Magical Lotus, Mahou Shoujou Byakuren - Episode 2

[Oldmansour]

>"Reputation is a strange thing.  Even one such that I have, which is a useful tool, and something that I feel I have done some part to earn, can twist lives in subtle and blatant ways.  We can never truly know what it is to be another with out being them, and even that is sometimes not enough, but forgive me for my philosophy."

>Eagle shrugs, smiling easily. "Reps, philosophy, we all got em both. I try not to hold either against someone, but I suppose I'm a little biased on the former, being the person I am, and having the rep I do." She tilts her head sideways slightly, her smile becoming more a grin. "You're a real interesting bird, yknow? Looks like yours, a good heart, and a thinker on top of it." Her grin becomes somewhat self-mocking. "What the heck you doing with someone like me?"
>"Beh, whatever." she shrugs, shifting the guitar on her back. "You got change for the bus? We got a pendant to find." Her grin then becomes cocky. "Unless you wanted to go with Lily to her new shrine?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"I should be able to cover bus fare. Let's go."

[Oldmansour]

>"I should be able to cover bus fare. Let's go."

>You set off for the stairs leading down to the main road, Eagle falling into step behind you.
>"One thing I can't figure out, though, Youmu or Suika?" she asks casually.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Hmmm?"

[Oldmansour]

>"Hmmm?"

>"That's the one thing I couldn't figure, which shrine Lily's moving to. Youmu's closer her age, but Suika's... Well, Suika."

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod and proceed.
>"I suspect she'll favor Youmu, but we'll see what happens. If I may ask, how have your experiences with Satori been?"

[nolrai2]

"Brief, for the most part.  Stern perhaps."

[Hello Purvis]

>"What sort of stern? I would hope that someone who could read your thoughts would be able to show some understanding that others would not."

[Oldmansour]

>Nod and proceed.
>"I suspect she'll favor Youmu, but we'll see what happens. If I may ask, how have your experiences with Satori been?"

"Brief, for the most part.  Stern perhaps."

>"What sort of stern? I would hope that someone who could read your thoughts would be able to show some understanding that others would not."

I'm not entirely certain what happened here, but let's try that again.

>Nod and proceed.
>"I suspect she'll favor Youmu, but we'll see what happens. If I may ask, how have your experiences with Satori been?"

>"Satori's a tough boss, can't get nothin' over on her. But she's fair, too. You do her right, and she'll do you right. She knows how to let people do what they're good at; even has a sense of what they're good at, without asking." She shakes her head as you walk down the stairs. "I'm pretty perceptive, but you'd think the woman could read your mind."
>"You met her, out in the woods. You get that feeling?"

[Hello Purvis]

This is what happens when people keep changing names and avatars.

>"I wouldn't be surprised. So, she's treated you well?"

[Oldmansour]

>"I wouldn't be surprised. So, she's treated you well?"

>Eagle chuckles. "Lemme put it to you this way. As long as I'm here, she knows how to use me. She knows what I'm good at, and she lets me do it, to benefit the shrine. She also knows what I don't like , and doesn't force me to do it. So yeah, compared to a lot of bosses I've known, she's a fair woman."
>"That said, though, I get the distinct impression that she ain't exactly gonna miss me when my sentence is up. Sometimes I wonder why she ever volunteered for this gig at all..."

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod.
>"Well, she might have expected someone different? Or, perhaps she's just blinded by preconceptions."

[Oldmansour]

>Nod.
>"Well, she might have expected someone different? Or, perhaps she's just blinded by preconceptions."

>"Maybe, but I'm inclined to doubt it. She knew what she was getting when she asked for me, she had to. I can't confirm this, of course, but I suspect suspect she had her own reasons for asking for me, and all the cons she's handled before, I'm not the first. Reasons beyond the stipend the government pays the shrine for assisting their correctional program." Her face betrays a hint of vexation as she continues, "I just haven't figured out what, yet. She keeps her cards real close to her chest."
>As the Eagle ruminates on the head of the western shrine, a small shudder runs down your spine, one you suspect has nothing to do with the chill wing blowing around and up your legs. Three years plus of being the school idol of the Mayoiga system has given you an almost preternatural sense for when someone has their eyes on you. It feels like that now, although a quick glance around reveals no one at least in plain sight.

[Hello Purvis]

>Does Eagle seem to be cagey at all, as though she felt it too?

[Oldmansour]

>Does Eagle seem to be cagey at all, as though she felt it too?

>If she has any sense of being observed, she gives no outward sign of it.

[Hello Purvis]

>Fold a hand over our ring, and try to employ some of our more esoteric senses to find the source, if we can.

[Oldmansour]

>Fold a hand over our ring, and try to employ some of our more esoteric senses to find the source, if we can.

>Covering the ring on your right hand, you send out a sort of 'psychic probe', trying to employ some of your newfound abilities to identify the indivual that seems to be snooping on you. As you continue down the long stairway to the main road, you begin to have a sense of... not so much an individual, but a distinct presense instead. It is virtually identical to the sense of age that you felt when in the woods with Lily, but on a much smaller scale.

[Hello Purvis]

>Can we put a location to it?

[Oldmansour]

>Can we put a location to it?

>Vaguely behind you, more to your right than left. You cannot be more precise without a more focused effort.

[Hello Purvis]

>Can we discreetly make a more focused effort?

[Oldmansour]

>Can we discreetly make a more focused effort?

>Your abilities are still mostly unknown to you at this point, you're not entirely certain how to concentrate in this manner on the move. You suspect that could narrow your focus, but at the very least, you would have to stop moving.

[Hello Purvis]

>We'll wait until we get to the bus stop, then.
>Keep an eye on it in the meantime.

[Oldmansour]

>We'll wait until we get to the bus stop, then.
>Keep an eye on it in the meantime.

>Opting to wait until you come to a natural stop, so to speak, you continue down to the bottom of the stairs, affording you quite a view of the city below you. Well, it would, if you weren't a bit distracted. You're not entirely certain, but you believe that whatever was putting out that sensation is following you down, but at a leisurely rate, letting you pull out ahead of it. As it is coming from behind you, you obviously can see nothing, but no sounds out of the ordinary cross your ears, either.
>At least not until you reach the threshold of the torii gate leading to the road proper. As you stand before it, and the Eagle crosses under it, you hear a slight but distinct rustling in the plantlife behind and to your right, some distance back.
>Weirdly, Eagle makes a *tsk tsk* sound and shakes her head, almost in amusement. "Very sloppy, Kiki..." she remarks quietly, more to herself than you.

[Hello Purvis]

>Is the rustling roughly where we are sensing things?

[Oldmansour]

>Is the rustling roughly where we are sensing things?

>It seems to line up with the general vicinity.
>"Tiger or jaguar this time, I wonder..." Eagle mutters.

[Hello Purvis]

>"What's this, now?"

[Oldmansour]

>"What's this, now?"

>Eagle chuckles archly, then whispers. "Have a look back there, tell me what kinda cat ya see there. Or dog, maybe she wrangled one of the other girls."

[Hello Purvis]

>Have a look.

[Oldmansour]

>Have a look.

>Looking back, you see the Eagle was right about the 'dog', wrong about the 'girls'. It's a fox. As a matter of fact, it is Hideo, the fox you met before you and Lily entered the woods. He is sitting in the middle of the staircase.

[Hello Purvis]

>"It's a fox, actually. Something of an old friend."