It was indeed enough to buy some time. It was dark enough that the little shadows could hide them even in the open, and the heightened sense of urgency clouded the judgement of the tengus as they ran down the street where the noise came from.

"Hey!" He called coming to a stop in the shadows. "From here out we gotta split up. See the cross section up ahead? There's gonna be more of them, so I'll go right, you go straight ahead. Head towards tech district, into the crowd, but lets cross paths whenever we can to confuse them. Two shadows running past each other in a busy street is bound to throw them off."

There's more commotion from behind them, meaning more tengu about to catch a whiff of their tail.

"Once you lose the tengu, we meet up at the agreed place but stay hidden. If neither of us shows up after fifteen minutes, steal some clothes and lose the disguise then head home. Good luck." He says sticking a fist out for a bump before a group of tengu spot them and Bishop bolts.