Let's Play A Little Game;; Job

This sounded like it would be a very a fun game. When was the last time she had truly played around with anything? Even when every single day was about surviving to run further away than she had been before, Jiyu had still taken the time to make some diversion out of everything, generate entertainment for herself straight out of the mundane of everyday drag. However after starting to walk down the path of a legal mage, it seemed her recreational activity had come to basically a stand-still, halted and just never got picked up. It just would not do! Jiyu could not survive without playing her games,m they were part of who she was, just because her body was weaker now, it did not mean she was incapable of winning against the strong. Honestly? She had never exactly fought fair in terms of strength anyways, she used her honed cunning in order to give herself an edge, one that otherwise would not have even existed for her to find. Kazehime leaned back in her booth, using a fork to idly play with one piece of meat, her other hand holding up the newspaper once more, it was rare for her to read world event’s, but today she was happy she had chosen to. After going through so many missions that all played out the same way. Jiyu was becoming unbelievably bored, entirely fed up with the identical way every single one of her days played out. She had enjoyed being a run away so much in the past, not because she was escaping, but because everything was interesting. The demoness was not willing to give up an interesting life in exchange for power, but she really didn’t have to. “How should I play this time~” she just had to devise a new game off this information she had. Jiyu knew important men like the Father were often surrounded by numerous guards and such, so the first objective should be to negate those people. However fighting was not on the list this time, so she’d have to make it to him peacefully or fail. All of that would work, make it to the holy man and convince him to listen to something she said, without killing her due to her half demoness blood. Perfect.


It was never fun to play any game on your own thought, you always needed more players besides yourself. Normally? The ‘enemies’ within her games were enough to keep her sated, but she was more experienced now, if it was just herself against one force, than it wouldn’t even be sport, everything would become so easy. Kazehime knew she needed someone to partake in this pastime with her, someone to pit herself against. However this person would also have to be someone she trusted to play by all of the same rules, and someone who would actually have a chance of winning the game. If she were to play against someone who could never possibly beat her? Then there was no point in playing the game to begin with! The challenge was why she enjoyed this form of entertainment, so the female rocked on her heels, staring at her own reflection in the mirror, trying to think of someone she could challenge to her new game. After several moments of just swimming in the inkiness of her brain, the half youkai could only come up with a single name, one mage that met everything single one of her requirements. Having made her choice of opponent, the female sat down on her bed, leaning over to the nightstand, opening it’s drawer to get a piece of paper and the only pen she owned. Soon enough, she was writing out the letter of challange.

Dear Leila,

You won’t believe how bored I have been lately, everything is running the same way and that’s never any good. You heard about Father Ibáñez going to give a speech somewhere in Minstrel, right? He’s always surrounded by so many people and it gave me quite the wonderful idea! Defeating enemies takes more than just power and honestly it’s no fun to use pure power to solve everything, and it seems that’s all we’ve done together. Well today we’re going to do something different, you're going to play a game with me. The objective is very simple, reach the good father within the embassy, however you can’t fight anyone on your way there or it would be an international scandal, so you have to make your way to him without being caught and without fighting since we’re not official guests waiting for an audience. Once one of us has reached him, they must explain the game and convince him to let them stay by him until the other arrives. Best of luck~

-Jiyu

Who would she challange to such a scheming match, expect for her best friend, truthfully Leila was the only choice of opponent she had and the only one she wanted. Jiyu couldn’t even hope to challenge the feline whose bed she was thinking of sneaking into, she sometimes suspected he’d find loopholes to her rules, and she didn’t want to face someone like that. When she played a game like this one? It was for sportsmanship, a fair match that told her if she needed to improve herself swifter or if her current training pace was working. “Maka, you're going to run this over to my friend Leila, alright?” she coiled up the parchment, slipping a rubber band around it, before retrieving a bow that she used to tie it onto her kitsune’s neck. While she was wary of Koto coming onto missions with her currently, due to the kitsune’s young age, she had no issue allowing her to run errands to help her feel useful, especially since traveling between towns was often not dangerous unless you sought out danger.

