Tuujaimaa

Natrelmon: Forge of Souls

Following suit, Kasumi stepped through the portal. She could feel the familiar thumping in her chest begin to quicken, her blood coursing through her veins with renewed vigor. It was this thrill that she truly lived for, the feeling of taking destiny into your hands and making it your bitch. As she stepped out of the light that the portal was comprised of, she found herself in the darkened desert, presumably near Ivlser, though she could not see any signs of civilisation nearby. This must have meant that they were quite a way out in the desert. She quickly assisted Caelyn in moving the body to the Yata-Garasu's desired location, before sitting down on the cold sand. She released her Soelbe from its relic in order to stay with her, the two Globes of light that accompanied the ghost offering a sharp constrast to the light of Indolu that bore down from the sky.

"Yep. Now we wait, studmuffin." She chimed in, agreeing to Caelyn's statement, while she surveyed the area around her. While the general area seemed not to have any distinguishing features, the fact they they had been brought to a desert left a few options open - it was most likely, Kasumi reasoned, that whatever it was they were looking for (presumably a prison of sorts) was buried beneath the sands. The matrix that the Yata-Garasu had invoked had seemed to be particularly complex and, if Kasumi could explain it in a word, ancient. It was unlikely that they had been bought to this patch of desert in order to look for something. It seemed most logical that their current location was directly above whatever it was they had been intended to find.

"If you make it out of this alive, I'll let you do what you want with me 'til the sun comes up." Kasumi laughed, continuing to pick her nails with her knife idly. She didn't particularly enjoy being made to sit still, but the action would resume soon. She was still full of adrenaline, and though it was no longer ramping up like it had as she walked through the portal, it was still at a high enough level to keep her particularly on edge. This was easily reflected in her posture and the intent with which she was playing with her knife - the wet blood dripping from her hand did not seem to be bothering her at all.

Natrelmon: Forge of Souls

"Not the only thing that's dripping, studmuffin." Kasumi laughed, deftly slicing her right palm open, placing it against the wall, and placing her palm on Caelyn's. It was something that she had long-since been trained to do without hesitation. While she felt pain from most things, having been trained not to get hit rather than to weather the storm, the sensation of a blade running across her hands was a lesson that she had long-since learned. Even in her youth, Kasumi had displayed an exceptional talent for knife skills, and her first couple of months attempting to master the practice of throwing her knives accurately had resulted in more bloodshed than she'd like to admit - it was simply a part of growing up how she grew up.

Caelyn's attempted feign was not something that went unnoticed. Kasumi, as a war veteran, had long-since learned many lessons, and not underestimating one's opponents had been among the first she'd had to learn. Violet had helped with that, many years ago, and now those lessons were still catching up with her and affecting her judgement in many ways. Perhaps, had she been a bit more naive, she'd have fallen for Caelyn's ruse of incapability... But as things stood, she was cautious, though she too had a plan to put into action. If that meant playing into the impressionable young man's hands, it meant playing into his hands. Squeezing her own fingers around his, she turned to him and gave him a coy smile while she waited for the magic to work.

She had the utmost faith that what she was doing would be best for her - and the idea of being wrongfully imprisoned by a corrupt judge was something that had oddly struck a chord within Kasumi's mind. She was not one for politics, or philosophy of any kind, but the idea of such power being sealed away seemed like a terrible waste. At least, that was her spin on it - morality did not enter the equation, which was perhaps going to be a point of contention within the others in the near future. Only time could tell, she reasoned, as she squeezed Caelyn's hand slightly.

Natrelmon: Forge of Souls

Nodding as soon as the Yata-Garasu gave its instructions, Kasumi pushed the trolley containing the deceased doctor's body to the location that the Yata-Garasu had asked her to. The nature of the morbid task was not something that Kasumi had particularly noticed, in all honesty - having fought in the war as an assassin, she had performed a great number of questionable deeds, and sometimes her kills had sided more towards the vicious side than towards the efficient and painless side. It was something that most people in the war had either gotten accustomed to, or had suffered for through PTSD. It was just the nature of warfare, Kasumi supposed, and even though the war had been brief she had learned and lost an awful lot in its duration. As a member of a high noble family, the call to war had sought her out rather quickly, and it had been her familial duty to respond.

