Hatate Quest

[Oldmansour]

> 'Investigate' Aya's house. Make sure to borrow as much stuff as possible.

>How do you wish to proceed?

[Hello Purvis]

>Before doing anything, let's circle around and see if we can find any signs of forced entry. Try to avoid the window where Momiji saw the wing, and have her keep lookout for any other signs of the intruder.

[Oldmansour]

>Before doing anything, let's circle around and see if we can find any signs of forced entry. Try to avoid the window where Momiji saw the wing, and have her keep lookout for any other signs of the intruder.

>Momiji indicated that she saw the wing through a window on the first floor, west side, so you and she circle around the western side of Aya's home, picking your way past the fallen twigs and leaves carefully. Dai-tengu's senses may not be as sharp as Momiji's, but they are sharper than the average Crow.
>Circling around wide, Momiji stops you once, her wary eyes watching the window's on the side of Aya's place. But nothing comes of it, and you continue around to the front of her place.
>Aya's rather expansive front yard has more maple trees decorating it, these a few feet smaller than the ones around back and similarly naked. The walk leading up to her front stoop appears undisturbed, but Momiji points at the front door. Although it is closed, narrowing your eyes and focusing on the doorknob, you see faint scratches around the lock.

[Hello Purvis]

>Whipser: "Think we should go in after 'em, or hide until they leave?"
>What happens if a Dai Tengu gets caught breaking and entering?

[Oldmansour]

>What happens if a Dai Tengu gets caught breaking and entering?

>Despite their elite status, it comes down to a case by case basis. Even a Dai Tengu doesn't get a free pass for being a sneak thief, so long as one can catch them in the act. If they have a justifiable reason, however, all bets are off.

>Whipser: "Think we should go in after 'em, or hide until they leave?"

>"Investigate." Momiji replies. "If she's here for the same thing we are, all right, no harm either way. If she's a thief, then we stop her."

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod.
>Should it come to testimonies, can we reasonably expect Momiji's word to hold up as evidence that it wasn't us that picked that lock should Daiguy accuse us of such?
>Go listen at the door.

[Oldmansour]

>Nod.
>Should it come to testimonies, can we reasonably expect Momiji's word to hold up as evidence that it wasn't us that picked that lock should Daiguy accuse us of such?
>Go listen at the door.

>It should. On the one hand, the word of a White Wolf doesn't carry as much weight as that of a Dai-tengu, that's just the way of society. On the other hand, Momiji is a bit of a standout among the White Wolves, renowned for her honesty and dependability. Depending on the other party involved, and the circumstances surrounding the situation, Boss Tenma may take Momiji's word wholesale over the other party. And having you around to substantiate her story couldn't hurt, either.
>Stealthily, you make your way up to the jimmied door, and find it ever-so-slightly ajar. All the better to snoop, then. You think you can hear something inside like a faint rustling sound, possibly paper being shifted, but you can't be sure. It sounds distant, and rather quiet.

[Hello Purvis]

>Give Momiji a questioning look, then motion for her to listen. She's the ears of this outfit, anyways.

[Oldmansour]

>Give Momiji a questioning look, then motion for her to listen. She's the ears of this outfit, anyways.

>Your partner in crime twitches her ears, then points upwards, her finger bent slightly in towards the house.

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod, and nudge the door open as gently and quietly as we can.

[Oldmansour]

>Nod, and nudge the door open as gently and quietly as we can.

>First you give the door an experimental poke, just to make sure the hinges haven't gone squeaky since the last time you were here. Fortunately they have not, and the door swings slowly, and quietly, open, revealing the stately front room of Aya's abode.
>With a bit more gap to let sound escape, you can now determine that the sounds you are hearing are coming from the second floor. At least, you're reasonably sure.

[O4rfish]

>Sneak upstairs, cameraphone at the ready.

>Yes, do we know approximate caste population?

[Hello Purvis]

>Don't go upstairs just yet.
>How does the downstairs look? Any signs of ransacking? Also, what kind of rooms seem to be down here?

[Oldmansour]

>Yes, do we know approximate caste population?

>You have to think about that for a moment. Among the four races your're most familiar with, the Long-nose Tengu and the Crow Tengu are about equal in number, you believe. The Dai-tengu are not quite as numerous as the other tengu races, but they compensate for this with the status, power and influence. It's possible the White Wolf Tengu are the most numerous, but you're honestly not sure. You're even less sure about the Yamabushi tengu, as the bulk of them live a bit apart from the other four tengu races, farther down the mountain and on the other side.

>Sneak upstairs, cameraphone at the ready.

>Don't go upstairs just yet.
>How does the downstairs look? Any signs of ransacking? Also, what kind of rooms seem to be down here?

>Carefully you produce your cameraphone, but hold off on ascending Aya's carpeted marble staircase with gold-gilt bannister to have a quick look around. Aya's house is divided mostly into two sections, the ground floor being her living space, the upstairs part being devoted to her work, where she writes, assembles and prints her paper. The entryway here is a fair sized room, lined with photographs of some of the more notable incidents around Gensokyo over the past few years, as well as photographs and portraits of a more personal nature, including a very nice picture you took with her and Momiji at the Sapphire Moon tavern a year ago.
>The stairs lead up to the second floor. The door to the north leads to a hallway connecting Aya's room to the kitchen, the exit to the west leads to a large dining room, the larger door to your east to her living room.
>Your keen eye reveals that the picture of you three mentioned above is slightly crooked. Aya wouldn't have left it like that. The rest seem undisturbed.

[Hello Purvis]

>Point toward the picture, and make a motion as if we were specifically trying to tilt it.
>Judging from the sounds upstairs, can we specifically tell what is going on?

