[Job] Snakes and Foxes (Itori)

Job Details:

"So you're just going to be taking care of some snakes? That sounds like a bit of a boring job for an experienced mage, let alone someone who's lived for ages."

"There are delicate and valuables items which must be kept safe while the serpents are removed from the establishment. A younger and less experienced mage might cause undesired collateral damage."

"So it is actually boring but it's supposed to be boring."

"I would argue that the challenge of safely removing all the serpents without damaging the surroundings would make it less tedious, but if you do not care for that kind of careful work I believe it would be seen as boring yes.

Through the street two figures were walking side by side, and attracting a lot of attention in the process. One was a woman with white hair and two large fox ears, wearing traditional clothes from Midi and with five large fluffy fox tails trailing behind her. A kitsune wasn't unheard of but they were rare enough that one who walked through the streets of the capital so casually definitely would catch the eye of most onlookers. Of course Crocus, the capital city of Fiore, was more likely to see strange sights like these than some minor village where most strangers would have little reason to visit, but that didn't mean they were completely unfazed by such sights.

In this case the kitsune was actually an inhabitant of Fiore going by the name Shirokawa Itori, Itori for short. As a member of Sabertooth she was actually a very common sight in Ace of Spades but she rarely visited other cities unless she had to shop for something specific or there was a mission which required her presence in a civilized area. In this case it was the latter.

The second figure was an even more spectacular sight than the kitsune, and even rarer. With a wild mane carrying shades of red, orange and yellow, curved horns that stuck out behind her, and most importantly two giant wings folded up on her back she was something which most people might even have difficulty placing: a phoenix, a horned one at that. The wings were of the same hues as her hair but even more brilliant in their vibrance and hue. The poetic soul might go so far as to say that the wings looked as if the feathers had been directly shaped from a magnificent flame. Her legs were slender and ended up in scaled talons, sharp and deadly but surprisingly suited for the job of walking. Of course the fact that she walked on the toes meant that as she walked she automatically showed off her hips and chest, a fact which many of the onlooking men undoubtedly appreciated given how generously she had been blessed in both departments. Her hands were also scaled and clawed although significantly less impressively than her feet, cuffed with downy feathers which also formed a collar on the woman's neck.

In addition to the magnificent wings she also had the traditional phoenix tail, which looked like it was actually three tails of feathers which in addition to the red, orange and yellow also had hues of purple and blue near the tips. All in all she was a sight that could leave one stunned and amazed. The phoenix's name was Nenet and unlike Itori, who moved with measured step and purpose, she was much more outspoken in her movements. While she didn't give off the air of arrogance the way she walked made you think that she owned the place and was going to do whatever she felt like doing.

Itori personally thought that it was actually somewhat pleasant to have Nenet around. Aside from the phoenix having a very friendly and upbeat personality she also gave the kitsune some peace and quiet by being a more interesting sight. While the five-tailed fox was used to being looked at a bit of a reprieve was always welcome. And Nenet certainly didn't mind: she smiled and laughed and waved at people if they happened to catch her interest. She had the kind of warm personality where she could act boisterous and be anyone's friend within seconds of meeting. A good contrast to Itori's more polite but withdrawn behaviour. While there were few who would disagree that the vixen was a kind and gentle soul she couldn't possibly compete with the extrovert firebird in this field.

"And you said that this place is some kind of bar?"

"It is called a club, but among its facilities it does include a bar. Beyond that it advertises itself as being able to entertain anyone no matter their origin or tastes, although they are intentionally vague in whether they are talking about drinks and food or something else. To follow up on that amongst mages it has a reputation of having a lot of secret activities for sale which might not entirely be in accordance with the law or otherwise be considered indecent in the public eye. Once again these would be aimed towards accommodating anyone regardless of their traits and affinities."

"Long story short, it's a place where you can do lots of stuff you couldn't do anywhere else or wouldn't get away with doing anywhere else." Nenet nodded to herself as she affirmed this summary to herself. However she then frowned and folded her arms while looking at Itori from the corner of her eyes. "And does that include stuff which might be harmful to those... employed there?"

"Given the amount of legal mages who are aware of its existence I do not believe that they have anything such as literal slaves. However there might be people in employ who do not have much of a choice due to their monetary situation. For the moment the entire place has been cleared out since the snakes which have taken over the basement are venomous. We might be able to ensure that nobody is being coerced into performing services they do not wish to perform afterwards, but as long as the original issue is still active that would be difficult."

"Right, right." Nenet looked up at the skies before sighing and placing her hands behind her head, and action which helped jut her chest forward even more. "It's a real pain in the ass isn't it?" She then flashed a grin. "Well, let's go kick some snake ass and at the end of it we can demand some free drinks as part of our payment. They can't complain about that!"

