Fu Sonzai no Genso: Reboot

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Tōnan Gyakuten

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It was a somewhat dreary afternoon. It wasn't raining, but the weather hadn't been predicted to be particularly pleasant. It didn't take some trained professional to be able to tell that there was going to be rain today. The dark clouds, the heavy air, even that strange smell that permeated the atmosphere, it all spoke of a storm.

Toshiko lit a cigarette, and inhaled. The smoke rushed in, and she took the cigarette from her mouth and blew it out. She raised an eyebrow at the paper before her. She'd received the phone call, and then a fax. The family seemed quite desperate to retrieve what had been taken...

To say nothing of what had been stolen, the circumstances were curious. The room wasn't so much a room as a heavily-protected vault, yet nothing had been destroyed. The walls were intact, so was the door... and it was tightly locked. The spells in place to protect the item were still intact, or at least that's what the family believed. There was no sign of... well, anything, really, as far as the family had been able to tell. The only difference in the entire house was that the stolen item was missing. Toshiko took another drag on her cigarette, and blew the smoke out. This... this was, to begin with, an undeniably supernatural case. And the family was quite willing to pay very well...

To be honest, Toshiko currently found herself utterly without any spending money. A well-paying case, a curious case like this...

Her employees would be downstairs by now, or at least on their way to the agency. It was time to speak to them about this case. Getting to her feet, Toshiko walked through her dimly-lit office, passing stacks of paper and the single old television. She walked to the door and pulled it open, before beginning to head downstairs.

It was time to solve a theft.

edited 27th May '13 4:05:06 PM by AnnoR

"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up."

Illae glanced up from her sewing to the door. She'd been trying to make progress on a rather complicated shielding spell, but progress was slow. "What is it?" she asked Toshiko.

Exist, pursued by bear

Kazuya

Solitaire proved more difficult than expected.

Kumo gathered all cards with a sigh and began shuffling them for the ninth time. Luck wasn't on his side today. Thankfully he made it to the agency before it started raining. Giving a small glance to his raincoat, he began putting cards together, trying to finally finish the Solitaire.

A corner of his eye noticed Toshiko walking downstairs. Seems she finally decided to share the information about the case. Kazuya was curious, to say the least. What could that be? A murder? Kidnapping? Theft? None of the above?

"Good afternoon, Miss Ando." He greeted her, getting up and giving a small, courteous bow, as usual. "How can we be of service?"

How do lizards fly?

Butterfly Assassin—Her Ideally Sized Targets

A slight weight readjusted itself on Toshiko's head, the resident ninja swivelling to sit upright and look around. She liked this position, seated on her master's head: it gave her a good view of the surroundings, something that was guaranteed to cast a shadow in some manner in case of bright light, and it was warm. Plus Mizuki was so light that it mattered little whether she was there or not, rather like a hat.

Of course, she'd been napping until now, so the tiny homunculus had no idea what sort of job they might have right now, anyway.

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Technophile Vampire
Kuroi didn't look up from her detailed work, engrossed as she was in trying to form aether into the shape and materials prescribed by the blueprints scattered on the floor around her. It looked like, by appearances, she was attempting to build Toshiko a much superior television; a top-end model that the white-haired immortal should in no way have the construction details for. Yet, somehow, she did.

The night sky in front of her appeared to be the right general shape for the desired result, but by her frown of consternation, it either wasn't quite there, or the internal workings were giving her hell.

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Fuan

Fuan heard footsteps and looked toward them. He quickly hid his latest prank behind his back when he saw Toshiko walking down the stairs. "Hi boss." He said.

edited 25th May '13 6:24:17 PM by Yeti0

Akari Tsukimi

The alabaster-faced, raven-haired Vampire slept cherubically on a rose petal adorned shrine encased in the finest crystal, her lip pursed minutely as if in wait of a kiss from a prince atop a white horse, one who had ridden the mighty steed from on high. Their kiss would forever sealed their love eternal, and gave the young girl a castle, a unicorn and way more mellifluous manservants and strapping stablehands than decency would properly allowed.

Okay, not really. Perhaps that is a slight exaggeration.

