Trouble in the town (Akeya)

In the city of Hosenka it was always flashy and enjoyable in Spa town but they had a deadly predator lurking in the streets,Sol was currently in the town though he had his features shifted and masked to make him look different. He had a red flame bandanna on his head and he had some contacts in his eyes to shift his eye color from crimson red to a vivid purple color however the contacts would only last for a few hours before they broke up due to the poison dragons toxic body. He was also garbed in a simple black Kimono with red maple leafs on the fabric. To finish it ouf the slayer had Wood Geta sandels on and he had his Kiseru out with his tobacco nightshade mix in it.

He took a hit off of his pipe and he glanced around as he looked around for his fence to try and find some new things that they might have to sell him. Thru suppressing his magic Sol was also able to cover his red markings on his body which would have given him away. However any slayer or dragon would sense the presence of Acnologias blood and a fraction of his soul inside of the slayer however and he couldn’t mask that no matter how hard he tried.

Emerald eyes kept a wary eye on the surroundings even as the disguised woman made her way through the streets. She didn't look like she was disguised, which was the entire point: from the perspective of an outsider she just looked like your typical female adventurer, with relatively skimpy clothes and a surprisingly good figure. She wasn't one for taking the centre of attention, but in this case there was something to be said about the idea that as long as you gave the appearance of having nothing to hide it'd be harder for people to get the thought that maybe you were trying to hide something. The more you acted like you didn't care of others paid attention to you or not the more it'd seem like there was nothing important to pay attention to, so Akeya could walk through the town receiving no more than the expected stares, as men and some women ogled her body while she walked past. It wasn't her own body, it was just a humanoid form she took on for the sake of not revealing her actual identity, so there wasn't much reason to feel bothered by the stares either.

Although truth be told, she didn't have that much reason to be here either. There was a bookstore here which might have some scrolls of interest, but beyond that this was as much just a whim of hers as anything else. She still went through the trouble of making it as difficult as possible for her to be detected on her trip here, but a whim was a whim even when you were careful about it. Ever since Blue Pegasus had been disbanded her schedule had been a lot looser, and even when she still made sure to train a lot she no longer had to adapt to the whims of others, including society. That left her with some additional free time now and then, not even mentioning how without the Blue Pegasus library all the time that she would have spent studying was now replaced by even more free time. She was doing her best to ensure she at least didn't lose what knowledge she already had attained through constant memorizing and taking notes, but even so there no longer were shelves upon shelves of books and scrolls for her to read through when she wasn't busy training or doing jobs.

That was another thing: she didn't really need to go on jobs that much any more. After Blue Pegasus had disappeared it essentially meant she no longer had a safe haven, so she had promptly and without hesitation distanced herself from civilization. She was perfectly capable of sustaining herself, so now that she had lost reason to keep up appearances beyond the occasional performance she could just as easily rely on her own skills for survival and refrain from doing mindless job unless she had reason to believe that the job itself offered rewards far more valuable than some jewels. Or if there was something which would be hard to attain without money so she had to at least keep some money saved away just in case. But all in all, Akeya's interactions with society and humans had decreased drastically, even when before she hadn't been very social either.

So that's why she was here, when before she'd have thought it too thoughtless an expedition. Disguising herself as completely as possible, keeping her presence completely presence until she was in an area where there were others present, then reappear and act like she was just travelling to Hosenka like any other person. A simple plan, made easier by the fact that since she now kept away from society she didn't need to go through the extra steps to prevent people drawing a link between her disappearance and the appearance of someone else in another place, and the time it would take her to travel between the two locations. Distanced from society as she was there wouldn't be anyone keeping track of her position unless they had managed to outdo all her attempts at remaining hidden, out in the wilderness where nobody would go unless they were actually searching for something, she or something else.

