KALANCHOE ♦ exam for kaisto

Why did she never write letters? Well, the answer was simple; Izayuki had terrible handwriting, and always had. She failed to ever improve, and if one thing could trigger the usually happy-go-lucky Bakedanuki, it would be mention of her horrible, illegible handwriting. It was because of this that Seika was the one in charge of handing any letters to be written. Izayuki could check boxes and leave her signature, but the small hybrid yokai, Seika, was normally the one who wrote what the guildmaster dictated.

This letter would be sent to Kaisto Tyreal, a mage who had worked hard to prove himself over many months in terms of power and loyalty to be considered a C-class wizard of Black Rose.

"Kaisto Tyreal,
It has come to my attention that you are ready to become a wizard of C-rank status in Black Rose. For one final challenge however, you must pass the following exam. There is a giant black-furred feline with bat-like wings that has been stalking our home city of Rose Garden at night. This creature has been labeled the 'Bastet', and has taken enough lives. Please track down the beast and bring it down once and for all. The methods you take are up to you. You have 48 hours to complete this task. Don't die~

Sincerely,
Black Rose Guild Master, Izayuki Hyoujin (& Seika -.-)"

So formal, right? Izayuki thought so, at least. Hopefully it would be a letter even Elyx would be proud of... heh, sure. Unlikely. On the topic of the exam, however, surely taking down the Bastet would not be too hard. At the very least, she had given him the best tip that she possibly could have, at the end of her paragraph.

Ruminal woke up early before most like usual. He went on his daily morning routine of walking out to a nearby area that seems fascinating to him and begins to draw it as best he can. Landscaping pictures were his specialty after all and Ruminal's been working on this one for a few day's now. After a couple of hours he packs up his stuff and makes his way back to the guild for breakfast. Ruminal took a seat in the back of the bar area seemingly the first person to show up for breakfast this morning outside of maybe 1 or 2 other people. It wasn't long before Kaisto walked in seemingly preoccupied with a letter held up to his face. Ruminal has seen Kaisto around from time to time and has even engaged in some conversations with him but has never really worked with him as of yet. Ruminal thought he was an ok guy but still doesn't know a whole lot about him.

It wasn't to long after that Ruminal had finished eating and went to turn in his plate and started to make his way to the door. Before he could walk through the door however Kaisto yelled out for him. Ruminal already one foot out the door stopped and turned with a confused expression on his face. "Uh, yah? I'm here. What's  up?" He replied. Ruminal couldn't help but think what exactly he need him for? It sounded urgent but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what.

Ruminal listened very carefully to what Kaisto had to say. He figured the letter Kaisto had earlier was about this task. Understanding full well that this was Kaisto's exam Ruminal's help would be limited as in he won't be able to do this job for him. This was an exam after all for Kaisto, it would be his skills and knowledge that are to be tested. In this sense, Ruminal would indeed be the perfect person for this considering he was a support mage. Over his few years of life Ruminal has indeed learned a lot about this world and his own but has never heard of this Bastet. It would be a new experience for the both of them it seems.

"Sure I can do that. I've studied tracking and have familiarized myself with most of Fiore by now. However I should probably mention that, this is an exam so my help will be limited. So in order to keep this in line I will follow your instructions but if I feel as if you can handle a situation fine on your own, I will step down. Agreed?" Ruminal replied. The thing that really convinced him to cooperate was the fact that Kaisto wasn't treating Ruminal as a child but as a fellow guild member. Most people look at him and see him as a child, but very few see him for what he really is and what he's worth. "So where we heading too? Where are these attacks happening at?"

Kaisto said his thanks and suggested that the first place they should start there investigation should be the morgue. "No problem and the morgue sounds like a great place to start. We can get an idea on how this beast fights and maybe see if we can't get the locations of all the victims on a map to see if there's anyway to track where its hiding." Ruminal added. He was also concerned about the goddess's strange behavior as well. Being part god himself, he couldn't help but wonder if she had lost her way. Maybe Ruminal could be more useful then either of them currently know.

