. While she was unable to follow their exact path and had to take some detours, she knew the city well enough by now to keep pace perfectly.

The purse thief did not even know that the canine was there, running alongside the buildings with her sharp clawed paws hitting against the stone pavement, making small clinking noises. To anyone passing by? Jiyu was merely a blur against the scenery, zipping around in an attempt to find somewhere to throw herself into the turmoil of this chase. Considering they were on the roofs and falling from up there with nothing to break her fall, would hurt and may even prove deadly with her weak body, she couldn’t recklessly charge up there and pursue the thief like her guild-mate could. However what her physical form lacked, her cunning and magic power made up for almost perfectly. This time that theory proved true as well, Jiyu was slightly ahead of them when she spotted a cluster of trash cans and one dumpster that almost looked like stairs especially when combined with a low hanging fire escape. Kazehime went right for it, leaping from one perch to the next almost as if she was teleporting due to the short distance. The chase continued, but she was still this time, crouched on the fire escape platform and waiting to spring when her guild-mate would chase the thief by.

Hind leg’s pushed off as her front paws extended, claws latching onto fabric. The sudden extra near hundred pounds given by the five foot mage leaping onto the criminal? Was enough to send him falling towards the ground, Jiyu using his body to take in the shock of the fall and minimize damage to herself. “Gotcha.” however there was no way she could take the purse back, keep him down and arrest him at the same time! Her body was too weak, she had to pick one, so she’d keep him down for now, it wasn’t like she was alone here after-all. “Heya. Mind helping me with him? I can only really keep him pinned.” her own inability to complete things irked her, everything she did had to be so indirect or with a partner. Why couldn’t she be strong on her own.

Neyvahn watched as the purse thief was tackled off of the roof, sent toppling to the ground. Although out of sight, the silver-haired bakeneko could hear a loud thump as the poor bastard hit the solid ground. "What the-?"

"... Was that the mage we saw earlier?"

Neyvahn slowed down, walking to the edge of the roof and looking down to the dark alleyway below. Sure enough, the semi-familiar head of black and orange hair was flipping around above the motionless thief. "I think it's safe to say so." Neyvahn looked a little closer and noticed that the thief was just motionless, straight up frozen in place. Limp. Well, the little knave did fall from at least two stories up with an extra person's worth of weight in tow. A bit harsh to be honest, especially for a petty purse thief.

With a few quick descending steps, Neyvahn finally made it to flat ground. Sure enough, the thief was out cold. He'd probably stay that way for a few hours or so, judging by the force of that fall. Neyvahn was actually pretty surprised he was even breathing at the moment. Nonetheless, the yokai's attention was drawn away as the semi-familiar guild-mate asked for his assistance.

Before he could respond however, Neyvahn was immediately disproved of his earlier guess as the thief startled himself awake and flailed around, trying to break loose from the small mage's grip. With a quick solid punch right to the temple of the thief, he was out cold again. Neyvahn picked up the purse and held it out in his hand to the little girl. "If you want to return this, I'll keep the rat from running."

Jiyu barely added up to the weight of another person, most adults were around 100 pounds of over, if she was lucky the wind mage weighed one hundred pounds soaking wet! So it was an achievement for her to knock the thief down as she had done, her tail wagging at her achievement, sharp fangs showing beneath her very pale lips. However when the man woke up and started squirming once more, the small mage was no match for him, weak as she, Jiyu was easily thrown off into one of the nearby walls. Yet this time there was no giant kitty to catch her, so her body hit and it hit hard, making her yelp as she crumbled to the ground. Some of the guild was aware, but since she had not interacted with this male much, he had no way of knowing.

Kazehime was a powerful mage sure enough, but her body was anything but strong, in fact her physical form could sustain major damage from just falling down. Being thrown off by someone? Did more than that. The female sighed out, blood flowing down her mouth, both arms scratched up where they had hit the wall, her back looked the same way, and she had several marks on her legs. "Y-Yeah I'll return it." it was much more damage than anyone normal would have endured from such an impact. Jiyu was just glad to see the thief was down and thus would not take another swing at her. The wind mage moved forward to take the purse from her guild mate, flinching at the pain moving caused her, biting her lip from the agony of moving her arms.

