( open ) 007

[harimaya]

Who ⬤ Hizen Tadahiro & you
What ⬤ Catchall for open substories, closed prompts, and custom starters for September and October.
When ⬤ September and October
Where ⬤ Everywhere
Content Warnings ⬤ N/A for now

❀ Prompts in tags
❀ cr meme comment
❀ contact; yosakoi | discord: eski#9874 | PM

Comments

[tonguecutter]

[ She looks up and down at Hizen. Some swordsmen, she silently swears, holding what's left of her tongue and tucking that comment back in the recesses of her mind. ]

That's right. From what I heard, he was spotted here last. I suppose it was too much to hope to catch him in the act though, chirp.

[ She taps the the sword at her side, which is almost as big as she is, a sure sign of what she intended to do if she did manage to do so. ]

[harimaya]

(He lets out a small breath that might sound something like the tiniest little laugh at her motion. She's small, he thinks, but he knows better than to underestimate someone because their size. At his own side is a sword-- one that looks shorter than the standard length of a katana but given Hizen's own size (which is on the shorter side) it seems to be just right.)

They say he went to the bathroom after taking their money... the window's the only way out.

(He lets out a long, frustrated sigh and looks up at the window he came from. It's not particularly high. Anyone would be able to make the jump if they were healthy enough and able-bodied. One end of the alley is a dead end and the other opens out into the street on the other side.)

D'ya think he knows the city? He couldn't've known there was going to be a way out...

[tonguecutter]

[ Beni spares a glance at the window in turn. ]

Windows help with preventing mold and mildew, but not all restaurants have them in their bathrooms due to cost or even simply building location.

[ Spoken from experience. As to whether the thief knows the city... ]

...I can't say for sure, chirp. It's also possible that he scouted the place out beforehand, like a true serial dine-and-dasher.

[ Would he even have the time to do so, with what feels like a veritable mob on the lookout for him?

However, working backwards, regardless of his familiarity with the city itself, it means that the man in question would try to target places that have clear getaway routes for him to utilize. ...Not that the thought strikes her just yet. She's not too great at thinking like a thief and a scoundrel, having lived an honest life from the moment she was reincarnated. ]

[harimaya]

(That is... an answer he never would have come up with on his own. Okay, maybe he could have figured out it had something to do with mold just because that's such a timeless issue but he never would have thought about.... building codes and cost and decisions. He raises a brow. He hadn't expected that at all and it makes him rethink some of the buildings he's seen in the past.)

... Huh.

(Just "huh." As for thinking like a thief, that's more in Hizen's area of expertise. He isn't a thief. He doesn't steal. But it's adjacent to the sort of shady jobs he usually does.)

If he's from the area, the owners and everyone probably would've recognized him. But there's no way he could've known there was gonna be a window or that it'd open all the way.

(Most of these windows only open partially to prevent people from breaking in...)

I'm willin' to bet the guy's been here at least once. Maybe he didn't scout the front 'cause getting in wasn't the problem but he definitely made sure to have an escape route.

[tonguecutter]

[ She nods in agreement, his line of reasoning making perfect sense to her. ]

So he's going after restaurants that he's eaten at at least once, and have easy escape routes like windows in bathrooms.

[ ... ]

...I don't know if that narrows down the list of his potential targets, chirp.

[ They could ask the restaurant owners or wait staff if they've seen the man before, but he's dressed in all black... Then again, he had to have taken off whatever mask he might be wearing to disguise his features in order to eat in the first place, right? If he's a shapeshifting yokai of some sort, however, that would make things exponentially more complicated. ]

[harimaya]

(He runs a hand through his hair and tries to think,)

All of the restaurants have been in different parts of the city and the city's pretty big.

(Man, they really don't have a lot of leads, huh...)

Anyone get remember his face?

[tonguecutter]

That's right! He would have to remove any face coverings in order to eat in the first place. We could try asking the front of house staff.

[ Someone had to have spotted him the moment he did so, whether out of the corner of their eye or not, or even having come over to the table to ask how the food was. Right? ]

[harimaya]

(Talking to people...)

What a drag. (And he shrugs. If they need to ask the front house staff then--) We're on the wrong side.

(They're in the back right now. )

[tonguecutter]

[ Somehow, she's not surprised to hear that Hizen thinks that having to talk to others for information is a drag. Somehow. She nods. ]

Before we head over to the front, we should at least take another look at this alleyway, just in case. Two pairs of eyes can be better than one, so you might be able to spot something I missed, chirp.

[ Footprints, coins or other small baubles that the man may have dropped in his haste to escape. She might not be as insightful as Fionn or Tamamo, or as much of a detective as Sherlock Holmes himself, but she also doesn't want to let that liar of a man escape his punishment if she can help it. ]

[harimaya]

(Chirp... she's been doing that a bit. It feels rude to ask but he wonders if it's something like Nansen's "nya's.")

If he jumped, he could have dropped something when he landed. (Which has him looking around more in the area they're standing right now.) Probably be too much to hope for an ID or something...

(Anyway, while he looks, he's also just going to ask.)

... So are you some sort of bird.

[tonguecutter]

[ Beni follows suit, her eyes scanning their immediate surroundings for something, anything, that might prove to be helpful. Footprints are hard to come by when feet meet concrete and not mud. However, she stops her scan, momentarily, when addressed. ]

I'm a sparrow. A sparrow oni, to be specific.

[ Not that much different from the yokai hustling and bustling all over this fair city, in all honesty. ]

[harimaya]

(Hizen is not above getting dirty for the job. In fact, he's just going to get down on the ground and look under some of the boxes-- soggy and mildewy from water and even under the gross dumpster. You never know where things might get kicked.)

Ain't ever heard of a sparrow being an oni.

(Looking up from the ground,)

Dunno if you're big for a bird or small for an oni...

[tonguecutter]

[ Neither is Beni, used to taking all sorts of physically dirty jobs, ranging from cleanup around the inn to cleaning up hunted game. Hizen's got the right idea though, even if she flattens her expression at his response. She crouches, peering into some of the crates and examining their bases. ]

Oni come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

[ So there. ]

I might be small for an oni [ even counting Ibaraki and Shuten, she's smaller than them, and even tinier in her sparrow form ], but I'll still cut off that man's lying tongue in one fell swoop.

[ If he doesn't give her a very, very good reason to stay her blade, at least. It's less a brag and more of simple confidence in her abilities. ]