Akeya frowned as she sensed a presence. It wasn't an unfamiliar presence, but not one she had encountered that often either. It was draconic, and it was a strong presence. Certainly not some unimportant hatchling, but... It wasn't completely like a dragon either. It was hard to place, since it was too strong to be that of your average Dragon Slayer. A third generation like Akeya herself? But even those usually hadn't undergone dragonfication as Akeya herself had. Most of them didn't want to turn into dragons, so either consciously or through 'luck' they managed to slow down the process of the magic of dragons turning them into what they were supposed to become. Akeya herself found it silly that after all this time, even when the truth had already begun to reappear, people would still try to claim that Dragon Slaying Magic had been developed by humans to slay dragons, and deny that it was in fact the magic of dragons put inside humans so they could be on equal footings with the superior species. Well, beyond silly, it was just plain foolish... The only excuse was ignorance.

Well, right now she wanted to find out what the source was. However she didn't want to make it apparent that she was looking for something now, so she continued to wander through the city as if merely sightseeing, enjoying herself even as her emerald eyes had become a bit sharper than before, her glances still interested but relaxed even as the information was now racing through her mind at higher speeds. She had nothing against dragons, but she still wanted to be aware of what they were doing and why, as was only sensible with anything which was strong enough that they could upset the playing field any time that they took action. Even with their offspring and kin.

Sol sniffed the air and suddenly became aware that another dragon was in the area and from what the Dragon King knew none of the dragon slayers were from dark guilds other then him so he knew he had to be careful or his cover would be blown. Before he could think any further on the subject he saw his fence approaching him at the front of his shop.”Tell me sir what kind of ingredients could you use slimy snails?” the robbed figure questioned. Sol smirked before he spoke.”what about basilisk tails?” the dragon stated coolly before the figure nodded and motioned the man to duck into an allyway with him.

“Alright so how has the business been going made any profits for us?” Sol asked as the figured nodded and pulled out a very large stack of jewels from his robes and passed it to the slayer who took it and put it inside his Kimono before breathing in the smoke from his Kiseru and blew it out before smirking.”Well done im glad I employed you as a fence your skills are well used and your use of discretion is next to none I’ll make sure our next shipment has a little extra to reward you untill then use this and go get a drink or something on me” Sol said as he pulled a few jewels out of his kimono and passed the bills to the man who graciously took them.

With his business concluded the dragon decided to take a look around town and see what interested him, he had heard rumors of underground fighting in hosenka and rose garden perhaps he might join in, while he thought about this he exited the Alley a little ways ahead of Akeya and he hadn’t noticed her or if he did he was simply to focused on his thoughts to mention it.

Whatever the source of the presence was, it was managing to keep itself hidden fairly well. Akeya could sense if she was getting closer or farther away, but not with enough precision that she'd be able to use it to accurately track the source down... It felt like having someone standing behind you, where you thought you could tell whether they were close by or far away, but you wouldn't be able to tell for sure until you actually looked around. However looking around wasn't an option right now, especially since Akeya didn't want to be spotted. If she looked like she was being careful that would show people that she had reason to be careful, and that would attraction from the intelligent watcher. She had to stick with her disguise, that of a normal person just sightseeing on a trip to this town, so she wouldn't remain in people's mind as someone to remember.

However even if she couldn't be too blatant about it she could still search, slowly and securely. The fact that she couldn't inspect all the nooks and crannies because of her disguise made it a bit trickier, but gathering information was a lot easier once you trained yourself and learned what you could do once you actually applied yourself. You didn't even need magic to be a good information gatherer: you just needed to know how to pay attention, what to look at and what to ignore, who to talk to and who to pass by. Akeya wasn't that good at the social part, since she herself simply wasn't a social person and her draconic personality didn't go well with interacting with normal humans. However beyond that she had studied a lot and practised, so even if she wasn't that good at extracting information from people without looking suspicious she could still perform the act of paying attention to her surroundings properly.

Hosenka by and large appeared to be doing quite well for itself, a tourist attraction and uninvolved with the politics of Fiore. Due to having been built in an area with natural hot springs it had been easy for the inhabitants to make good money, as one of their main sources of income was that of rich people who stayed at the higher class hotels and enjoyed the naturally heated waters. They had capitalized on it and expanded on it, and while no settlement was capable of completely getting rid of crime they had done a good job at keeping the town fairly peaceful. Large scale crime could be surprised with guards, and with the money the people of Hosenka obtained from the rest of Fiore they could afford to have a lot of elite guards.