Kaisto went on to start packing for the trip while Ruminal stood by the door waiting patiently. Ruminal watched as Kaisto packed some water, food and other small supplies before walking up to him and offering him a notebook. He offered it as a way for them both to jot down there own thoughts on the subject and possibly find a alternate means to subduing the goddess. "Thanks but I'm good. I have a photographic memory. I'll be fine. This way I can better help through hints rather than spell it out for you." He said with a friendly smile followed by him sticking his tongue out as a friendly tease. "I'm ready to go when you are." He finished saying as he began to walk out the door.

Ruminal didn't do much of anything during this time outside of sitting back and observing. Each body indeed looked like they were ripped to shreds by a large beast. Kaisto did a good job of asking the right questions and noted everything the morgue employee had to say on the subject but something still seemed off to Ruminal. He was pretty sure Kaisto was thinking the same thing after he was done writing everything down in his notebook but Ruminal had one more question to ask before they took off.

"This question may sound a bit strange but, did each of these victims have anything in particular that they were carrying at the time? Like something you normally wouldn't see on a person or something that stood out more commonly with each victim?" Ruminal asked. "If so do you still have these things sitting somewhere around here? Or perhaps a name of someone who came to pick them up and where to find them?"

The coroner had to sit and think a moment but he did have something to add to the subject. "Yes actually there was something I've noticed that stood out from the others." He said before turning one of the bodies over to reveal its back. "As you can see this one here has a tattoo on his back. All the other victims had the same mark in the same spot." Ruminal examined the mark more closely, The tattoo seemed to be some kind of letter or symbol from a culture he wasn't familiar with and in the middle of it was a cat's eye. It might be some kind of cult or clan symbol or a mark of some type of group. "Interesting..." Ruminal said whispering under his breath while placing his knuckle over his mouth.

After getting his answer to his question Ruminal would be content for now and ready to go. He tried his best to keep his thoughts a secret for what he was thinking from Kaisto but was willing to share if need be. Kaisto and Ruminal said there thanks and goodbyes and left the morgue. Once outside Ruminal wanted to ask Kaisto something. "So, you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Kaisto mentioned a witness to these murders and assumed that's how the story of the Bastet started. Kaisto also mentioned several times now that it only hunts at night and what they found out recently is that it is targeting people with that tattoo. But something was on Ruminal's mind. "Hey can I see your notes about the witness please?" He asked. It took him a minute to find the page about the witness and then handed it to Ruminal. "Lets see... 18 years old, runs a flower stand..." Ruminal read through all Kaisto had on her as fast as he could and noticed one thing that proved he had the right to start worrying. She saw this happen last night. She probably tried her best to spread the rumor of what she saw to get help as fast as possible. That would explain why their guild leader handed this case to Kaisto for his exam. Iza needed someone on the case fast before another murder happens.

The question right now was, should Ruminal tell Kaisto what he believes would happen? Even to Ruminal it's a bit of a long shot but would at least be worth noting. He handed the notebook back to Kaisto thanking him for it and decided to keep quiet. At the very least Ruminal could assess the situation a bit more once they meet the young girl. Depending on what she has to say Ruminal will talk to Kaisto about it afterwards or maybe even during if need be. There were still to many unanswered questions and to little time left before nightfall comes. They needed to keep there minds in the game and learn as much as possible before then or they might not be able to save the next victim. If they can manage that then maybe they could find a way to stop it.

Ruminal observed the women for a few moments before speaking. She seemed to be more scared than she appeared but they didn't have much time. "Yah I have one question. This maybe a hard one to answer but try to be brave." Ruminal replied. "Could you tell us how everything went down exactly as you remember it?" She hesitated to answer, probably cause she didn't want to recall the horror's she witnessed that night. "Please it's important. What you saw could save future lives." Ruminal pleated.

She took a seat on a nearby bench and finally began to speak. "It was about 10 o clock last night. I was walking home with some groceries after work and I heard a scream coming from up head. When I turned the corner no one was around. I thought I imagined it until I heard it again further down. I followed the screams till I finally caught up and I saw it... I hid behind a nearby building not wanting to get that thing's attention. It was tearing that poor woman limb from limb. I took a peak around the corner to see if it had gone and it was no where to be seen. I ran as fast as I could to the Rune Knights town head quarters to report what I saw and that was it. I went straight home after that and went to bed." She explained.