With her mistress's command, the little kitsune leaped out the sole window in their room, running down the tiles and leaping to the ground, coming out the alley. Makoto would then run towards the nearest method of traveling to the Aces current location, this delivery would not be hard, since the kitsune would not have to seek out information on Leila’s current location. The twin tail just hopped she got the letter to the phoenix in time to let her have an even standing within the game her adoptive mother had laid out for the two mages. “Leila.” her soft yip came out as she started scratching on the eden mages window, barking in an attempt to get attention and finish delivering the letter.

Around the time that Leila would be receiving her letter, Jiyu was almost entirely prepared to set out. The first task she had accomplished? Was making sure she looked nothing like herself, by this point in time she was easily a recognizable face or name to anyone who knew about the world of guilds, so to be on the safe side she’d be using a fake identity for part of this mission. “Man, I forgot how different I can look when I need to~” she looked at her own reflection in the window, short blonde hair, blue eyes with freckles going across her face, businesslike attire wrapping her well formed body. “This disguise should do well for now.” she needed to get her hands on some transformation magic eventually, but that was something that would come into a role later, right now she had to make due with what she had. With everything finally in place for a disguise, the wind mage walked out of the SilverMoon, drawing one of her feather’s to use for transport.

2847 words total.

Makoto was never too pleased when anyone apart from Jiyu simply picked her up and manipulated her physical form, but she put up with it quite often. While she disliked other people at her core? Each day she lived with her mistress only served to help her recover from the trauma she’d endured, adjust her temperament so that she could one day function normally in society. Once upon a time she had believed herself one to live feral for the rest of her life, but then the wind mage had swept in and changed her whole life. The fox did her best to repay what had been done for her, allowing the eden mage to treat her like some common pet by caressing her head, a small sneeze emitting from her maw as she aimed to leap into the room to escape the slightly chilled temperature outside, after all she was only an infant when kitsune’s were considered. Maka crossed the room swiftly over to Leila’s bed, scrambling up onto the surface on it, tucking herself mostly under the blankets. If no one would be occupying this bed for a while anyways due to her owner’s game challenge? Maka saw no reason why she should not take advantage of the warm sheets. Her sharp eyes watched, waiting to see if Leila would actually engage Jiyu in this little bout of sport, making a small noise when she was pat once more, rolling her foxy eyes over the fact she was being treated like some mere animal by this white haired magic user. Finally the gears began to turn, and the kitsune was free to begin her nap, the one she’d take in Leila’s room before returning home if Jiyu had not come to fetch her by the time she woke up.

Delicate finger’s buttoned up the pure white shirt, careful with the ironed out fabric, hand smoothing it down. Currently her biggest issue? Was the twisted, frightening smirk on her face. If she couldn’t shake that expression before heading out, someone would see through her for sure. Jiyu was one who frequently played around with games like this, events that relied on stealth, deceit, lies and a good dose of intelligence. However she was some time out of practice, having relied on her rapidly increasing magical power instead of her cunning, that would have to stop in all conditions soon enough, yet it would be enough for now if she proved herself still capable of successfully pulling off something like this. Mostly, Kazehime wanted Leila playing against her because she knew if the Eden Mage suspected something had gone wrong then she would drop her half of the game to swiftly assist, there was no real risk involved here. “Now than, which one this time?” her nimble fingers worked on pinning her ebony hair up so that it would be entirely out of her way, several wigs laying out on her bed, humming in the back of her throat as she walked over to them. “I guess this and blue contact is appropriate this time.” skillfully she secured the wig with a few more pins, so it would not accidentally come off, reaching into the top drawer of her night table for the contact set she kept there, blinking in annoyance as she assigned the blue one into her pitch green eye. Someone who went through all this when they could just use transformation magic? Certainly had too much time on their hands, but she didn’t really care. “I’ll have to develop transformation magic when I return from this thought, all of this is getting too tedious, I mean I went from human to demon, I should be able to change my form somewhat.” she doubted she could do something like morph into a bird, but changing her humanoid appearance to whatever she wanted, that shouldn’t be an impossible task for someone with her skill. Whatever she chose to do later, she had to get going now or she would lose to Leila, the wind mage did not like losing, so she was going to do everything possible to make sure that didn’t happen.

