1 Case 1: Of Silken Spite (Nova & Di Private). Tue Mar 27, 2018 6:17 am
Tian-Di
D-rank
Once upon a time there was a great warlord. Desiring to be king this man made a pact with the savage tribes that inhabited the outskirts of the realm. He promised them help against the tricks of civilized men in exchange for their loyalty in battle. Given arms and armor of iron these barbarians were near unstoppable. Id did not take long for the warlord to crush all those who had opposed him and reign undisputed as king. - Fragment of an old folktale.
Di had never ridden in a boat before. Truth be told it was not exactly the most pleasant of experiences. His arms - so much weaker than that of his dragon state ached with the exertion of moving the oars back and forth. Across from Di on the little boat sat a girl of maybe sixteen summers. Petite and pale with dark hair she could easily have been related to Di, if it were not for the fact that Di was not in the least bit human. Then again, Di had his suspicions that she was not either.
He had first met the girl in a small fishing town in Kiri. She in conversation with a pair of guardsmen. Di's sharp senses allowed him to overhear the dialogue between both parties and his natural curiosity overrode the faux pas of eavesdropping. Apparently the girls older brother and his friend had gone out to drink by the beach three days ago and never returned. The guards had been sympathetic up until the point where the girl mentioned that she lived on a particular island just off Kiri's coast.
After that point both men had become surly, warning the waif that if she continued to pester them she would earn a swift meeting with the business end of their truncheons. Wishing to avoid seeing a presumably harmless girl receive a beating at the hands of civil servants Di stepped in and offered to help solve the girls problem himself.
"Well girl you are in luck. I just so happen to be a detective myself and this sort of missing persons case appears to be right up my alley" The guards had shot the girl dark looks and loped off to patrol somewhere else.Almost in tears the youth confided to Di that she had no money and couldn't pay him for his work. While earning a bit of ryo sometime soon wouldn't hurt Di was not in this for the lucre and instantly bade her not to worry about such trifling matters.
They had gone to the girls boat - which turned out to be a small dinghy that had clearly seen better days. Di offered to row and the girl accepted tears glistening in her eyes.On their way across to the island Di had spotted several albatross and even passed an old woman who was seemingly traveling to bring supplies to the islands inhabitants. Di had called out to her asking if she needed assistance but the grandmotherly figure waved him away whist smiling a toothless grin.
An indeterminate time later and Di stood with the girl on the sands of Spider Island. While the young native reached into the boat to retrieve her satchel Di cleared his throat.
"Ahem - While I though it was rather impractical to bring this up whilst confined in such a small space I feel I must point something out. The average person blinks exactly fifteen to twenty times per minute. I have been observing you miss Chise and in a span of two minutes your average count was seven blinks. Whist unusual this would not be enough to raise concern in and of itself but several times during the trip you appeared to openly cry during which the tears which would no doubt leave marks on your kimono. While your garment does have patches of wetness these were caused by the sea spray and not your tears."
Di took a breath as the girl Chise turned to face him.
"My conclusion is that you are not in fact human but rather something assuming the guise of humanity under false pretenses. Possibly you are a kitsune, tanuki or even a nekomata out to deceive me for a prank. I assure you that this is a most unwise course of action so please reveal your true self to me so we can have a conversation in earnest."
And with that the girl simply melted away. Her once human countenance replaced by that of a monstrous spider roughly the size of a tosa fighting dog. This was not what Di had been expecting and as he looked upon the creature one thought kept flashing through his mind. It looks like I know where the island earned it's name now.
The spiders mandibles began to clack and a voice not unlike what Chise had used when appearing as human came wafting out of her maw.
"I'm sorry I hid what I was from you. But my story is true, my brother and his friend really did go missing and I do need your help please."
Di's mind was racing with this new information. Was everyone on this island an arachnid? Could this eight legged ambush predator be trusted to keep her hungers in check? Di didn't know but he was keen to find out.
(889 Words)
Di had never ridden in a boat before. Truth be told it was not exactly the most pleasant of experiences. His arms - so much weaker than that of his dragon state ached with the exertion of moving the oars back and forth. Across from Di on the little boat sat a girl of maybe sixteen summers. Petite and pale with dark hair she could easily have been related to Di, if it were not for the fact that Di was not in the least bit human. Then again, Di had his suspicions that she was not either.
He had first met the girl in a small fishing town in Kiri. She in conversation with a pair of guardsmen. Di's sharp senses allowed him to overhear the dialogue between both parties and his natural curiosity overrode the faux pas of eavesdropping. Apparently the girls older brother and his friend had gone out to drink by the beach three days ago and never returned. The guards had been sympathetic up until the point where the girl mentioned that she lived on a particular island just off Kiri's coast.
After that point both men had become surly, warning the waif that if she continued to pester them she would earn a swift meeting with the business end of their truncheons. Wishing to avoid seeing a presumably harmless girl receive a beating at the hands of civil servants Di stepped in and offered to help solve the girls problem himself.
"Well girl you are in luck. I just so happen to be a detective myself and this sort of missing persons case appears to be right up my alley" The guards had shot the girl dark looks and loped off to patrol somewhere else.Almost in tears the youth confided to Di that she had no money and couldn't pay him for his work. While earning a bit of ryo sometime soon wouldn't hurt Di was not in this for the lucre and instantly bade her not to worry about such trifling matters.
They had gone to the girls boat - which turned out to be a small dinghy that had clearly seen better days. Di offered to row and the girl accepted tears glistening in her eyes.On their way across to the island Di had spotted several albatross and even passed an old woman who was seemingly traveling to bring supplies to the islands inhabitants. Di had called out to her asking if she needed assistance but the grandmotherly figure waved him away whist smiling a toothless grin.
An indeterminate time later and Di stood with the girl on the sands of Spider Island. While the young native reached into the boat to retrieve her satchel Di cleared his throat.
"Ahem - While I though it was rather impractical to bring this up whilst confined in such a small space I feel I must point something out. The average person blinks exactly fifteen to twenty times per minute. I have been observing you miss Chise and in a span of two minutes your average count was seven blinks. Whist unusual this would not be enough to raise concern in and of itself but several times during the trip you appeared to openly cry during which the tears which would no doubt leave marks on your kimono. While your garment does have patches of wetness these were caused by the sea spray and not your tears."
Di took a breath as the girl Chise turned to face him.
"My conclusion is that you are not in fact human but rather something assuming the guise of humanity under false pretenses. Possibly you are a kitsune, tanuki or even a nekomata out to deceive me for a prank. I assure you that this is a most unwise course of action so please reveal your true self to me so we can have a conversation in earnest."
And with that the girl simply melted away. Her once human countenance replaced by that of a monstrous spider roughly the size of a tosa fighting dog. This was not what Di had been expecting and as he looked upon the creature one thought kept flashing through his mind. It looks like I know where the island earned it's name now.
The spiders mandibles began to clack and a voice not unlike what Chise had used when appearing as human came wafting out of her maw.
"I'm sorry I hid what I was from you. But my story is true, my brother and his friend really did go missing and I do need your help please."
Di's mind was racing with this new information. Was everyone on this island an arachnid? Could this eight legged ambush predator be trusted to keep her hungers in check? Di didn't know but he was keen to find out.
(889 Words)