Something didn't sit right with Ruminal so he had to ask. "Have you noticed anything else strange that night?" She thought long and hard and something did come to mind. "Well, I thought I saw it several other times that night but they were just glimpse's. But I believe I was just imagining them." She responded. "One last question, when you thought you saw these glimpse's were there other people around?" She paused for a moment before asking trying to recall. "Yes, I believe there were a couple here and there aside from the Rune Knight I had escort me home." She finally replied. Ruminal looked at Kaisto with a concerned and serious look hoping he was thinking what he was thinking.

"Thank you for your time. If we have anymore questions is there a way we can contact you?" Ruminal asked trying to rap this conversation up. "I will be here till 9pm and then I will be at home the rest of the night." She said and told them where her house was located before they departed. "So, do you think what she saw was just her imagination?" He asked Kaisto once they were out of hearing range of the flower girl.

Ruminal looked at his watch to see the time, it was almost 1 o clock. That means they still had 9 hours to prepare for tonight and to think up a plan of action. Ruminal suggested that take a short break and went to a nearby coffee shop. After ordering there drinks, which Ruminal ordered a large ice water, they began to think of there next move carefully. "Lets go over what we know. It seems the Bastet is targeting these people with that tattoo on there backs. Why it is targeting them is still unknown and we don't know who they are either. We have yet to find another one of these people to get any further information so we are at a dead end there for now. The Basket got reckless and was seen by the flower girl and is presumed to be following her." Ruminal stated. "We believe the Basket will go after the flower girl tonight seeing as there was to many witnesses around the night before. So we should focus our plan near her home sense it will be dark by the time she gets there."

Ruminal pulled out a map of the town from under his Kimono and laid it on the table. "This is the spot where we talked to the flower girl aka where she works." He began again putting his finger on the map where the market district is. "She said she lives all the way out here so she will be walking a while to get home." He continued moving his finger to a residential area. "At this time of year it gets dark at about 9:30pm and she wont get home till about 9:45 if she walks the whole way plus added time to close up her shop. After what happened the night before I don't believe she will be making any additional stops so this is our best assumed window time."

Ruminal looked at Kaisto with a serious face "We have 9 hours to formulate a plan. I will leave the planning stage up to you. The Basket apparently doesn't want any loose ends, so if we fail to stop it tonight we most certainly will be number one on its hit list. If we even survive to see morning." Ruminal said finishing up his rambling. He leaned back in his chair and started sucking down his ice water as if it was the only thing he had to drink all day, for it actually was. "Judging by what Iza left you and how the victims bodies looked, this thing is strong. Very strong. We might not be able to fight it head on and there's the fact that it is presumed a goddess which is aggravating me." He said gripping his glass of water harder to the point were his hand started shacking. "God's are suppose to protect and guide others, not kill senselessly. There's something in this situation that's just stinks." He finished slamming his glass on the table.

Ruminal went over Kaisto's plan in his head a number of times. He wanted to look over this job from every possible angle he could think of and see how well it could possibly work. To be honest Ruminal foresaw a lot of things going wrong with this plan but it wasn't his exam. Ruminal wasn't the one that had something to prove here, it was Kaisto. Ruminal was only here for support and that's what he intended to do. He will believe that Kaisto knew what he was doing and trust that thing's will turn out alright in the end. Besides, he seems very confident it will work. "Alright then, to start you can get the resources you need here." Ruminal said pointing to a location on the map nearby. The first thing Ruminal does when he visits a new town is to familiarize himself with it as much as possible. He has been to this town several times in the past before the guild moved there HQ here so he was pretty familiar with it by this point. "There is a Magic shop and a hardware store in this location. You should be able to get what you need there just put the expenses on the guilds tab and we will sort that out later. As for Maylia, I think she will need some convincing to go along with this plan. After all she is still scared after what happened the night before. She didn't even want to recall it to use earlier but I'll try my best."

They were as ready as they were going to be. Everything was set and thought through thoroughly. The plan was to use the flower girl as bait to lure the basket out and trap it in a cage reinforced with magic. It was Kaisto's job to make sure the basket gets caught, as for Ruminal it was his job to make sure the girl doesn't get hurt. If anything were to go wrong, Kaisto would fend off the basket while Ruminal got the girl out of there then return to back him up. From there they figured they just wing it and see what happens. Either way the main goal was to try and not harm the Basket to try and get some information out of her. Who knows, thing's might not be as they seem. "Ready when you are." Ruminal whispered to Kaisto.

