Tsuiraku-town

[Sareth]

I squeezed the trigger several times, getting no results. Being as I was someone who relied on my weaponry for a living (and for living) this was rather disconcerting. "What the hell? Why no boom?" I glared around the room. "Am I shooting blanks here or something?"

At that moment a cup of coffee was set beside me. Delicious, wonderful, ambrosia like coffee. Never mind that it was apparently being served in a flower, and that the counter seemed to be slowly taking on water and sinking. I had coffee. I smiled, and started to pick up the flower of coffee, but found myself forestalled by the cigar I was holding in my hand. "Dammit." I turned to the snapping turtle that had just stepped through the door and tucked the cigar in his pocket. "Here bub. Smoke this. You look like you could use it." With no further ado I turned, picked up the sieve full of coffee, and slugged it back.

"OW! OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW MOTHER FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU"

[Graybeard]

If Kinabalu noticed that his student and his, er, connection were having coffee together, he didn't deign to comment on it. Instead, he swept past and into the back of the shop, from which a heated conversation could now be heard, in a Tsuirakuan dialect that Layla didn't recognize. Strange, she thought. I studied Tsuirakuan for years in school, and I lived there long enough to be fluent in the language, if I do say so myself. I should be able to understand more of that than just the profanities. Might it be some archaic form? I didn't think the country was big enough to have regional dialects.

Well, no matter. She excused herself, stood up, walked over to where Joe was sitting with the two girls, exasperation and amusement vying for position on his face. "Are you ready to move on?" she asked, trying not to notice the ... gadget ... that the Tsuirakuan had slammed down on the table before he stomped into the back of the shop.

[Kincaide]

Rhett waited as Layla excused herself, there was no reason she should rabbit on him right now. Even if she was just milking him for information, the trust and clout Rhett had in certain circles would make things go much smoother than if she took the information and ran. Besides, she did not seem like that kind of woman. Of course Rhett had had the wool pulled over his eyes in the past by women who 'did not seem like that kind of woman' but he was willing to put his trust on the line yet again.

Besides he was still able to watch her, Layla was talking to the companion of the local that had been brandishing the toy like a pistol. He was a patient man, and this time there was no magical bindings chafing his skin. Waiting for their conversation to end was a small matter. One of the wait staff brought Rhett another cup of coffee when he signaled for it. This time he did not perform the strange little coin ritual he had done earlier.

[kagome_kino]

Maya ears twitched a little "is that Miss. Layla? My what are you doing here so fast... wait i thought we were supposed to pick you up.... or maybe you have some kind of psychic powers that can let you see the future and you knew we would be done here!" Maya nodded in understanding.

[Graybeard]

"The lessons -- didn't take as long as I expected," Layla answered, raising her voice slightly to be heard over the din in the back room. "I'll need to come back and --"

When she replayed events of the next few seconds in her mind afterward, she couldn't be sure exactly what she was remembering about the screamed "conversation" in the almost-Tsuirakuan dialect. However, she was pretty sure that buried in it, somewhere, was someone screaming something that sounded like "FORCE-U BORT-U!!"

In any event, there was a flash of light, and the BOOOMMM of a decidedly destructive spell being cast from beyond the swinging doors that separated the coffee shop from the kitchen and back room, followed by a sound of running feet, and a slamming door. Layla didn't notice anything else; at the flash of light, her Wraith reflexes had taken over, and she'd tucked and rolled, quite unnecessarily, as nobody on the near side of the swinging doors had been affected by the spell in any way ...

... But the unmistakable odor of burnt flesh coming through the doors suggested that somebody else hadn't been so lucky.

What have I gotten into now? Layla wondered, as she jumped to her feet ... and noticed that the Tsuiraku-town residents who'd been in the shop had scattered to the four winds.

[Kincaide]

Rhett got up with the crowd and tried to make his way to the back room, an island of calm in the midst of the fleeing patrons. He reached into the back of his coat and pulled out the pair of daggers he had been carrying until now. They were relatively finely crafted with good balance and a rectangular guard. The were not the weapons of an amateur, neither cheap nor too fancy. They were the tools of a professional. He knew by the time he got back there the perpetrator would be long gone but if the man was not then a pair of good daggers would come in handy.