In truth, Akari dozed off on a well-used couch, pink-tinted face drenched in her own drool. She wore an exceptionally incongruous smile, and sleep-muttered ominously -“Yes,Yes! My loyal Einherjar, tear down the walls of Alfhiem!”, “My, is that Gungnir in your pockets, or are you happy to see me?”, “I’ll will pierce your Baldr with my mistletoe arrow, if you know what I means.” and “Loki, you've been a really really naughty boy. I ought to introduce you to my Mjollnir. No, my other Mjollnir.”

If one were to open her exceedingly sugary pink backpack, they would discover a certain doujin titled, “Ragnarok: Kawaii desu Love Love Heart-throbbing Romance Oniichan ~~~~~<3 V.54”. They would also likely be struck blind on the spot by the material, but that is beside the point.

"The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself." Albert Camus

Toshiko surveyed her employees for a moment, taking special notice of the sleeping vampire, before opening her mouth to speak.

And then pausing, as she realized there was a barely-there weight atop her head. It didn't take her very long to realize what it was. The tiny homunculus was a useful addition to the agency, but Toshiko didn't exactly think her current position was for the best. "Sarutobi-san, you might want to get off of my head. I'm about to make an announcement. First..."

Toshiko quickly faced Kuroi. The vampire was... well, she seemed to be working at assembling a... television? Toshiko didn't exactly know about the inner workings of televisions, but that's what it looked like to her. However, there was a more important matter to attend to at the moment. "Kuroi-san, I need your full attention. And..."

Her eyes fell on the sleeping form of Tsukimi Akari. She sighed, before smiling, slightly. "Someone wake up Tsukimi-san. We can hardly have her sleeping the whole time. As for those who asked..."

"We have a new case."

With that out of the way, Toshiko reached up to offer a hand to the tiny homunculus on her head, inviting her to step onto it and be placed in a better spot to listen to Toshiko's explanation of the new case.

"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up."

Suddenly the detective agency's front door burst open and a young voice excitedly yelled out

"Toshiko-nee! Toshiko-nee! Do we finally have another case?! Did I miss it!?"

The voice belonged to Iwajima Jun, currently standing in the doorway with one hand still holding the door wide open and the other clutching an ice-cream cone that had somehow survived from what was apparently an all out sprint to the Fu-Sonzai no Genso detective agency.

Despite only being nine-years-old, Jun had been living at the detective agency for a while now and was already dreaming of becoming a master detective, even going as far as wearing an old fashioned film noir-style 'detective's getup' complete with trenchcoat. The fact that he was practically a child prodigy of an onmyouji probably helped get him closer to his dream.

"So? What's the case!?"

Kazuya

"Ah, about time, I'd say." Kumo's eyes flashed. Finally. Something to quench his boredom. He stifled a chuckle, seeing a resident tiny ninja situated on top of Toshiko's head. She was able to appear in most improbable of places, he'd swear.

He took a glance at Kuroi. The white-haired vampire was surely a sight for a Jorogumo to set his eyes on. This was, however, not the time for him to admire the beauty of the world. He had to be focused.

Kumo shifted a bit in place, hearing Toshiko's request and glanced in the direction of Akari. Slowly approaching her, Kazuya gave her a small nudge, trying his best to ignore her desecrations of Norse mythology. "Wake up, Miss Tsukimi." He whispered, putting on his best "charming spider" impression.

How do lizards fly?

A white fox circled around Jun's legs before it slipped in past him through the open doorway. It hopped onto the sofa's armrest and then promptly transformed into a woman in a hakama.

"My, my! It looks like we're all coming together. That could only mean one thing. We have a case?"

The fox, rather, a kitsune named Yayoi, clapped her very much human hands together.

"Then I'll make tea! How would you all like your tea? Actually, forget that — we've only got green tea here anyway!"

Not long after Jun burst through the door, another, more refined figure entered the agency. Her kimono swayed elegantly with each graceful step, the sword tied to the side bobbing gently as she made her way across the room. The traditionally-clad young woman greeted each member with a bow.

"This one apologises for being late," spoke Ryuuzaki. "There were... Other duties that needed to be attended to prior to this meeting..." For just a moment, a very subtle blush threatened to intrude on her otherwise perfectly stoic expression.