"I do have a few questions, if you don't mind," Kasumi started, striding forwards and sitting on the end of one of the unoccupied trollies in the room. "What exactly are you? I've done my fair share of reading, and I've never come across anything like your power. Not that it really matters at this point - I have the utmost confidence that you can pull through on that reward - I'm just curious." Kasumi asked, picking one of her nails with the tip of her knife as she did so. While it wasn't an inherently threatening gesture, it was quite the sombering reminder that Kasumi was extremely skilled with a knife and more than willing to kill.

"Oh, Caelyn. I expect you to go down on me for so long that you have to make like an Armkfish and evolve gills." She smirked, turning her gaze towards him with a wry smile on her face. It was quite easy to get Caelyn to blush - as she'd found out earlier - and that was sure to set his face off into a rush of crimson.

Natrelmon: Forge of Souls

"The next time you touch me, you'll lose a hand." Kasumi commeted as Caelyn went to touch her damn-fine booty, having been telepathically informed by her Mythari that he was going to attempt such an act of debauchery, but she did not prevent him from fondling her. She could appreciate the fact that he appreciated that her buttocks were among the best he'd ever feel. There was no point in having the goods if she couldn't taunt people with them, after all! The little patch of ice was nothing that she couldn't handle - part of achieving relative martial mastery and having completed years of endurance training meant that her stride was very difficult to break, and though she certainly noticed the ice, it was nothing that her feet couldn't bypass without even showing a hint of having known it was there.

"I apologise for Caelyn's barbaric behaviour." She added, a hint of seriousness creeping into her voice as she focused more fully on the task. Noticing that the Yata-Garasu had indicated that there might be a time limit in play, she sped herself up, before quickly breaking out into a sprint. As a Touhou, it was Kasumi's namesake to be extremely fast, and she shouted back to the Yata-Garasu that she had inevitably just overtaken.

"I'm a Touhou. It's our namesake to be fast. You lead me to the morgue, and I'll get you to that body - and I'll kill anyone who tries to stop me. Sound good?" She called out, obviously quite enthralled with the entire situation. It had been very interesting since the very beginning, but now she had gotten a taste of a tangible reward for her assistance and the tumblers had locked into place. She was more than eager to learn whatever ancient secrets the trapped being had to offer, especially if those secrets pertained to new magic or to long-lost treasure.

Natrelmon: Forge of Souls

"... You need to work on your priorities, studmuffin. You're surrounded by a horde of undead Natrelmon that are probably going to decimate the city, stuck with a member of a high noble family in a hospital surrounded by even more undead Natrelmon... And your question is "Oh my god how can you talk?!"? You need to get a grip, sweetheart." Kasumi replied, her Gen hopping on to her outstretched hand, then onto her shoulder, and finally on to the top of her head, in order to get the best vantage point possible. Two sets of eyes, one curious, one obedient, looked out towards the Yata-Garasu before Kasumi stepped forwards, shrugging her shoulders as she did so.

"Count me in. Anything powerful enough to cry out for help by raising an army of the dead is something I'd certainly like on my good side." Kasumi noted, walking towards the raven as if to follow it. She was fully aware that Caelyn, seeming to have a bit more of a sound moral compass, may well decline to help the creature. It practically reeked of "evil" as most would call it, but that had never stopped Kasumi from doing whatever it was that she wanted, and it had most certainly never stopped her from indulging her inhuman levels of avarice. While the thrill of the chase was something that she would go as far as to say that she lived for it, the prospect of a reward that a being this powerful could provide was also in her top three priorities.

"You don't have to help if you don't want to, studmuffin. Just know that I'll kill you if you try to stop me." She started, turning around to wink at the impressionable young man, before turning back and starting to walk with the Yata-Garasu. Mythari hung slightly behind, watching cautiously to check to see what Caelyn would do while Gen turned its gaze forward, surveying the area ahead.

Natrelmon: Forge of Souls

Accepted :)

Natrelmon: Forge of Souls

As Caelyn crumpled to the ground after metaphorically shitting himself, Kasumi rolled over and started laughing - loudly and obnoxiously - for a good couple of minutes before getting up and sighing to herself, wiping a single tear from one of her eyes. She looked around the hospital corridor quickly, before pointing in a direction and beginning a moderately-paced walk towards it. Her Gen and Mythari towed behind, being sure to keep a watch out for anything that could be approaching from the rear, while Kasumi pulled her knife out of her belt into a more comfortable position: Ready for action.

