Taking his hand from the opposite sleeve, he gestured expansively, to indicate the wide array of festival decorations and activities laid out before them. âSo? What will it be? Show me some chaos, kitten. Little Mayhem and I will assist, but the master plan must be yours.â So saying, he reached over and plucked Mako from atop Nayaâs head, settling the white tiger cub over his shoulder. âIsnât that right, Little Mayhem?â Tora used his index finger to scratch under the familiarâs chin, quirking an eyebrow at Naya as though awaiting instructions. It might be fun to be the henchman for a changeâŠ
Naya arched a brow at Tora, a slow grin spreading over her face. Silently, she began looking around her, her eyes taking in all the different possibilities. Mako giggled madly as Torahiko placed him on his shoulder. "So, Kishi-san and I are henchman? Shouldn't I be a henchkitten?"
Naya had to fight not to roll her eyes. "Oh fine, Mako, sure, you can be a henchkitten." Suddenly, a few different things clicked, and she ran off, coming back with a rather large piece of well-cooked meat, and a length of string. "I've got a job for you, Mako." The tiger cub looked perplexed. "Uh...pass?"
Tora saw where this was going, and burst out laughing, a deep bass sound as much rumble as chuckle. âSorry, henchkitty, thereâs no passing when the boss tells you to do something.â He scooped the cub off his shoulder and held him in one arm, reaching for the string end of Nayaâs contraption. With one hand, and the occasional use of his teeth, he rigged the string into a series of knots that would settle as a harness over the familiar, because he didnât want to choke the little guy with a simple knot around his neck or anything. Sliding the contraption on with a deft motion, he smirked over at Naya, the gesture flashing a hint of fang on one side of his mouth.
âYou want the stand with all the animals, right?â He asked, though he already knew the answer, and he stooped to set the tiger cub down, the meat trailing a foot or so behind him. âNo worries, Little Mayhem, youâve got this.â The slightly sadistic nature of the smile he wore and the flash to his brilliant green eyes were really not particularly reassuring, perhaps, but well⊠they werenât honestly meant to be. As soon as Mako was off, albeit somewhat reluctantly, Tora glanced around, and scenting no humans, shrugged.
âWell, one more tiger can only make things better, I suppose.â So saying, he shifted, taking on the form of a truly massive predatory cat, his pelt a somewhat-unnatural golden in hue, the black stripes deep as night. His eyes, however, were the same green they always were. All told, Tora was the size of a small vehicle. It was rather obvious to those in the know that heâd been built this way to hunt and kill werewolves, because he was larger than most of them. If a cat could smile, that was the expression on his face, though it looked dangerously like a snarl, not really mitigated at all by the obvious amusement in his eyes.
âHop on, kitten. The eveningâs mistress of mischief should be transported in style, no? Five points for the idea; now letâs see if you canât amplify the results.â
Mako growled lightly, ending more like grunt, and he ran off, heading towards the booths his master had pointed out. Apparently, someone was running an adopt-a-pet booth...full of dogs. Mako hated dogs. He was a tiger, not some filthy canine. "Master so owes me for this." He grumbled, taking off as soon as he heard the dogs beginning to bark.
Naya looked at Tora, something akin to admiration in her eyes. He truly was beautiful like this. She laughed slightly, wasting no time climbing onto his back. "Five points already, huh? How come Ryo and Haru have never won? They must lack a woman's inspiration."
Mako ran, winding his way in and out of booths and crowds, a trail of no less than twenty dogs clamoring clumsily after him. While at first he really hadn't wanted to do this, there was no denying he was having fun. He only laughed when his master's voice floated through his head, and he did as he was told. There, in the middle of the festival, was a large stage, where a rather poor rendition of Shakespeare's As You Like It was being presented. The tiger cub leapt lightly onto the stage, and then went straight for the lead actor, acting very much like a frightened kitten, latching onto the top of his head, claws and all.
The dogs, right on cue, all clambered up on stage, yowling and barking, most of them swarming the actors, and with a neat swipe, Mako severed the cord holding the piece of meat and leapt onto the curtain, climbing safely out of the canine's reach as he surveyed the mayhem below him. Many people were yelling, some were laughing, but the most was utter confusion.
Of course, when the massive tiger with a woman on his back leaped lightly onto he stage as though he belonged there, the reactions got even more pronounced, especially in the fear and awe departments. It was nothing less than Tora had expectedâhe knew, without arrogance, that he was rather magnificent in this form. And his other one. Okay, so there was definitely some arrogance involved, but it wasnât unwarranted. âThe first five are easy,â he replied, stalking the edge of the stage and snarling at the nearest cluster of onlookers, who cowered back from him. A strange rumbling sound issued from his chest, similar enough to his earlier laughter that it wasnât that hard to guess what it must be. âItâs the last forty-five that get a little more difficult. This is barely five-point chaos right here.â
He could think of several things they could do to make it all even more ridiculous, but he was not the master of ceremonies, such as they were, on this particular eve. It was a capacity heâd ceded to Naya, and he wouldnât do anything much unless it was her idea. Though he did pass by Makoâs perch so that the cub could also hitch a ride on him, now that his little part in this plan was for the moment complete.
Naya laughed, the sound like bells, Mako landing light in front of her on Tora's shoulders. "Then let's see what else we can drum up." Her eyes gleamed.
For the next fifty minutes, the three of them managed the destroy no less than half of the booths, start a number of fistfights, and even set a stall on fire. Naya also spent an amusing twenty minutes shocking people at the kissing booth; that one had actually been Mako's idea.
As it were now, the two of them were, at the moment, watching as the flames engulfed the stand. It had been empty, and they wouldn't let it spread, of course. Of course, she didn't stop people from freaking out over it, many of them running around looking for water. Naya's chuckled, crossing her arms as she glanced over at Tora. "Well, how'd I do, Kishi-Tora?"