Following close behind Ryuuzaki was a shadow with brunette hair. She seems to be tiptoeing and making a catlike face. Pushing her glinting glasses up against the bridge of her nose, the girl smiled and crouched down. "The predator stalks her prey, hungry for meat..." The girl narrated to herself in her head, seemingly emitting the battle aura of some cartoonish lion behind her in her imagination.

Dressed in more casual clothes, the urban hunter leaps into action... "Glomp!" And then hugs the violet haired swordswoman from behind with a huge grin on her face. Penny Drake had entered the building, her hunt being successful. Though smaller than her companion, the girl made up for it with spirit. "C'mon, don't be so formal!~" Still latched onto her girlfriend, Penny presses herself tighter against the modern day samurai's back.

Always be ready to do the unusual and unexpected.

Awakened Vampire

"Nooooooo~, don't put your Jormungand in my Nifheim, it's dir...ty...there?"

Akari squeaked out a very small, panicky -ekkkk- sound. Ah, she thought, so this is what it felt like to be a deer in the headlights. Bambi's mom, here she comes.

While normally she would have been sufficiently charmed by the Spiderman, extenuating circumstances- ie. Having a NSFW dream in, well, her workplace- clamped her mouth shut. She will -just- pretend nothing untoward happened, and listen.

"The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself." Albert Camus

Illae tried to erase all memory of what Akari had been muttering, to little success. She sighed, before looking attentively at her boss.

Exist, pursued by bear

Mizuki rejected the offered hand, backflipping off of Toshiko's head and landing on the floor just before Kuroi, standing there solemnly and looking straight up at her employer-cum-owner-cum-master, arms held stiffly by her side. She was the very epitome of efficiency, studiously awaiting their mission.

And then the vampire scooped her up and held her like a teddy bear, head swivelling to focus on the door as more people filtered in. "Hi, Jun! And Ryuu! And Pen!"

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A short bespectacled girl raced into the building. "S-sorry I'm late!" Kaede announced, panting. Running, well, athletic activity in general wasn't her strongest suit. She paused for a moment to catch her breath before continuing. "I would've been here earlier, but my friends needed some help rescuing a kidnapped princess from a dragon."

Then, something occured to her. "Toshiko-san? If you're down here...do we have a case? Is it a powerful sorceress trying to collapse time on itself? An evil emperor out for world domination? A clown?"

Burn up, hurricane of justice!

Toshiko cast a brief smile at Ryuuzaki and Penny, the teenaged girls' interactions never ceasing to make her at least a little happy. She cast her eyes over the group, and nodded. That was everyone.

Toshiko regarded the assembled employees. Well, and non-employees. The tiny homunculus, the young boy... neither of them were employees, but they were useful for cases and for the latter, Toshiko had to take care of him. Pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose and taking the cigarette out of her mouth, she began to speak.

"As long as you're here, Nakahara-san, I don't mind if you made it here a little slowly, " of course, Toshiko would probably mind if the mage girl had gotten there hours late, but this? It wasn't much of an issue. The odd explanation was weirder, really. Regarding the others, she continued.

The cigarette was returned to her mouth, and she took a drag on it before blowing out the smoke. It curled through the air. "About a day ago, the Daidouji mage family was alerted to a presence in their home. When Daidouji Kenji, and his wife, Daidouji Tomoko went to investigate, they found nothing amiss. Nothing was different, there was no sign of an intruder, nothing was changed. Not the slightest thing had been altered. That was, until they checked the room their most precious item, a family heirloom, was held. It was gone entirely. But there was no sign anyone had been to the room. Even the spells cast on the room to keep it secure hadn't been disturbed."

Another drag on her cigarette. Toshiko held the beginnings of the case report out, for her employees to take a look.

"They want us to track down the perpetrators and get their precious family heirloom back."

edited 31st May '13 7:54:57 AM by AnnoR

"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up."

"Can't I just make them another one?" Kuroi wondered, "Or a really, really good fake? It would be much quicker than chasing down someone that can get into a place and out of a place without leaving a trace, and take something with them, and not be seen..."