Trouble would not be optional for this mission, so as she mounted her feather outside of her own window, Jiyu started thinking of ways she could make more hardship for Leila on this, way's to hold up her friend, yet keep her close enough to save each other if something went seriously wrong. Doing such a thing would take a good deal of tact and skill, but she already had several ideas on how to accomplish her goal to keep her opponent distracted enough to ensure Leila could not possibly take first place. Careful to remain unspotted, she landed on an airship coming into Minstrels port, saving the fee to board and looking more normal than if she had landed in the middle of town on her feather. “Welcome To Minstrel, If Your-” she didn’t need to listen to it, blocking out the nuisance noise as she exited slowly from the ship, keeping pace with everyone else who was doing their normal thing, she even went through the trouble of following the masses somewhere, looking for the perfect victim for her first stunt. Jiyu had stated they needed to negate all obstacles, she would not cheat by using her trump cards yet, she’d play it fair, starting to way her friend would likely have to. For now the inu could only wander around looking lost with her tail spray dyed blonde, and her elfin ears hidden beneath the wig. “Are you lost miss?” Jiyu mustered up the most stunning close eyed smile she could to the officer who spoke to her, watching as he blushed slightly and nodded as she “Yes Officer, I’m looking for the musketeer’s? I have a parcel for them.” she took a letter out of her blazer pocket, watching the cops eyes go down to it, he nodded to her, offering his hand, which she took trying to hide her reluctance and displeasure to be holding his hand. “We’ll have to take a few detours due to how hectic the city is right now.” so she followed him around, until she had also seen fourteen other cops with canines and guns, getting by them without trouble thanks to her blue escort.

“Here we are ma'am.” the officer bowed slightly as he offered her up to a female musketeer, Jiyu looking at the red haired woman with a smile, nodding to the cop in order to let him know he could leave them be now. Kazehime waited patiently with the minstrel mage until the cop had left them alone, making her move now that there was no one around to contradict her or call her a liar. “I’m a mage contracted from another country to help with the screen process to make sure no one bad gets in during the father’s visit.” she had noticed other mages walking around the entry as if they belonged there, and thus Jiyu correctly assumed that Minstrel had called in outside help “Alright follow me.” the female nodded and walked alongside the other mage, continuing onwards until they were back at the ship port. “Thank you.” jiyu moved and gave the other woman a hug, one hand reaching into her pocket, replacing an identification needed to get into the government building which houses the father, with the letter she had showed the cop earlier. Quickly enough the minstrel mage took her leave, finally leaving Jiyu to do what she came here to do, reach the father before Leila could.

It was so intoxicating to just walk right into the embassy as if she belonged there, all from flashing one simple non-photo id card. Honestly? They were stupid for not putting pictures on those things, but she could have changed herself to look like the other girl too, so even if they did have photo’s, it would be no trouble. Kazehime walked around the building just as if she belonged there, even taking a detour to the lunch break room and brewing herself a shitty cup of tea or coffee, she couldn’t tell which it was, before heading for the final stretch. Of course with her canine sense’s, avoiding people entirely in order to make her way to the father’s room, was no trouble at all, done easily and happily.

Wouldn’t the holy man be shocked when a young girl opened his door only to close it behind her, and press her body against it, giggling slightly, looking up at him with giddy eyes. “I win~” she had reached him first, leila was nowhere to be seen in the room, only one confused and rather irked religious man. “Oh sorry Father, I should explain. You see I was awfully bored today so I challenged my friend to see which one of us could reach you first. I mean no harm and will even guard you until she arrives and we leave. I’ll also tell you exactly how I got here so easily, maybe.” she sat down on his couch, lifting the cup of poorly brewed liquid to her lips and sipping on it as she sighed out, waiting for Leila to arrive. Honestly even in this room, she looked as if she was someone who belonged, a business consult called in or such.