At the question, Tora shifted back into his humanoid form, straightening to his full height and raking a callused hand back though his red-brown hair. Cracking his neck first to one side and then the other, he contemplated it with seeming ambivalence for a while, as though mostly unimpressed. Actually, the effort had been rather fun, and by now, the entire festival was in some form of chaos or another. That much was easy to see. And in the eye of the hurricane stood a man, a woman, and a little tiger, wearing matching grins and surveying their handiwork with a sense of satisfaction. âMmâŠâ he hummed the note in the back of his throat, idly cracking his knuckles. âNot bad, for a no-fatalities situation.â He wouldnât have cared that much if they killed someone; being raised without a moral compass to be a contract killer would do that to a person. All the same, it wasnât as though he went out of his way to murder anyone who didnât challenge him first, so he wasnât going to dock points for this.
He ran a quick mental calculation. âComes out to⊠forty-nine and a half. Lucky for you, I round up, not down, because Iâm a generous bastard like that. So, fifty. Congratulations, kitten. Youâre officially capable of more mayhem in an hour than either of my henchmen." He crossed his arms over his broad chest and quirked an eyebrow down at her. âThatâs a lot of destruction per square inch of person you have there.â He was, of course, intentionally leaving out any mention of the reward for this accomplishment. That, she would have to inquire after herself. It was more fun that way.
"Well, that isn't really surprising, when you look at my mother, now is it? Besides, I've had more experience than Haru and Ryo. Someone could argue you don't pick your henchmen very well." She quirked a brow at him, a small smile on her face. "We should make a habit of this, I haven't had this much fun in a long time."
"Nana-chan, you got fifty points. You're supposed to get a prize, remember?" The tiger-cub spoke up from his position on Torahiko's shoulder. Naya's smile ticked a little wider. "That's right, you did say I'd win something. Dare I ask what it is?"
Tora snorted, his amusement clear on his face. âI do the best I can with what Iâm given. Thereâs always room for a third, if youâre volunteeringâŠâ the sentence trailed off into a grin as the cub on his shoulder brought up the matter of his little promise, and he laid a hand on the little oneâs head. âDid I? Heh. I suppose I did.â Torahiko was one of those people who enjoyed a challenge like he enjoyed little else, and the rules of this game had long been set. Part of it was that nobody knew what the supposed prizes were, not even Ryo and Haru. Though he suspected that after this story made its rounds, theyâd be able to guess what the tenor of the challenge really was. He wondered if theyâd try a little harder or not. He was, after all, a man who followed the rulesârather, the ones he made up.
He set Mako back on the ground, straightening up and turning the required ninety degrees to be facing Naya. She was a great deal shorter than him, as most people were, but this only served to amuse him further. âWell⊠let it never be said that I donât keep my promises, hm?â he inquired, his tone light and playful. His actions were sure and deceptively swift: he slid the callused pads of his fingers back along her jawline to cup the back of her neck and bent the intervening distance, moving her only slightly forward and causing their lips to meet. Her surprise was such that rendering the kiss unchaste was not at all difficult, and Tora was not the kind of person who let an opportunity of such a nature pass him by without taking advantage of it. For all that, it wasnât a rushed or hasty gestureâhe was rather an old hand at the art of seduction, and that was what it was meant to do. Sensual, languid, and druggingâand he tugged at her lower lip with the lightest application of his teeth when he pulled away, grinning.
Tora licked his lips in a decidedly wicked fashion, winking down at Naya. âI rather expected youâd be delicious, kitten. Iâm not disappointed.â He also half-expected to be decked any second now, and honestly wasnât interest in dodging it, either. It wasnât like she could hurt him in such a fashion, after all. He might not have minded it if she could.
For the first few seconds, Naya was utterly shocked to the point that she really could do little other than stand there. And even when she did get over the shock, she was not inclined to pull away from him, and she was even slightly dissapointed when he pulled away. Even so, she was not entirely blind to the situation, and after his comment, she blinked, and then she balled her right hand into a fist, scarlet coloring her face to an odd contrast to the blue of her hair.
She drew it back, and then punched him squarely in the nose. "You're an asshole. Some prize." She crossed her arms and scowled. Mako, on the other hand, had collapsed onto this side in a fit of laughter. "That's not fair, Kishi-san, you know Nana-chan--" Whatever the cub had been about to say was cut off by Naya planting a foot on his head. "Shut up, Mako!"
He understood why the bodyguard had pulled her away from the human, though if his laughter was anything to go by, he found it all amusing rather than painful. âThatâs some left hook, kitten,â he managed past the residual chuckling. âYou sure you werenât going for the hundred?â He raised a brow slightly at the antics, quite well aware without needing to be told what Little Mayhem was going to say. It was obvious that the girl had a crush on him, and this was something he found rather hilarious, honestly. For all her expertise in chaos, she was also clearly inexperienced in certain ways, and he wouldnât be terribly surprised if that was the first time a man had kissed her in such a fashion.
He leaned back down so that they were almost nose-to-nose. âYou know,â he said in a low, husky rasp, âIf youâre not careful, people might start to think that violence is a bit of a kink of yours.â He was really enjoying this too much, but that had never stopped him before. Was it even possible to have too much fun? He wasnât sure and he didnât care. âI personally find the notion very attractive, but if youâre not interestedâŠâ He straightened and shrugged, his tones fading back into nonchalance. âThen I guess Iâll see you around, kitten.â Folding his hands back into his sleeves, Tora turned and departed, merging into the chaos like he knew exactly where everything was about to be.
It never did to overstay a welcome, after all.