Itori looked back at Nenet, who was still grinning with her eyes closed. Not that the phoenix needed her sight to not stumble into anyone. "If that is what you wish. Although I think it would be better if you did not go inside with me: as mentioned before this job requires delicacy and finesse. I do not doubt your skill but you cannot deny that when the fighting starts your blood becomes heated and you have a habit of becoming less thoughtful about the environment."

Nenet pouted at that, her gaze sliding away from Itori as she glanced to the side of the road instead. "I just don't care for all that slow and careful stuff. No need to say it out loud. I can do it if I really want to." Sighing once more she nodded. "Fine fine, I'll let you take care of the snakes. I would just burn them to a crisp anyway and even if I didn't destroy the furniture that'd leave marks." She made a dismissive wave with one hand before putting it back behind her head. "Actually while you're taking care of that I'll look around. Maybe I can dig up some sordid details about the owners and use it against them while you're doing the cleaning up." Her grin returned although this time it was a lot more devious than before. "Or rather, the small clean up before the big clean up."

Itori nodded her assent, to which the phoenix promptly stepped away and set off. Although looking at the direction she was going it was clear that her first destination was a bar. The kitsune sighed to herself as she stood still for a moment and watched her companion disappear to get friendly with the patrons of another establishment before she resumed her pace. She trusted Nenet not to get falling down drunk but the woman was a lot more inclined towards having fun. On the other hand she was also pretty good at getting results in spite of -or maybe because of- that outgoing personality of hers. Lots of people would speak about things they'd normally keep secret if they were faced with a beautiful exotic woman like Nenet who also looked like she was too distracted by the drinks to care much about silly stuff like morality.

Although on the other hand the Sabertooth mage had tried to make it clear that there was no concrete evidence that there was anyone in the Boomslang establishment who worked there against their wishes. To cater to all kinds of customers it took a lot of effort and resources but it was possible that they managed to do so without relying on things like indentured slavery and shady deals in the back. Lots of things were possible in a world where magic was abundant and could be shaped in so many different ways.

Well, at the very least it'd keep her friendly partner happy and content while she took care of the official business. There had been no answer to the question how snakes had even managed to infiltrate the building and make a nest in the basement, but the kitsune suspected that it was a result of someone trying to cater to a particular customer with very demanding tastes. In which case it was very possible that she'd encounter at least one corpse in there. And possibly too late for her to fix that. Unpleasant, but most likely the truth.

More important was the removal of the serpents. Even if they weren't as problematic as, say, rats, who are often carriers of plagues and diseases snakes were still a threat when allowed to breed freely in a place as densely populated as Crocus. Their unusual form allowed them to be large while still getting through holes and gaps that only smaller creatures should be able to slip through. Combine that with their highly carnivorous and venomous nature and as long as there was an uncontrolled nest of them anyone living in the area stood at risk of being bitten without any warning. Not that snakes attacked humans often, but it was an accident just waiting to happen.

Arriving before the entrance to the building Itori could already hear the rustling from inside. It was a good thing that everyone had evacuated the building: it looked like the ground floor had also been infested. Holding the key she had been given for the duration of the mission the five-tailed vixen stepped forward and placed one ear against the door to listen. While it was very faint there was a lot of movement going on inside: the sound of scales moving against wood, stone and some other fuzzier textures. A carpeted floor? There was the occasional hiss, although not as many as one might expect. These snakes must be of a type which was fairly comfortable with having other snakes around, which wasn't a universal trait for the legless reptiles. If they were solitary they'd be fighting over the small territory they'd conquered. Unless this was some kind of breeding area in their minds? She knew that there were types of snakes who would gather in great amounts to form what were called mating balls. But the movements were too spread out for that.

The good news was that none of the sounds were close to the door. The entrance to the basement was most likely in the back so it would take a bit longer before they began to populate the front area of the ground floor as well. Satisfied with this Itori put the key in the lock and opened the door slowly, not forgetting to put the key back in her pouch afterwards. It would be very unprofessional if she lost the key so some thug could come in and try to steal from Boomslang later on.

The inside was dark. Not surprising, given that there was nobody inside and the owners weren't going to keep the lights on for the benefit of the reptiles. Any mage who wanted to help out was expected to provide their own illumination. Itori didn't bother since sound was a lot more efficient for her anyway and she didn't want to give away her position to the serpents. Although maybe these were also the type that could sense heat? One of the more curious abilities for a purely biological creatures to develop, but no denying that it was very useful during the hunt or to watch out for danger. Focusing on herself Itori wove a weak illusion around herself. She didn't know just how dangerous this was going to be so she didn't want to weave something which would drain too much of her mana, but at the very least she could hide her temperature to throw the snakes off. In addition she put on her kitsune mask, making her form appear ghostly and removing any scent or sound she made (as long as she didn't begin to shout). Closing the door she stepped further into the building, through the hallway that would lead to the common area. Most likely under normal circumstances this hallway would serve as a way to help keep unwanted visitors out but right now it had made the snakes slowly to move towards the door.