3894

She was sitting in the room with the good religious father, they had been sitting there in an awkward tension for hours, yet he proved to be a good man by not calling security on the blonde sitting before him, unknowing of her true status as a member of black rose and a half demoness. Honestly? Some people in this world could benefit from being more doubtful, thought she was starting to see it was impossible to stretch this visit out much longer, despite being a kind man, the father was very private and did not appreciate her presence. Jiyu kicked one bare foot and sighed, noticing she should have brought some shoes for this, but she couldn’t bring herself to put any sort of footwear on, she’d been going barefoot for years now, it wasn’t about to change not even for her acts. Her blue optics stared down at the cup in her hands again, this being her fourth cup of poorly crafted beverage from the lunch break room, the liquid was really wearing on her, she wanted something with real sweetness, but she had to stay here waiting for Leila. “Damn if I knew she sucked this much I wouldn’t have challenged her.” another sip of her steaming drink and a puzzled look from the holy man sitting at his desk diagonal from the wind mage, Jiyu shook her head to let him know she had not actually meant to speak, but had just happened to let something slip against her own will, regretted that she had pipped up. The preacher went back to doing his best to ignore the annoyance and temptation sprawled across his leather couch. Actually the leather was the only thing making Jiyu uncomfortable, being as she was an animal and beasts must have been skinned to make the couch, she felt dirty for laying on other animals killed only for a piece of furniture. Before long, the sensation of corpses against her flesh was too much, even with the modest way she was dressed right now, sliding off the couch to lay against the carpet which was synthetic, thus not her fallen brethren. Kazehime lay there for what seemed like hours, sighing at the swirling ceiling, rolling about his floor and arching her back from time to time in order to keep it from locking up on her, kicking or throwing long limbs for the same effect.

Suddenly her elfin ear twitched beneath the perfectly secured wig, hearing someone shout about how someone was ‘under arrest’ as if something had disturbed the peace of the embassy once more. Jiyu sat up slowly, moving her body into a crouching position “Is she here finally?” the inu stood up, brushing her clothing back to a presentable manner, not even worried about being the one under arrest, for she knew her disguise was good enough for this. Kazehime ventured into the hallway, walking it’s long spirals with her bare feet, until she finally came to the place where the commotion was emitting from. Sure enough, her friend was laying there, pinned to the ground by swords and other such things, getting taken into custody. Geez this had become more troublesome than she predicted, Jiyu considered how to solve this problem without violence, for the game was not over until she and Leila met up, even if the eden mage had clearly lost. Finally she walked forward as they were trying to find some magic canceling cuffs or something, smiling curtly and cocking her head to the side passively. “You men will have to forgive her, she’s my business partner here for the meeting today, but she’d unconventional and maybe even crazy, here’s my identification, I’ll take her from here.” the armed guardians for the good Father seemed to not entirely believe her, but considering they had spotted her getting coffee several times and no one had arrest her, and she had proper Identity Proof as well, they had no reason to actually disbelieve her. Thus leila would be allowed to get up and be shoved none to nicely towards the disguised wind user, who extended her arms to catch and slightly hug the eden mage. As soon as the guards were out of earshot? “You sure suck at this Leila” her victory should not even need stated at this point, so she didn’t speak about it, but instead offered her hand with a bright smile, aiming to lead the other girl to the window as she used the other hand to start undoing her blouse, reaching into her bra for one of her feathers, tossing it out the window and tugging on her friend to jump out after it. Since they were both present, it was time to get out of here. The feather expanded and Jiyu’s feet touched it, legs buckling to make her kneel on the object, small content smile on her face, as she turned around carefully in the small space, scooting closer to Leila and shaking her empty cup of coffee or tea in the poor girl’s face. “You, owe me dinner at a nice cafe, the stuff there sucked and I spent all day drinking it while I waited for you like a good girl.” it was a deep rumble coming from the base of the canine’s throat, blue optics sparkling. “But first.” the female sighed happily, finally sliding the blazer and blouse off her body, letting them fall through the air forgotten, because she’d likely never need them again and these days she had the money to buy a better set if she needed it. Now, the female was left in only her bra top, which was trimmed in lace style hearts, colored a pale pink all around, with the lace being white. “I couldn’t tolerate that shirt.” and apparently her skirt had to go too, the professional looking skirt joining the rest of the outfit, revealing the slightly baggy boy shorts she was wearing, hands finally removing her wig and hair pins letting them fall down as well, ebony hair tipped with orange finally flowing in the breeze. “Much better.” she finally looked almost normal, reaching into her bra once more to take out her contacts case and start working on getting her blue contact out.

word count met.