He finally forced his way out of the crowd and came up behind Layla, "You'd think the number of times I've smelled this I'd be a vegetarian by now," he grumbled mostly to himself. He may not be a mage but he could tell when someone had been killed by magic and surveying the scene inside it was pretty obvious. He had seen both the owner and Kinabalu go back there before the explosion but from where he was standing it was hard to tell who had been cooked.

[Graybeard]

"You'd think the number of times I've smelled this I'd be a vegetarian by now."

Layla would never have noticed the muttered comment under normal conditions, but the meditation she'd done in the teaching lab might have accomplished something; she was aware of the comment in the shocked silence (and running feet) that followed the casting of the spell. A quick glance behind her revealed Rhett, and it also revealed his daggers. I thought so, she thought. I'm dealing with a pro here. That's good ... I think.

Curiously, in a way very much out of character for twenty-five of her twenty-six years, she was nervous about getting involved in what had just happened. (Motherhood, she thought.) But even though she didn't particularly like Dasuke Kinabalu, the man was her teacher -- sensei was the word she'd heard used -- and she did have a stake in the outcome here. Drawing her pistol -- no point in duplicating the pointy objects Rhett was carrying -- she crept closer to the swinging doors until she could see what lay beyond ...

"Oh, damn," she said. "So much for magic lessons."

The boots lying toe-up on the floor, connected to a thoroughly incinerated body, may have been scorched, but there wasn't much doubt that they were Kinabalu's.

[Kincaide]

"Lovely," Rhett said, his lips drawn into a thin line at the sight of the crispy man. Kinabalu might have been a prick but his death was needless and Rhett was sure their might have been someone somewhere that was sad to see him go. The inevitable question was who had killed Kinabalu and why? Obviously the man had been involved with the less than savory types. After all, he had hired Rhett to smuggle materials into the city.

And then there was the matter of his next potential client, "At least I don't have to worry about a bad review," he stepped inside the room and looked around, careful not to disturb the scene. Even with his diverse skill set there was not much to see. The killer was gone and Rhett had no idea where it had run off to. Having no particular magical ability, there was not much in the way of detecting he could do. He still kept his eyes open and looked around, time was short before the authorities moved in.

"I don't suppose you'd know who'd have it out for your teacher or who he was meeting back here?" He asked Layla. She had a nice gun, guns were still not particularly common in Tsuiraku-town.

[Graybeard]

"I don't suppose you'd know who'd have it out for your teacher or who he was meeting back here?"

Damn good question, Layla thought. It deserved a straight answer. "Not really. I don't -- didn't -- know much about the man at all. You may know more about him than I do. It was purely a professional relationship. I'm here to learn some magic. He was here to teach some. He told me the reason the Tsuirakuans had him here was so that he could start recruiting and training locals to work at the warp gate they're thinking of opening in town. I had the impression that wasn't going well. That's about all I knew of him. What does that have to do with either your contract or what was going on in the back here? Damned if I know."

Speaking of the contract... "You know, it occurs to me: whoever hit him may not be quite as willing to forgive and forget about that mugging as he was..."

Joe was listening to the conversation by now, and he'd heard enough. "Layla, let's get the hell out of here."

[Kincaide]

"Hey, I'm just the errand-boy. No one goes after the errand boy save for megalomaniacs with manhood issues," even though Rhett was playing it down, she had a point. If someone had been after Kinabalu it was a fair bet it had to do with some of the shady dealings the man had. If that were the case then Rhett went from bystander to loose end rather quickly.

Whoever came up to tell Layla it was time to go had the right idea. Rhett sheathed his weapons in the back of his belt, "Your friend is right. Better get out of here before the Johnny Law decides we might he accessories in the death of an upstanding member of society," the other patrons had the right idea in fleeing. Sticking around and staring at the corpse was atypical behavior for the average person. Not waiting for the others, Rhett stepped back out and finished off his second cup of coffee before making for the door.