Feeling that she was being implicated, Mizuki flailed wildly in the vampire's arms to draw attention to herself: "I didn't steal it!"

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A stolen item? That wasn't nearly as interesting as Kaede had hoped. Still, maybe the heirloom was the key to activating an ancient superweapon that the culprits were going to use to destroy the world or something like that.

"Did they say what the heirloom was?" She asked.

Burn up, hurricane of justice!

Confused Nightwalker

As the sense of burning shame receded, replaced by question marks, Akari cocks her head quizzically. A phantom thief? Oh no, what if he- Akari automatically assigns the crook to the Male-gender column, which might be a poignant social statement if she bothers to be introspective. The chance, unfortunately, is morbidly obese- stole some young lad or lass! I mustn't let him stole my cuteness!

The last sentence was softly vocalized by the preoccupied girl.

"The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself." Albert Camus

Intrigued Spider

Kazuya listened to Toshiko's explaining of the case with piqued curiosity. He was somewhat glad it wasn't anything related to violence in any way, at least not directly. While he could turn the tables with relative ease, he preferred to talk first.

Then, Akari mumbled a rather unusual sentence about stealing... "cuteness"? Kumo raised an eyebrow, giving a glance at the vampire he happened to wake up a while ago.

" If I may state my opinion, Miss Tsukimi, I don't think stealing anyone's cuteness is possible. And I doubt you can be robbed of yours." He whispered to Akari, giving one of those somewhat charming and somewhat mischievous smiles he liked to flash every now and then when he was feeling giddier than usual.

Clearing his throat, Kazuya turned back to Toshiko. "Were the spells protecting the room only on its entrance or were they designed to sense someone's presence inside? If it's the former, is it possible with any kind of magic to simply appear in one place?" He inquired, adjusting his glasses slightly.

edited 31st May '13 7:41:27 AM by FergardStratoavis

How do lizards fly?

Illae frowned. "If they're that worried about their treasure I'm sure they would have set anti-teleporting spells. And the whole outside of their vault must be covered in wards and detection spells, right?"

Exist, pursued by bear

Soon, Yayoi returned carrying a teapot and a tray of various odd and unmatching teacups.

"Ah, a locked room mystery! How exciting. Tea, anyone?"

"No, Kuroi-san, you cannot make them another," Toshiko replied, shortly, drawing the cigarette out of her mouth and blowing the smoke away, "They've asked us to find their stolen heirloom, to just try and make them a new, different one would be dishonest. I'd rather not build up any reputation for dishonesty."

Mizuki's protests, too, caught Toshiko's attention. Really now, the tiny girl was just being silly, smiling slightly, holding her left arm across her stomach and angling her cigarette away from her head with her right, she spoke. "No, Sarutobi-san, I hardly believe you were the thief. For one, I know where you were when the theft was likely to have occurred."

At Kaede's question, Toshiko shook her head. "They withheld the nature of their heirloom from me. They don't want to discuss it directly until we meet them face-to-face."

The young vampire's question was... an odd one. Of course, she was cute(Toshiko certainly acknowledged that) but...

"I have to side with Yatsuashi-san, Tsukimi-san. Stealing cuteness is impossible," she said, "Especially when it comes to separating it from someone so naturally cute. As for your question, Yatsuashi-san, the Daidouji family's security spells are extensive."

Toshiko placed her cigarette back in her mouth and took a long drag, before removing it and once again blowing out the smoke.

"There was a single spell that activated after the theft. It was a detection spell for completely unknown intruders. Which rules out a fair list of subjects... at least, when it comes to being the perpetrator of the theft itself. The Daidouji family has many branches, and all of these branches hate each other. It one of them thought this heirloom was powerfully magical, perhaps, well..." Toshiko took another drag on her cigarette.

"The wouldn't hesitate to attempt to steal it. However, the spell that was triggered means that, at the very least, it wasn't a member of the Daidouji family who stole it."

She shook her head when the Kitsune offered tea.

edited 31st May '13 4:30:05 PM by AnnoR

"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up."

Illae raised her hand for tea. "How unknown is completely unknown? If it's just someone unknown to the people in that house, than one of the rival branches could've just hired a thief or something."

Exist, pursued by bear