[Oldmansour]

>Point toward the picture, and make a motion as if we were specifically trying to tilt it.
>Judging from the sounds upstairs, can we specifically tell what is going on?

>Momiji glances at the picture and frowns slightly in thought.
>It sounds as though someone was picking through a stack of papers. Or perhaps reading a newspaper. They're being very discreet about it.

[Hello Purvis]

>Point toward the stairs, and raise an eyebrow in question.

[Oldmansour]

>Point toward the stairs, and raise an eyebrow in question.

>Her ears twitch once more, then she nods.

[Hello Purvis]

>Can we hover up them? If so, hover up them.
>If not, then do it a step at a time, keep it quiet.
>Either way, keep attentive. Try to figure out where our break-in artist is before we see him.

[Oldmansour]

>Can we hover up them? If so, hover up them.
>If not, then do it a step at a time, keep it quiet.
>Either way, keep attentive. Try to figure out where our break-in artist is before we see him.

>You can, and you do so carefully. Wingless flight might be more silent than winged flight, but a trained tengu ear could still detect it, potentially.
>Of course, your ear isn't exactly untrained either, and you keep a sharp ear out. The paper rustling is definitely coming from the second floor. The hallway at the top of the stairs goes to the left and right, and the sound appears to be coming from the right side.

[Hello Purvis]

>Stop at the top of the stairs, and try to peer around the corner while exposing as little of our head as possible.

[Oldmansour]

>Stop at the top of the stairs, and try to peer around the corner while exposing as little of our head as possible.

>Very cautiously, you sneak a peak down the right hand hallway. There are four doors down that way, and all but one is open. The closed door, the closest door to your left, leads to Aya's dark room. The door farther down to your left is her study, where she keeps the bulk of her reference material. The closest door to your right is her editing room, where she compiles the notes and stories she's wrote about and turns them into the Bunbunmaru. The door farther down to your right is essentially a relaxation room for Aya when she wants to unwind after a hard day's work.
>The sounds of the other intruder are coming from the editing room.

[O4rfish]

>Burst in, snapping pictures and accusations.

[Hello Purvis]

>Rather than do that, let's take it smart and try to get the upper hand. Quietly make our way to the edge of the editing room, and check to see if it's fully closed, or ajar in some manner. Keep ears peeled for noises of any kind.
>Do we trust our camera to be discreet enough to take the picture of someone with their back turned without alerting them?

[Oldmansour]

>Burst in, snapping pictures and accusations.

>Rather than do that, let's take it smart and try to get the upper hand. Quietly make our way to the edge of the editing room, and check to see if it's fully closed, or ajar in some manner. Keep ears peeled for noises of any kind.
>Do we trust our camera to be discreet enough to take the picture of someone with their back turned without alerting them?

>Opting for a more subtle approach, you creepily creep forward as quietly as you can. The door does appear to be mostly open, swung inwards to the right. The sound of paper rustling, however, ceases as you approach, and a moment later you hear the sound of a chair creaking.

>In the case of a human, certainly. A Dai-tengu, however.... You'd say the odds are seventy-thirty that you wouldn't be able to catch them off guard, unless they were distracted by something else or asleep, or something like that. Some of them have almost preternatural senses for when they're being observed. On the other hand, that doesn't mean it can't be done with the gear you have. Some people can get so wrapped up in what they're doing that they wouldn't notice if someone set their toes on fire. Dai-tengu can fall victim to this just as anyone else can.

[Hello Purvis]

>Pause. Wait for rustling to resume or for sounds to change.
>What's Momiji up to?

[Oldmansour]

>Pause. Wait for rustling to resume or for sounds to change.
>What's Momiji up to?

>Waiting outside the door, you keep your ears cocked as you turn your head back to look at Momiji. She is only now coming to the top of the stairs, having moved much more slowly than you, but very quietly. You don't believe you even heard her breathe. That's pretty impressive.
>Seconds tick by as Momiji stealthily walks up to join you, and still no further sound comes from the room within. Nearly a minute of waiting offers no change.

[Hello Purvis]

>Peer around the doorframe, as we did around the top of the stairs. No sudden motions now. But do be rather to snap a quick picture.
>Unrelated to this, how does our spiritual photography work? Could we, say, take a picture of what's inside of a closed room?

[Oldmansour]

>Unrelated to this, how does our spiritual photography work? Could we, say, take a picture of what's inside of a closed room?

>In short, you think about something, and the image of it appears on your phone. It's a very convenient power, and has served you and your newspaper well. It isn't without limits, however. The more solid an idea you have of what you're looking for, the faster you will get an image, and the better it will be. And it's a tricky power to pull off on the fly, as it takes some concentration. You can do it while flying or running, but trying to do so during a battle of some sort would be a bit harder. Though you suspect this will become easier with more time and practice.
>This isn't the limit of your power, either, as you have the ability to take the image displayed on your cameraphone and 'burn' it onto another material. This is an integral part of your paper. You've thought about using this ability to see if it could be applied elsewhere, but you've yet to get around to proper experimentation.

>If you mean a closed room without you in it, then yes. You've made a career out of that, after all, before you started to grock onto the idea that Aya's approach might be a good one.

>Peer around the doorframe, as we did around the top of the stairs. No sudden motions now. But do be rather to snap a quick picture.

>Bracing yourself, you crane your neck out and glance inside the room. You spy a tall woman sitting in Aya's chair with large black and purple wings and matching hair facing your way, a supremely confidant look on her beautiful face. She seems to have been expecting you.

[Hello Purvis]

>Get that photo!
>Do we know who this is?