“Oh come on~” her face put on that pout expression, halfway between her own features and the appearance of her disguise, considering she was already trying to shed the layer’s she’d bundled her appearance in. Jiyu aimed to poke Leila once in the center of her collar bone, cocking a sweet little smile and swaying backwards. “Everyone has the potential for stealth and cunning.” she had turned from the most innocent and unsuspecting hometown peace village girl, into the person she was today, anyone could learn the skills she had honed for survival. Only, she could remember how badly she sucked at deceiving people or even hiding her true intents when she first started doing it, once she had been so transparent, she missed being like that, but she also enjoyed playing with these skills. “I can teach you, a mage shouldn't have to rely on large spells all the time, it always ends with a bang, but the longer you hold off the explosion, the sweeter it is and the less worn out you become getting there.” honestly that was the female’s reason for doing things the way she did them, sneaking around and always trying to get the first strike, Jiyu couldn't last otherwise with how weak her body was, and once she had been the weakest person on a ship full of strong men. Despite how kind the crew’s she used to work with were? They always tended to look down on her unless she could somehow cunningly gain the upperhand on them, so she had learned to do it, in order to earn respect, because she would never be second best when she could avoid it. “To be honest, I’m just a brutally sore loser, so I work to make sure I never lose. You really wouldn’t like me when I lose.” the wind mage sighed softly, looking back at Leila as her fingers worked on buttons. “Honestly I used to bite when the other village kids would win a game against me, and years on ships playing games with sailors didn’t help, games are just my thing.” she laughed at her mention of how she used to be a nippy little puppy as her father had sometimes called it, sad look passing her face, suddenly longing for the days when things had been that simple.

Suddenly, her friend was no longer on the feather and she reached forward, nearly falling off herself trying to ‘save’ the eden user, horror flashed across her face when she was too late, and she jumped off her feather, the object shrinking. If it was not for her wind’s protecting her by wrapping her body and controlling her own fall? Jiyu might have ended up seriously hurt, her body was not strong as Leila’s was, in fact they were opposite ends of the spectrum, but she could care less, tears leaking from the sides of her dual colored pools, Kazehime was on the ground seconds after the other girl. Only, she didn’t stop to let Leila finish righting herself, rushing over, tears flowing down her face as she aimed to wrap her arms like vines around the other girl, dig her sobbing face into her. “D-d-don’t leave me. Never do that again!” you could hear the tears soaking the other girls outfit, her strained, stuttering voice announcing them clearing. Sure, she could see that leila was fine now, but it didn’t change the fact she felt like she had almost lost her again. Even if the other mage tried to shake her off, the wind user wasn’t letting go, fists buried in the coat, claws nearly ripping holes in it, but she didn’t give a single damn. Slowly, the face of the distressed half demoness rose, softened to more like when leila had first met her, back when she didn’t have her demonic strength to hide behind. “It’s not stupid!” her voice had hiccup’s laced in as her face stained with salty tears, the smell of it making her nose scrunch up. “Please, don’t, never again. I can’t lose someone again.” she had never really directly mentioned it, not honestly, never stating just how frightened she was of losing those she loved, or why it scared her so badly. Jiyu’s hand’s aimed to slide up to Leila’s shoulder’s, moving to fall against the taller mage again, her tail tucked between her legs as the sobbing came back. “I became a mage so I wouldn’t have to lose anyone like that ever again, so I could protect the people I treasure, so don’t go doing that again!” one weak fist would aim to punch the other girl in the shoulder as she backed up slightly, stumbling and falling onto her ass, hugging her knees to her chest in shame and averting her head. “I know you're fine, but-” it didn’t change the natural dread she had felt when she watched her fall, nor the fear she felt when her mind thought she might lose the other girl, logic did not have any place here, not right now anyways. “I can do a lot of things, but I can’t lose someone again, not because of something I did or the way I exist. We’re walking the rest of the way to the dock and taking the airship, I can’t fly.” it had only taken one thing to chain her wing’s down for the moment, frightened gaze looking up at Leila, like a child with the body of a full grown woman as she tried to suppress her sobbing. “I know it’s stupid but-” she let her sobs trail off into a soft laugh at her own stupidity, falling backwards onto the soft grass, looking upwards at the starry night sky, frown marring her beautiful features. “This is just how I am, damaged and concealing it all under the power I can amass. So don’t do something like that again, don’t leave me alone.” she would like to say something threatening, but she didn’t have that much malice in her yet, hands reaching up, looking at her own claws and flexing those finger’s to watch them move.