Still, there were some small scale crimes being committed, as was the case in any place where humans came together... but that wasn't Akeya's concern right now. There was organized crime, hidden deeply and carefully, but that wasn't her direct concern either. They could become an issue in the future, but as long as she remained hidden the odds of them becoming an issue right now were very low. And even if she revealed herself she had bigger problems to deal with than the organized crime around here: the Magic Council didn't like having her around and able to go wherever she pleased when they didn't have a way of reliably keeping taps on her. She was still a Rising Star, oddly enough, but the situation had become awkward ever since she had stopped being a Legal Mage. She still avoided causing harm to those where there was no benefit to harming them, and those who were under the protection of the Magic Council (which meant most of the citizens of Fiore). Furthermore she'd still hunt down dark mages if the opportunity arose, and she'd still help out with any situations where her aid could be useful.

But all of that didn't remove the fact that Akeya was essentially an unapologetic assassin, who had made little attempt to hide that she didn't consider herself part of the humans, and that while she would cooperate and tolerate humans she had no issue with eliminating any human if that happened to be the best course of action. Akeya's coldness made the Magic Council wary, and she couldn't blame them for that. Especially since rather than relying on flashy magic or complicated spells her main threat came from just being a very pragmatic killer.

As Akeya wandered onwards she at first couldn't find out what she was even trying to find, but when she did she quickly realized why the feeling was so odd. She knew better than to show surprise, but she had to admit that she hadn't been expecting to see Sol here. A strange one, since he was also one who had undergone dragonfication, although Akeya felt that his case was not entirely the same as her own. In a previous encounter he had shown her, and his changes had appeared more... intrusive, in a way. She wasn't sure what exactly it was, but she wouldn't say that they were the same. In more ways than one, because while Akeya stayed out of trouble so far as possible Sol was a known dark mage. Where the Magic Council was suspicious of Akeya and would like to keep proper tabs on her Sol was a case where any mage or authority could arrest him, and she honestly doubted that the Magic Council would care if he died while resisting arrest, except maybe that it would be harder to extract information about his allies from his corpse than if his brain was still alive.

But if Sol was present it would be better if she kept an eye on him, so at least she'd know what he was up to. But she couldn't be too blatant about it... Since she had been walking at a pace as if she was heading somewhere she couldn't exactly just come to a halt and pretend to be staring at something, so instead she just kept walking onwards, trying her best to figure out where the man would be going so she could navigate herself in roughly the same direction. If they met up too often he'd get suspicious of this woman who constantly showed up in the same place, but there were ways around that...

Sol kept moving and when he stopped to refill his Kiseru he suddenly caught the scent of Akeya which he had been so focused on his thoughts before it had completely slipped his radar, he simply kept filling his Kiseru before he lit it with a match and took a puff of it, he then started to move before he decided to try and get the dragoness away from the crowds and somewhere he could confront her without risking being found out and having a legal guild alerted since his cover was still intact.

He glanced ahead and saw his chance as another alleyway was approaching and he ducked into the alleyway while he took another puff of his toxic tobacco .once he had stood there for a few moment he then Spoke.” I know your there shadow dragon stop lurking” he called out as he didn’t even turn around he just kept breathing in some from his pipe.”Id rather not have to deal with a fight today” he added.

So far the attempts at trailing Sol had been going without issue. The man didn't seem to have any nefarious plans right now, as his movements lacked the kind of subtle intent you'd expect from a criminal who's planning something but doesn't want others to know. The game of noticing without being noticed was a complex one, and one which always developed more and more layers as each layer demanded the development of another layer to notice and counter it. In the beginning it was as simple as just trying to not be seen, which honestly was still Akeya's personal favourite since it was straightforward and if you actually succeeded at it you avoided a lot of trouble. Then the game advanced and most people were better off pretending that it didn't matter if you saw them or not, because while the true specialist could still avoid being detected usually in most cases the methods for detecting someone outdid the methods for avoiding detection. And then it turned out that appearing completely unimportant was in itself a sign that you were suspicious, because most people always had something going on so if you acted like there was nothing awry you'd actually be acting unnaturally, so the game advanced to having to drop hints that you were up to something like a normal person without giving away what you were actually doing... but without giving the impression that you were avoiding a certain subject, i.e. what you were actually doing. Things just got more and more complex for those who played the game of hide and seek, and while Akeya did her best to stay on top because it was a game she usually was part of as well she had to admit that she really preferred the first layer, where she succeeded by just not being spotted at all. The only reason she hadn't been using that this time around was because she had been wanting to explore the place a bit at a relaxed pace.