The common room was large. That was the best word to explain it aside from extravagant. She had seen that it was a big place from outside but the inside made it feel as if magic had to be used to create this much volume. There were several bars (Nenet would be thrilled), an abundance of tables and couches and chairs, and even various elevated areas which looked like they were meant for performers. This was the kind of place which you couldn't just get into whenever you felt like it. This was... well, she was pretty sure this was the result of the uppermost crust of Crocus getting bored with being rich. There was even an area which led away to a pool. And while it was too far away to be certain it looked like it was an outdoor pool. That definitely required the involvement of magic.

Oh, and there were snakes everywhere. Pretty much everywhere. Given that some people had left in a hurry they'd been gorging themselves on the drinks and food that had been left behind but from the looks of it were now moving around aimlessly for the most part. Thanks to Itori hiding her heat, scent and sound they didn't notice her arrival. The fact that the lights were out worked in her favour since unlike her snakes didn't actually have great hearing.

Now, how would she deal with this? These were normal snakes: blasting them with magic would be excessive and be more likely to damage the place. Honestly she wasn't sure if she even needed to kill them. As long as they were taken care of and removed from the area she could already claim that she had completed her job. Given that she was in the middle of Crocus it would be difficult to find a place to put them though... she might have to walk all the way out of the city with these in tow. In which case it would be a good thing that she had Nenet to take care of things in the city until she was done with the snakes.

At least making the snakes move according to her will wouldn't be difficult. The creatures were famous for being receptive to sound, oddly enough. She wasn't entirely sure how that worked, but if they could react to sound then her voice would work even if she wasn't entirely familiar with the technique. Admittedly snakes weren't something she was very interested in, but that was irrelevant right now.

Although thanks to her mask she'd need to have to sign fairly loudly, otherwise the muffling enchantment would just hide it. Opening her mouth she began to sing: for once she didn't hold back on her voice, letting the full enchanting nature flow forth and fill the long and wide room. She knew the sound threshold beyond which her mask would no longer mask the sound, so she knew how loudly she had to sing to be heard. Loudly enough that combined with the supernatural nature of her voice she didn't have to worry about all the snakes on the ground floor hearing it.

The reaction was nearly instantaneous. All the snakes stopped moving as they looked in her direction, their movements made clear to the blinded kitsune by the way those minute sounds travelled to her ears. Another advantage of her singing was that it allowed her to move by sonar, an active form of echolocation. After several seconds she made the song more complicated and the snakes began to move, their minds flooded with the desire to move according to the wishes of the vulpine siren.

Raising her voice a bit higher Itori encouraged any other snakes in the adjacent room to come out, and out they came. Together with the ones in the common room there were enough of them to make an army. Moving to her will she guided them all to first slowly circle around them before she guided them into another large room. This was a storage room with no exits other than the door, a good place to store them until she was done with the nest in the basement. While some of the snakes appeared to be smarter than the rest none of them resisted Itori's commands as she sung them into the room and closed the door after them, using pieces of cloth to help make sure there were no gaps they could escape through. Barricading the door to ensure they couldn't escape she stopped singing and quickly headed for where her sonar had allowed her to detect the entrance to the area down below... where she heard sounds which indicated that there was something much bigger than your average snake in there.

Moving with caution now Itori stepped into the basement, one hand on the hilt of her blade as she considered what to do. Could this big snake resist her voice? It was possible, in which case it would make it a lot more difficult to take care of it. The storage area beneath the Boomslang building was large, much larger than the storage room she had put the other snakes inside of. Not entirely surprising, as this was the best place to store all those things you didn't immediately need. There were fewer snakes her than upstairs though... significantly less. They were deceived as effectively as those upstairs as the kitsune carefully made her way onwards until she saw the giant snake that made its home in the middle of the storage room. It looked like it had used its long tail to move crates around to make itself something of a makeshift nest while keeping plenty of open space between itself and the walls so it could see anything that was trying to approach it. Or at least, if there were any light and Itori hadn't hidden herself using magic.

Standing at the bottom of the stairs now Itori swallowed, then began to sing again. The smaller snakes reacted just like the ones above, but the bigger serpent didn't react according to her will. While it did rise up from its next and look at her it only took a second to realize that it wasn't blindely doing as she was told. The kitsune kept singing even as she moved forward, guiding the smaller snakes out of the way while she tensed and prepared herself for some physical exercise. If she couldn't subdue this thing the easy way she'd use the hard way: get into physical contact with it and directly impose her will upon it. It was a nasty trick to use, but it was either that or killing the large reptile. Itori was pretty sure the snake queen would prefer being alive but having to endure being controlled for a short period of time over being cut into pieces.

