UP IN SMOKE pt 1

At first it certainly had seemed to be a simple job; disrupt the train but do not allow any passengers to disembark at any time. Hime thought she could simply magically seal all of the doors shut and march up to the conductor's area and knock them out. At least, that was what a nice mage skirting the edge of legal and nonlethal territory would have tried to do.

The slayer was bored just entertaining the possibility of using such a concept, though she agreed that it would be oodles and oodles of fun to seal every passenger inside. Rather, the peach-haired mage was interested in something fun; just because it was a formal mission didn't mean that it was impossible to have some sort of fun. That ought to be logical; mages usually did their work because they wanted to. This was why Hime was currently wrapping up one of her final candle wax creation enchantments, cast over the left exit at the very back of the train. She figured it would be most entertaining to start the chaos from the back and work her way up, so she chose to do this spell last so she would already be in the place where she could start the main event.

Hime smiled beatifically after she finished scrutinizing the finished seal. The other members of the train car hadn't taken any particular notice of the female. If anything, they were slightly curious of how she seemed to be studying the train doors, but it was pefectly likely that she was just worried about escape routes or other things in case of an emergency. In particular, one man, Mr. Earthwhile, would have certainly sympathized with that sort of mindset. He however was in one of the front-most cars and therefore unable to point out exactly why the girl's demeanor was unlike that of a worrywart.

Her sharp, almost predatory glint of her eyes and upward turn to her lips gave no secrets away, but at the same time it gave everything away. Yet, that didn't matter, because the slayer was already giggling as she drew a beautiful trail of flames through the car, darting easily through the panicking crowd and pulling the floating fire along. It didn't actually directly hurt that many of the passengers; only those whose skin directly contacted the flame were burned in such a quick way as Hime wove her way through the crowd. The true danger was in how it clung to the blue fabric seats of the train and leapt from article of clothing to neighboring apparel. Though at first it didn't appear to have much affect, as the flames hungrily consumed the starchy fabrics, they eventually did reach the people's skin, despite it not being a priority. And that, was when the true panicking began.

Never had it been Hime's intention to simply make people suffer, though she was occasionally known to go out of her way to add to it in such a situation. No, the true purpose of her presence on the train was to complete a mission; this was quite curious, considering that the slayer's primary motivation was typically plain desire and doing what she felt like doing. Still, the incentive of jewels and money was too good to ignore all the time. So Hime was pleased when she finally reached the first car of the train, having successfully made it there from the very end car. All of them were delightfully full of fire and plenty of people, with not a single exit open. Even if someone managed to avoid the flames themselves, the hungry fire demanded oxygen to continue burning; clawing at the substance and sucking it from the air, away from the crying lungs of any trapped people. Hime herself teleported out of the train, the seals of the exits not bothering to block her magic.

The female inhaled the last traces of smoke that she had caught before exiting the vehicle of transportation. Lovely it truly was; nonetheless, she slipped a lollipop into her mouth out of habit.