As it was it didn't look like Sol had any big plans here... He didn't behave completely like your average innocent man, but he was lacking the signs of someone who was trying to give away just enough for it to appear unimportant without emphasizing it too much or avoiding it too much (even if you knew how the game worked playing it perfectly was another challenge altogether... even amongst the experts the way to flush them out usually came down to waiting for them to mess up, because if you played the game perfectly then there wasn't really any way for someone to catch you unless they could draw your intentions and motives straight out of your head. And if there was a mind reader present in the game it immediately changed the entire game anyway, so..). All in all there wasn't much reason to suspect him of anything large-scale, although Akeya definitely was considering the possibility that he had some personal business here of an illegal nature. Of course illegal wasn't necessarily the same as wrong so far as Akeya was concerned, but since she had been part of the legal side of Fiore for a large while and would still like to keep the Magic Council from hunting her down she'd have to do something if whatever brought Sol here was likely to cause harm to innocents. Actually if it brought harm to non-innocents she'd probably have to take action anyway, if only because it might be an opportunity to get rid of some criminals. The government always liked it when you brought them live criminals after you caught them doing something dirty, even if it was away from the public eye: for the government you didn't need a reason to catch a known criminal, you just needed an excuse.

Things got problematic, however, when Sol's behaviour changed. He began to act more guardedly, as if he had been spotted. Akeya wasn't sure what to make of that, but either he had noticed something that put him off, or had thought of something, or... She was fairly confident in her ability to remain unnoticed, but just like how she would try to find an expert by looking for someone slipping she could also be detected if she made a mistake, and she might have done something that was remarkable enough for Sol to become suspicious without noticing it. She was doubtful, but she couldn't dismiss the possibility, just like she couldn't dismiss the other possibilities either. As it was she tried to remain unnoticed as she made sure not to follow Sol too closely, taking different routes and sometimes leaving him alone for minutes so he wouldn't think she was suspicious because she kept going in the same direction as him. There wasn't a lot she could do against the possibility of him noticing that he kept encountering the same person over and over, even if it was in an unremarkable fashion... She could try changing her appearance at random intervals, but that carried its own risks.

Eventually Sol ended up in an alley, which left Akeya with little choice but to remain outside, as entering the alley would give her away almost immediately, there being very little reason for her disguised self to enter an alleyway for any reason, let alone to follow someone. Even if it didn't give away who she was it would alert anyone that she wasn't your average civilian, which was exactly what Akeya wanted to avoid... All the complications that came with being stealthy were such a hassle sometimes, and she was pretty sure that if she didn't put so much effort into training and practising the sheer annoyance would have caused her to stop bothering a long time ago already. As it was she just waited outside, wondering what Sol was planning in there... Until suddenly she heard him call someone out. And going by what he said he knew she was there, which made it difficult for Akeya to maintain her relaxed and pleasant expression as she had managed to find herself a seat on a bench out in the sun. So his movements had changed because he had somehow noticed her... She had been too sloppy it seemed. Now the question remained: should she answer his provocation or remained hidden? Would she gain anything from revealing herself?

After contemplating the issue Akeya decided against revealing herself, preferring to play the part of the innocent as she was curious how Sol would react as him calling her out didn't get him a response. If he knew she was here (or at the very least acted like it: since he knew that she was a stealthy one he might just be acting off of suspicion) then he was likely to be cautious with doing anything illegal or problematic, which meant that there was less chance of her finding something important today. However if she came out of hiding he could use her presence against her, so... Better to just see if he found finding out why she was here important enough to give himself away, or if he'd just try and shake her.