Neyvahn was a bit dense and oblivious. That much was obvious. However, it didn't take a rocket scientist to notice the pain that the mage in front of him was going through. Blood at the corners of her mouth, and no doubt there were some scratches the girl was hiding. However, all that was almost invisible compared to the biting lips and the flinching. Neyvahn pulled his hand back, keeping the purse just out of the mage's hand when she went to grab it. "Hold on. You got scraped up a bit..." Neyvahn knelt down and placed the purse on the asphalt. "If you want, I can help. It's just a little magic."

When the purse was removed from her range, ability to grasp it and finish what she'd started? The young mage looked shocked, tilting her head slightly, wondering why he had behaved in the way he did. However he clearly soon enough flat out stated why he was not just handing the item over to her and leaving things go at that. Why did her body have to be so damn weak?! "I get injured easily, these aren't major." they hurt like hell and no normal human would have sustained them from the impact she had, but she was used to it by now. The only time this didn't happen? Was when someone caught her before she could hit the ground. "I'll let you, if you promise no one ever hears about this." she could imagine someone over reacting to her current injuries, and she couldn't have that. Promises were also something she'd have to treat carefully eventually, considering she was an Inugami.

Neyvahn just chuckled a little. This little mage seemed quite picky about who see's her less bubbly side. After all, that did seem to be a common pattern every time he came across the girl. Bubbly, happy, and yappy... kinda like a dog. To see a more careful side was kind of refreshing, good to prove that ignorance did not run deep in her.

The bakeneko nodded his head, the silver tail behind him flicking back and forth like a flag in the slight breeze. "I promise. No point in telling someone about it anyways." Neyvahn knelt down in front of the girl and placed the purse on the concrete. His magic was based solely on a molecular level of telekinesis. Instead of healing or repairing the wound, he was moving everything back into place. It would tingle a bit afterwards, but the pain would die down very quickly. "Now this might feel a bit weird at first, but bear with me. It'll only take a few seconds." If the small mage allowed him to place his hands a few inches from her wounds, then they would glow with a faint blue light. Skin would move and shift, slowly mending back together. Blood would be cleared of its impurities and moved back into the girl's body. Only a second later, all of the injured areas would be good as new, only a subtle tingling remaining for a few seconds afterwards.

If someone did not interact with Jiyu many times over she did seem a little too bubbly or maybe a bit naive or ditsy, maybe reliant on other's as well. However that was only one side of her to be seen and it was a small part! Most of her actually was not that way, she was brutally clever, she had problems trusting people, she hated being left alone, and she had so many traits that combated each other, yet she managed to peacefully exist somehow. Truthfully it was very hard for her to interact with people every day, despite the fact she did so. Jiyu's personality was no where near stable between the way electrical fields were often messed with and the inugami within her atop the trauma she had endured.

"Good-" she watched as he set the purse down and than processed the fact he would touch her to heal her. Instantly she shifted in the way she was regarding thing's, his hand was on her arm before she could stop him, get away. The ace was terrified, you could see it clearly and anyone with a good sense of smell would have it overwhelmed by her fear. All ney had done was touch her, but you'd think he was holding a knife to her. The male was helping her, and she did her best to keep that in mind. "GET OFF ME!" suddenly she reached her breaking point, arms pushing out to shove him, not that she could make him stop touching her, Jiyu's body was too weak to even push a non mage over. It was when she stumbled backwards to force the contact into breaking that she realized what she had done. "I- I'm sorry it's not you, you didn't do anything wrong, it's just-" she was terrified of men touching her, unable to finish the statement due to the memories flooding through her head, filling the space behind her wide trembling eyes. Jiyu leaned against the wall, before moving forward to pick up the purse, her body still shaking as she held one arm with the other, the purse dangling from her other hand. "I guess we should take him to the police station and give this to them to return."