Snippet #2745270

Tsume sniffed as a new scent entered the room, accompanied by a new girl. From Seimei's lack of alarm, she deduced that this new girl was meant to be here, and was probably the final guardian that he mentioned was absent at the initial meeting in the shoguns palace. She looked presentable enough, but Tsume could sense something feral, untamed, inside. She decided that this new person could be tolerated.


Kiyoyori entered the room along with Ikari, both having taken the opportunity to follow Seimei without hesitation, glad to have the awkward moment bewteen them ended. Like Ikari, he was dressed in new armour bearing the five tomoe crest, but unlike the full suit that made Ikari's entrance to the room most impressive, Kiyorori's was more similar to an ashigaru's in style, though of the same high quality, discarding any“unnecessary” pieces and stripped down to just a cuirass, armoured sleeves and leg guards. The plates were lacquered black, and the lacing was blue and pale wheat yellow. The cloth parts dark and light blue figured with a carp pattern in gold. He took a seat next to Kenshin. So, Seimei's page was coming with them. Obviously she was more than she seemed, which wasn't unusual for something connected toSeimei. On hearing the little “hmph” from Kenshin on Seimei's forbidding the group to use her as a servant, Kiyoyori smirked and suppressed a laugh. “Looks like you'll have to train Hajime for that,” he said, his eyes narrowing mischievously as he passed a glance to Kenshin.

Kenshin flipped open his fan, fanning himself rather quickly as he pondered the thought. Hajime was annoying and a brat, ignorant and ill mannered, but Kiyoyori had a point. Kenshin could bribe Hajime with food, and the kid would most likely do it. But would it be worth the complaints Hajime would say, while doing it? Kenshin was weighing the pros and cons.

Kiyoyori smirked, watching Kenshin actually taking his suggestion seriously. The thought that people might be taking him more seriously than usual, now he was the leader of the Guardians, never really occurred to him. “So, that accountsfor the one new face here,” Kiyoyori spoke up to Seimei. “Butwhat about this person -” he nodded towards Midori, who frankly looked like she had been dredged up from a swamp. “Or are you goingto introduce yourself? At a guess I'd say … Sadamitsu.”

Midori glanced to Kiyoyori with a blank expression, tilting her head to the side at his guess. “Introduce? Why? You know already who Midori is.” She stated the obvious from his guess. After all, she was the last to arrive.

"Not necessarily. You could be another of Seimei's assistants," he replied."But if you are Sadamitsu, you have a lot to catch up on even just from last night. You missed some truly great entertainment." He passed a sidelong look at Kenshin and Hajime.

Ikari was a little astonished at the new woman who took a seat beside her. Trying not to look too hard at her, she couldn't help but wonder at her story, and how she came to be here. Hoping they would get a moment to talk later, Ikari greeted her quietly. “I'm Shimoto Ikari, how do you do.” Although Ikari had spent a lot of time among men, and could handle them well enough, she was glad of another female face in the group, and one that was potential less hostile than Tsume. Ikari didn't understand why the girl had taken a dislike to her, despite her trying to to befriend her, and she felt a little hurt by it despite herself.

Midori turned her attention to Ikari, and finally noticed the girls hair for the first time. Amazed at it, Midori probably stared at it longer than Ikari was comfortable with. “White.” She stated the complete obvious. Kenshin resisted slapping his forehead with his palm. “Are you sure it’s her?” he muttered under his breath,glancing over at Seimei. It was the exact same thing he said when they first saw Hajime. And just like then, Kenshin already knew the answer. Midori shot Kenshin a glare, and muttered something under her breath. Using her power, she enhanced it so only Kenshin could hear, but with Tsume here, might have picked up on it.Kenshin cleared his throat.

Humans didn't like others speaking over them, and since no-one else was speaking, Tsume assumed it wouldn't be rude if she started now. "Rain and sickness onis... I have... encountered these before. They can be tricky as every breeze, every squall and cough carreis their scent, but we can try and use this to our advantage. Even though the chance of them being in the city itself is low, their scent will be all over it, and once I have that, I can try to track it to where it is the densest. You can just follow and do the actual fighting though, when I find them. That's your job right?" She raised an eyebrow, challenging anyone to deny it. She was clothed in the comfortable fabrics Seimei had managed to secure for her, matt black in colour, and made from a thick, but breathable material. He had even taken into account her general disliking for being unable to feel the air and floor, as her attire consisted of a tight mid wrap with folded fabric over her shoulders for modesty. Her legs were covered up to her knees, first by practical tight shorts, then a shorter wrap skirt, for appearances. Her calfs, forearms and ankles were similarly wrapped in the fabric, and the bridge of her human feet were wrapped, but not the important toes or heels. The design Seimei had been so proud of was sat neatly in the centre of the chest wrap but other than that, they were plain black, with a prestigious white gold trim.