Ruminal dashed towards Maylias as fast as he could while Kaisto made his way to the Bastet to hold it off. It didn't take Ruminal long to get to the flower girls position and he grabbed her hand. "We need to go, now! Hurry!" He yelled running as fast as he could leading her out of danger. Ruminal looked back to see Kaisto already baring the Bastet's path. "Just hang on I'll be back soon." Ruminal thought to him as they ran out of sight. "Will he be alright?" Maylias asked. "He'll be fine. He's a Black Rose mage. It's our job to handle these types of situations." Ruminal answered.

(Taking over the Bastet from here on out)

The Bastet pounced over the trap not giving it even the slightest notion that it was there and ran straight towards Maylias. It was so focused on taking her out that it didn't even realized there was a couple of young mages on her tail. One of them cut the Bastet off forcing her to come to a stop while the other took off with the flower girl. "You would bar my path? Then prepare to die mortal!" The Bastet roared. With little warning it dashed straight at Kaisto and made a small jump into the air. It planed to come down and bite Kaisto on his neck in order to try and end this quickly before the other two got to far away.

(Bastet)
Kaisto lunging head first at the Bastet caught it off guard. It wasn't expecting he would do such a thing. While the young mage made contact with her she made sure to not let him get out unscathed. She made sure her claw connected with his shoulder at least even if it was just a small scratch, it would be enough. After everything was said and done they both stood several feet apart from each other. Kaisto roared, screaming his blasphemy. "You know who I am and yet you know nothing!" The Bastet Roared. "It doesn't matter anyway, your finished!" Little did Kaisto noticed but that scratch the Bastet did earlier had poison on it. Soon the young mage would experience his body getting slower and his magic rendered unusable.

(Ruminal)
Meanwhile, Ruminal and Maylia were still running away. The young god was trying to find a safe place for Maylia to hide so he could return to help his comrade. Before they ran out of sight of the battle the flower girl asked "Is that how powerful mages are?" Ruminal was to focused on getting her out of there to answer right away but now that they were out of sight. "Yes, and no. Most mages can get that strong easily with just a few short years of training. But there are some who take longer and some who can get even stronger." Ruminal answered. "Are you just as strong?" she asked. "Sadly no, I'm a support mage so I can't fight on my own. It's my job to make sure mages like him can keep on fighting." After some time, Ruminal finally dropped Maylia off at the Rune Knight HQ telling her she would be safe if she stayed here till they returned and took off to return to the fight. "Hang on Kaisto I'm on my way!" He screamed in his head.

(Bastet)
The Bastet laughed at Kaisto's ignorance. "You a match for me? That's absurd! A weakling like you can't match the power of a Goddess! NOW DIE!" She roared charging head first at Kaisto. The young mage then pulled out what looked like a sword but the hilt was shaped differently that a regular sword. It's hilt was in the shape of a gun handle and even had a bullet chamber. Kaisto spun the chamber and roared his attacks name firing all 12 shots seemingly at once. The Bastet didn't have time to react but managed to jump to the side dodging most of the shots but 3 of them hit her on her side. The other 9 bullets exploded around her causing a small flash bang effect stunning her so bad she fell to the ground in pain. "AHH! MY EYE'S!!" She screamed in agony. She rubbed her paw's over her eyes trying to subdue the pain. "You! You'll pay for this!" she said trying to get back on her feet but it was to late Kaisto was already on the offensive. He lunged at her with all his might and decked her right in the jaw as hard as he could. The attack has little effect but she felt every millisecond of it. Not satisfied with just one punch, Kaisto jumped up and dropkicked the Bastet's ribcage causing her to cough up a bit of blood and sent her flying back a few meters to the ground.

(Ruminal)
Ruminal was running as fast as his little legs would let him. He was now within range and could sense what was going on. He could smell blood and gunfire in the wind. Kaisto was giving her all he had. "Hang on a bit longer I'm almost there!" Was then Ruminal felt it, something inside of him was getting restless. He stopped in his tracks trying to keep it in check. "Damn... We don't need you. Not now!" The smell of blood and the presence of a strong opponent must have woke it up but Ruminal managed to get him under control. Once he was satisfied that it was under control he continued to make his way back to the battle.