The snake queen lunged forward with the speed of lightning. Itori's body turned white with a faint glow to it as she stepped to the side, dodging the attack by a hair. The snake quickly pulled her head back and hissed, a sound that made the hair on Itori's neck stand on end. This one was definitely too strong-willed to be brought down easily. Even physical contact alone wouldn't be enough.

Again the snake struck, but this time when Itori stepped to the side the queen followed her movements. Forced to adapt she ducked as well, the large mouth with the venomous fangs passing overhead at such speed that she could hear the wind whistle. Shaking her left hand she brought forth the cursed prayer beads and pressed them against the long scaled body as she ran forward, her form blurry as she matched the serpent's retreating speed. With the cursed beads applying their power upon the oversized animal the queen's movements began to dull: having your essence bound and worn down by feelings of despair softened your edge in a manner few other methods could compare to. Striking again Itori was this time able to dodge it with relative easy, reaching the serpent's nest and jumping over some of the crates.

The large tail that had been taking the role of the support from which the head launched moved up to capture Itori, long, long coils threatening to wrap around her and crush her. The fox narrowed her eyes as she placed her sandalled feet on one of those coils and pushed herself further into the air. For a moment she hovered far enough up into the air that she threatened to hit the ceiling even as she stretched her hand out towards the snake below. An ethereal version of the queen overlapped the physical body even as it flickered and weakened while essence was drawn towards Itori's extended hand.

Spinning around Itori kicked the ceiling to launch herself back towards the ground and away from the snake. Still singing she made sure all the other snakes wouldn't get in the way as she landed, sandals scraping against the ground before her momentum was stopped. The queen of the snakes meanwhile was once again glaring at her, now with her mouth wide open to reveal deadly fangs and that long tongue. Itori could feelthat it was upset at the situation, being cursed and having part of its lifeforce pulled away. It was unfortunate, but Itori would have to put it in a state of near-death before it would comply. At least she now had the upper hand, so the kitsune didn't waste any more time before dashing forward.

The largest of serpents once more lashed out, intent on digging her venomous fangs deep inside this sudden assailant. However when the two met Itori slipped straight through her body as if she barely existed, leaving the queen confused. Itori meanwhile turned physical again once their bodies no longer overlapped and dragged her hand across the snake's body as she kept running. More and more essence was drawn away from the large beast and given to Itori, who was gathering it all in the large spirit orb that was now floating in the air and following her around. This time when the snake tried to entangle the fox the vulpine mage didn't even have to jump into the air to evade. Instead she ducked underneath the coils and kept draining away essence, more and more as the movements of the serpent became more and more sluggish.

After that there wasn't much more of a fight left. The queen snake had been close to biting Itori in the beginning, but once those initial lightning attacks had failed the curse and the draining of lifeforce had left the reptile too weakened to continue that line of attack. And Itori was too cautious and evasive to be caught by the attempts at constriction. After several minutes the tiger snake was curled up and barely movile, staring at Itori with a weariness that went beyond physical exhaustion. Itori had been accurate in her assessment that the snake would need to be near-death before she would cooperate.

Placing her hands on the flat head, one on top and one below to help keep the mouth shut, Itori looked into the queen snake's eyes while singing. She could feel something travelling through her, but she couldn't help but smile as she could feel her own will flow into that of the creature before her. This large reptilian queen had the power to enthrall others with her gaze, but the kitsune's own siren song was stronger, especially with the queen already so weak and open to domination. She apologized mentally, but also felt triumphant.

With the queen subdued the rest was an easy task. Although it was a good thing that she had extensive training in keeping her throat functional for long periods of time: she could sing an entire opera if needed, and she definitely needed to not stop singing in this situation. The queen snake was so weak that even without the song she wouldn't do much but the other snakes could still become hostile. However as long as she was singing this would be easy as pie.

Leading the queen and the other snakes out of the basement she went to the room where she had locked up the other snakes, and returned them to her flock as they once again were within range of her voice. Opening the door she led them out, and then with all of the snakes trailing behind her she made her way out of the establishment and towards the nearest forest.

Nenet would take care of the paperwork (a task she knew the phoenix was less passionate about) while she moved the mass of serpents to an area where they wouldn't be a threat to anyone. Afterwards she'd come back and see if Nenet had figured out anything that they might want to do something about as mages who supported the Magic Council in Fiore. But the fact that the first issue had already been resolved already meant that they'd done enough to get paid.

WC: 4,492
TWC: 4,492/3,500 (Completed)