Death, Dragons, and Ghosts [Job: Haunted!|Roselia Heart & FilFire]

Job Description:

Akeya Kuusai walked up to the gate of the town on top of the hill. Like usual she was covered in a large cloak, the only thing being revealed her dark green eyes and a couple of strands of long black hair. The weather wasn't as bad as it permanently appears to be in Clover Town, where every day appears to be wonderful and sunny. Well, the wonderful part was debatable. Akeya personally wished the lake would do its job and send a couple of proper rainstorms towards the island. Then again, it might be that some of the mages are simply messing with the weather. She should look into that at some point.

Anyway, right now Oak Town was being protected from the sun by a thick layer of clouds, which Akeya was truly appreciative for. In fact, she decided that she could as well push back the hood of her cloak. Would also make it easier for her job partner to recognize her: When Akeya's description was sent to the person who would accompany on this job she added that she'd likely be cloaked, but it'd still help if at least her head was exposed.

Akeya came to a halt in front of the gate, then walked to one side and leaned against the stone wall. She had agreed to meet her partner here, at the eastern gate of the city. Oak Town was on the western side of the country, so for the both of them the eastern gate was the closest gate. Besides, the address of the actual job wasn't that far from here.

Akeya looked at all the people passing through the gate, trying to see anybody who matched the description of her partner. According to the information she received about her partner she should be looking for a short girl who was just a bit younger than herself, with nearly white hair and red eyes. Apparently the girl possesses some kind of magic which allows her to either channel the powers of Death or imitate them. Either way, she should be useful when it comes to dealing with ghosts. At least, if the man who put up the job was right, and a ghost was indeed haunting his house.

Akeya raised her eyebrows as she saw a rather curious looking individual, likely the one who would turn out to be her partner: a short girl, walking along the road with big strides. Her hair was mostly covered by the hood of the black cloak she wore, but Akeya managed to pick out some strands of light hair. More interesting, the eyes of the girl were bright red, and glowed slightly. So far everything fitted the description, and Akeya found the rest of the attire to be rather fitting: black boots and gauntlets, but at the same time a short white dress which only covers a small amount of the girl's legs. An interesting combination of gothic with girlishness, fitting the name of the girl and her abilities.

In some ways Akeya could be considered a nearly complete opposite: Her hair is pitch black, and her eyes a dark green, the only abnormal thing the sensation that her pupils are slight ovals instead of perfect circles. Where the girl was obviously short, Akeya was of at least average height, even if she could probably not be called tall. Roselia's both dark and girlish attire was met by Akeya's all around mundane and practical clothing, all of it dull brown shades. The only thing that could be remarked upon were the wrappings around her forearms and lower legs, and the mask covering her lower face.

When the girl approached her and greeted her politely Akeya pushed herself away from the wall, bowing slightly in return while staring intently at Roselia, a stare that unnerved most people not because of it being threatening or mysterious, but just extremely focused.

"Greetings Roselia Heart, I am Akeya Kuusai. I hope we can work well together. As you know, our client has experienced strange noises in his house, and is blaming ghosts. While I believe that he is merely seeing things, we were chosen for this mission because you have an ability which would be useful if the man was right, and I simple do not scare easily."

This was certainly true: So far Akeya had proven extremely resilient towards all things which would shock most people.

"Anyway, we are supposed to enter the client's house and stop the noises. The client himself expects us to get rid of the ghost, but we will first figure out what is the source of the sounds, then take action accordingly. Well then, shall we go?"

Akeya observed the girl carefully as she explained the details of their job. It looked like the girl was paying attention, although Akeya had expected somebody who channels the power of Death to be a bit less timid. Then again, maybe she learned how to act like that to avoid getting into trouble. Akeya may just find it interesting, but most people would be hesitant to deal with somebody who possessed powers directly related to the Grim Reaper. Most people already had trouble dealing with Akeya, Roselia would be even worse for them.

Still, even with that Akeya found the girl to be surprisingly childish and withdrawn, even more so when at the end of her explanation the girl shouted out in enthusiasm and promptly walked the wrong way. For now Akeya would just dismiss the possibility of the girl hiding something, but she wasn't completely trusting of it. Well, as long as it wouldn't interfere with the job the girl could be as much of a nut or a trickster as she liked. Stepping forward Akeya gently placed a hand on the girl's shoulder and pointed towards the direction they should be heading towards.

"It's good to see that you are so enthusiastic, but as I said, we aren't sure if there is actually a ghost, and furthermore, the client's house is that way. Just follow me."

Akeya then started heading in the right direction, giving the feeling that she completely expected Roselia to follow without complaint. The way she said it also had been filled with that feeling, the feeling of dignity and the expectation of being listened to. Should Roselia follow Akeya would lead her deeper into the city, where there were more people. It wouldn't take them long to reach the address of the client, where they would see a fairly grand house, not exactly rich but certainly from a well-doing merchant. Akeya came to a halt in front of it, studying it with narrowed eyes.

"On one hand, I can see why somebody might want to rob this place. On the other hand, judging from the location the chances of getting caught would be too high."

During their walk towards the destinated building Akeya would have been completely silent, studying everything without ever showing any opinion of what she saw. Inside she would admit that the town looked pretty nice, although for her tastes way too crowded. However, all anybody outside of Akeya's head would see was her usual focused but at the same time uncaring gaze, her mask blocking anything else there might have been to see.

When Roselia gave her response to Akeya's opinion of the house Akeya looked at her, the awkward laughter not really reassuring her. Well, she didn't believe Roselia was serious when she proposed robbing the house, but the laughter only gave her the idea that either Roselia was nervous, or she hadn't actually intended to make that comment, and the laughter was an attempt to distract Akeya from it.

"Besides the moral implications, I don't think it would work."

As Roselia suggested going inside the house Akeya nodded, fishing the key to the front door out of one of her pockets. She didn't know if Roselia also had one, although after seeing the girl Akeya could imagine that she had the only key between the two of them. Walking towards the front door she put the key in the lock and turned it, opening the door and holding it open for Roselia to pass through before entering herself, closing the door behind her.

The inside of the house would largely agree with the outside: It may not be the house of nobles or high ranked officials, but it still possessed enough wealth to show it off. Most of the furniture was simple but from high quality, and there was a decent amount of filled bookcases. However, the owner apparently liked trinkets, since there were a lot of small tables and the like, and most flat surfaces were used to support all kinds of small items, ranging from obvious trinkets like scrying spheres to very odd. Akeya stood in the doorway for a while as she studied the room, not sure how to react to the overload of unnecessary decorations and conversation pieces. She noted that on the top of one bookcase somebody had placed a stuffed squirrel, whose fur had been coated with silver.

"I get the feeling that if we took even a single thing the client would know instantly."