"You scare too easily, studmuffin. How are you ever going to impress someone when you shit yourself at the first sign of danger?" She commented, rather dryly, as she kept her eyes focused on anything that moved within the strange mist. The corridor seemed to not be that long, and it quickly split off into two additional corridors, leaving three choices of direction. Kasumi, having never been one to think particularly hard about the direction she was going in, deigned to simply continue going forwards. After Caelyn's earlier display, she figured that he'd stay with her for as long as he needed to. Judging from the increasing chill in the air, it seemed like the pair were getting closer to either the morgue or to their impending demise. It couldn't hurt to guess which was which.

After another couple of minutes of walking, she stopped suddenly and extended her arm, the universal nonverbal symbol to request that your allies stop in their tracks. The staircase directly ahead of them seemed to be filled with a higher concentration of mist than the rest of the corridor had been, and Kasumi was suspicious - she allowed the same ethereal-white energy to coat her left hand as she primed a Lesser Fireball for use, ready to react to anything that could possibly come up the stairs. After what felt like a solid ten minutes of waiting - despite only being five seconds - Kasumi shrugged and threw the fireball into the mouth of the stairwell regardless. After hearing the telltale sounds of an explosion, as well as an unholy shriek, Kasumi was glad that she had deigned to do so. Whatever it was that had just burned in purifying fire was likely not going to be friendly towards herself or her new boytoy/unwitting ally. It was for the best that it had died. Again.

Natrelmon: Forge of Souls

Seeing that the group had arrived, Kasumi prepared herself for the inevitable ascent to the hospital building. It was obvious from even her now-hooded form that she was going to very much enjoy the upcoming adventure into the morgue. Her blood was beginning to course through her veins at a speed befitting a member of the Touhou, and as her pulse rose so did her senses, caused by the adrenaline that was beginning to seep into her systems. Amid her brief reverie of getting suitably pumped up, she heard an immense screech pierce the eldritch fog and turned her gaze towards its source - apparently, an immense shadow that was hurtling towards her. Her only response was to grin as pyromantic energy begun to gather around her left hand, oddly tinged with a spark of white, and to leap off of the building towards the hospital. To an bystander, it may have seemed clear that from standing she wouldn't have made the jump towards the ledge without assistance like Cat had.

Suddenly, at the peak of her ascent, the shadow that had been moving towards her from the mist was revealed: An immense Hawkline, clearly just reanimated, flying towards some unknown destination. As Kasumi began to lose height, it was clear that her intention was to land on the immense bird and use it as a springboard, and do that she did - as her relatively small but powerful bulk landed upon the Hawkline, it faltered, and she used the small change in momentum to leap off of it, splaying her hands outwards towards it as she turned mid-air and landed upon the third floor of the building, like Cat had managed to. As she had jumped, the spell had been released, and the decaying Hawkline was covered in a mass of ethereal white petals. Any mage with rudimentary knowledge of Pyromancy - that was, most mages - would understand that it was the work of the spell "Cinders of Kyokujitsu", but the ethereal white flame that the petals were comprised of was somehow different to the normal spell.

As Kasumi landed, she found herself next to Cat, and laughed to herself under her breath. As she turned around to enter the hospital building through one of the windows, another shriek could be heard - but this time, it was a shriek of pain rather than a shriek of life like it had been before. The Hawkline had erupted in an immense fireball of white fire, which seemed to be cutting through the shadowy aura that surrounded it, and crumpled mid-air, falling to the ground as whatever had returned it to life was released from its body. She turned to Cat, blew a kiss and pressed it against her cheek, and caved a window in with a knife before winking at the detective and stepping through. It was certainly good to be Kasumi on days like these.

"Cya later, cupcake." Could be heard from inside the hospital while one Kasumi Touhou vanished into the mist. Her first move was to release her Gen and her Mythari, become invisible, and allow the two to scout for her. Due to being a skilled mage her Mythari had the bonus of telepathic communication and her spiritual bond with her Gen allowed for non-verbal communication, which would prove to be a boon as she allowed the two to scout for her. While the Natrelmon never got far, they were far enough away from Kasumi in order to keep close tabs on anything that moved through the mist around her. The labyrinthine corridors of the hospital would prove difficult to navigate, given that Kasumi could hardly see more than ten feet in front of her, and the signposts seemed to be either obscured or taken down. Perhaps there were no signposts in this particular section of the Hospital? Still - she figured that a morgue would be kept near the back, on the ground floor. It would be easier to navigate from up above, though, and she'd certainly not run into a troublesome group of trainers who might want to get out of the mist as quickly as possible...