word count exceeded

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Jiyu had been hopping to skate around Leila’s confession as being forgotten in the near meltdown that had taken place after it, and yet it seemed things did not go that smoothly for her. It was hard to figure out how to respond to the other girl’s feelings, between not wanting to lose Leila and her own inexperience with heart’s, how she had shut her own off for several long years. Kazehime just didn’t know what to do, it showed on her distressed face, mouth slightly open as she than bit her own lip, tucking her head into her knees, forehead pressing painfully against them. “This isn’t different from how I normally dress.” it was a dog’s pouting whine, as she struggled to comprehend, brain whirling and the gears overheating as her water leaking face peered up once more. “If I hadn’t done it the wind would have torn it from me shortly after” would Leila have preferred the sight of her clothing being torn apart by the wind, angry that it would not feel the flesh of it’s wielder.  “I can’t-” she couldn’t deal with this, her eyes were frightened and she hid in herself as she tried to think logically, but failed to do so. What were you suppose to do when your best friend was in love with you? Yet you knew that your heart did not belong to them, and were somewhat in denial it belonged to someone you’d thought of hating forever the first time you met them. Jiyu had figured out by now that she loved Marschal, had for some time, yet she couldn’t figure out any good way to be honest about it, especially since there was still so much she had not directly told him. Could she even have the right to love someone if you couldn't tell them about your past.

The chance to meet that voice who had caused their last rift, tried to force her away from something treasured. Honestly? Jiyu had wanted some way to get her claws at the dark voice that came from Leila sometimes, once she became aware it was someone else entirely from her friend. The eden mage should never have to share her body with such a little monstrosity! It was secretly one of her goals to get at the entity who likely resided inside of her friend, and rip it out, slaughter it without mercy, it was one of the true times she had the pure urge to kill, except for her desire to murder the man who burned her mother alive. When the white haired girl struggled to speak, Jiyu put back on her own mask, standing up, ready to face the darkness inside her friend, return it full force with her own malice, knowing full well by now that Leila would not remember after the voice faded. It came out, and was greeted by darkened optics deep as the forest and vast as the ocean, filled with hatred for it, fangs glinting out from beneath her slightly opened lips, ticked off little smile telling only of a desire to hunt, purely a predatory expression of a true demon. “Your first mistake was trying to take her away from me.” she spoke as she listened, her aura flaring up and causing several small animals in the woods near them to scurry off in fear of the demoness. “Your second was believing you can ever win against me, I don’t lose. You'll be the one suffering for trying to harm Leila, your death will be slow and agonizing. She will get a happy ending.” the canine sharpened her glare, eyes detecting the shifts that started to tell of Leila herself reappearing, tears resuming their rightful place as she no longer needed to be strong in the face of the malicious entity within her friend, body shifting back to the ground before her friend could really come out of it all the way. Back where she was when leila had said the other being wanted to come out for a while, pressing play where pause had been hit.

“Leila you have to understand.” her hand lifted to the one caressing her cheek, lacing her fingers through it with a rueful smile on her tear stained face. Truly it was a touching scene, but there was more than fluff here, it was something that had needed to become clear for a while now. “I Am A Dog Demon, a very dominate one at that.” her hand would spread slightly, before clenching, glad her claws could do no actual damage besides for potentially inflicting second long stinging pink lines, likely not even that much on her strong bodied friend. “If I meet this girl who's been emerging from you. I will move to kill her and I will do so without mercy.” she would actually be able to do it this time, last time she had risen they were angels, entities unable to be really killed, this time would be different. “You are part of my pack and she’s made the mistake of trying to bring harm and pain to you” she went to move her hand to leila’s cheek’s, cup both of them with a bitter smile, laughing slightly as she looked up. “I suppress my instincts a lot, if I go with you, there will be no suppressing them. I’ll go but you have to know and accept that fact.” she figured that leila would have no problem with it, but she had to make sure that even if Leila saw the side she had so far only showed to the dark voice, her friend wouldn’t change how she viewed her.

There was so much to happen yet, and right now she felt as if she was held still in place by the stress of everything yet to actually take place. If she couldn’t make her own body move? How was she suppose to help Leila in the gardens? If she was keeping secrets of sorts, how was she suppose to really let someone love her. Jiyu didn’t know any of it, and worse yet, there was a huge part of her existence she had no idea about as well.