Kiyoyori's expression had seemed to darken as Seimei spoke of the sickness that had begun to take an insidious grip on the city. “I have too,” he spoke up after Tsume said she had encountered them before. He exchanged a quick glance with Seimei. “If you can track them down, I'll be gladto meet them face to face. The very nature of them is that they don't like to show themselves, if they did, they'd fight properly not like this … cowardice.”

Ikari nodded. She had been through many towns and villages where a sickness had taken hold and ravaged the people, always feeling powerless to help, as well as fear of infection herself. “Indeed, it's difficult to protect a city from illness normally, but if there's an oni causing it, at least that makes it possible.”

Kenshin snapped his fan closed, looking directly at Tsume. “You won’t be much help on this one will you? With the rain everywhere, are you sure you can pickup the scent?” He challenged, slightly irritated at the events that were unfolding that were out of his control, something he didn’t run into very often. “I propose that we should lure the oni out of hiding by using Hajime’s healing powers. If he is an evil oni, seeing his powers have no effect may drive him out.”

Hajime nodded. The idea in it self didn’t sound to bad. “We could try it that way.Actually,” Hajime began. “Either way I want- no, I need to go out there and help them heal. It will take a long time, and if he go that route, we will need to bring a huge supply of food with us.”

Andjust when I thought he was maturing through his speech, he went right back to being a glutton. Kenshin thought. He wasn’t aware of the real reason Hajime needed all that food.

"From my experience, an oni won't give up so easily," said Kiyoyori. "But if Hajime uses his healing powers on someone afflicted, maybe he can fnd out something about the Oni that did it. And perhaps Kenshin ... could go and look at that person's dreams. Sometimes in a fever you see the demons that cause the illness. It might give us some clues anyway."

Tsume narrowed her eyes at Kenshin. To think she might have been able to tolerate this one. "With the rain everywhere, how could I not pick up the scent? It's just a case of finding where it is strongest. You can do your healing things anyway, while I do the real tracking down."

A little disgruntled at having her skills put down, she turned back into a cat there and then. Her human clothes fell to the seat and nestled around her feline form. She curled up and closed her eyes, giving the appearance of ignoring everyone and going to sleep. She was still listening sharply to the discussion though.

Ikari suddenly stood up and pointed at Tsume. "A cat!" she exclaimed rather stating the obvious. "She's a bakeneko, or a nekomata, or some kind of Oni, right here among us." Tsume being some kind of Oni made sense given how hostile the girl had been. "It seems you have been decieved, Master Seimei!" She looked to Seimei as if to get his go ahead to draw her sword and kill it.

Seimei sighed, waved his hand at Ikari. "No, no, no. You can sit down. Please. Shimoto-san." All he asked was that Tsume acted like a human in human form, a cat in cat form, and didn't switch between the two in public. Three simple rules, but of course a cat had no concern for such things. He found himself a little irritated, and Ikari, sitting back down, blushed a little, thinking that irritation was aimed at her. "Yes, Tsume is a cat. But she is not any more an Oni than I am. There is no evil in her, though there is more of quantity of willfull selfishness. Still, she will assist you all, in her own way."

“Dream walking is an option.” Kenshin replied to Kiyoyori.“But depending on the type of sickness inflicted I could..affect the brain.”Kenshin had paused momentarily, almost like he didn’t want to admit that his power had limits. “This could affect what I see. It may take longer to sortthrough all the images and scenarios.” Kenshin let go of a deep breath. That was too easy.. he thought on Tsume’s easy back down. When Tsume turned backinto a cat, Kenshin was entertained. The squeaks that came from Ikari were amusing, while Hajime was talking about wanting to keep Tsume as a pet was predictable.

Midori on the other hand, readied her weapon. An oni was present. It rubbed herthe wrong way. She had been running from Oni now for 2 years, and Seimei expected her to work along side one? Midori was fuming. How dare he do this toher of all people. But something inside was pushing her to go despite thebetrayal, like a mental pull in a different direction. Despite her anger, her arm lowered her weapon as if ordered to do so, and Midori sat back down slowly,a free hand moving up to rub her temples.

Tsume cracked open one of her bright green eyes, half hidden by her tail as it was curled round her front. Seimei expected her to work with these closed minded fools... The hostility from the two girls was slightly amusing, but the wary confusion mixed with a burst of victorious amusement from the dream walker was even more so. Were she in human form, she would have cracked a crooked smile that promised nothing but suggested everything.

Half of her was tempted to ignite her tail, just to mess with the girls who were still jumpy despite her Master's assurances, but she decided that she didn't feel like dodging blades and let the mood settle into an uneasy mist that clouded the room.