It didn't take her long to find the somewhat-dishevelled form of Caelyn wandering the halls, obviously having had the same idea to scout the upper floors. She made a mental note that he was easily surprised, and chuckled to herself under her breath - this would be fun.

With an immense screech, she leapt forwards out of her invisible state towards Caelyn, aiming to rugby tackle him to the ground in the process. There was every chance that he'd somehow manage to react and that she'd miss, but either way she would find the entire situation extremely funny.

Natrelmon: Forge of Souls

Shio's immediate reaction to Kasumi's little prank came as no surprise, and as soon as the knife was loosed, Kasumi had prepared herself to intercept it. The Word of Conviction: Blind would do little in this situation, given its limited power due to its immediate casting and Kasumi's training. With a single deft motion, she caught the grip of the blade while pivoting on her left foot, reducing the worst of the bright light, and nullifying the blade attack immediately. She completed the turn, using her momentum fully, before extending her hand out towards Shio with the grip of the blade pointed towards her.

"Good reflexes." Was all Kasumi said, chuckling a little under her breath.

As the Crowire hurtled through the window, Kasumi's first reaction was not one of shock or fear. She studied the decaying corpse intently, keeping her gaze towards it unbroken, before turning to Violet and Cat. The grin on her face was unmistakeable - a thrill-seeker such as herself found the entire prospect of Natrelmon being risen from the deaf enthralling, no matter the danger to herself and others, and when she next spoke the almost giddy tones of her voice gave her excitement away if the grin had not:

"Kasumi of the Touhou, at your service, officers. Let's fuck them up."

With those words, Kasumi vaulted out of the broken window, clearly expecting Shio to follow her, and set her sights on the morgue. The route that she knew that she could take was somewhat difficult for the less physically able to traverse, but it was certainly the quickest route. Kasumi had faith that herself and Shio could at least make it across the rooftops, but she did not bother estimating how well the others would fare - Cat and Violet would be perfectly capable of keeping them out of harm's way. She started by sprinting forwards, as fast as her namesake suggested she was, and withdrew a knife the holster strapped to her waist as she ran, clearly looking to thin out the horde of undead Natrelmon as she ran. The style of the Touhou was to be fast and to incapacitate rather than outright damage like some schools of martial mastery were wont to do, and so it was not particularly difficult for her to take out the majority of the undead that crossed her path. Before long, she had travelled through some of the more labyrinthine passages in the city, and found herself at precisely the location she desired: A ladder. While she could have just entered a building and attempted to gotten to the roof from there, it was much less efficient and far too safe for Kasumi's tastes.

As she started to climb up the ladder, she felt a decaying hand grip at her ankle, trying to claw her down from her perch. Rather than let such a situation get the best of her, she loosed her grip on the ladder and slid down, vaulting backwards as she did so. The atrophied corpse was hardly a match for a physically fit human, and it was far too slow to avoid the knife that plunged into its throat. Keeping her left hand on the knife, Kasumi kicked with her left foot, squarely in the center of the zombie's chest, retrieving her knife and ensuring that the corpse would not get up for long enough that it could not possibly be a threat. It took the work of a few seconds to ascend the ladder and reach the top of the building. As an afterthought, Kasumi cast a Deceptive Bolt straight upwards, designed to look like a Fireball, as a primitive signal flare as to her location. Some of the group may have found it helpful or inspiring to know where Kasumi was, but it would at least allow Cat and Violet to know that another route to the morgue was clear, if nothing else. It didn't take the scion of the Touhou family long to start leaping across the narrow gaps between the rooftops, keeping an eye out for any undead flying above her as she did so. She would arrive at the morgue's general location fairly quickly, but would wait atop a building within view of it while invisible. Cat and Violet would appreciate a scout, even if they did not appreciate her brash antics.

Natrelmon: Forge of Souls

Beware. Things get even more 2spooky from here on out!

This is also totally not a ploy to claim the 100th OOC post. Nope.