Yet again it was Safety Expert to the rescue.

"Okay, let's focus people. Some friends of mine mentioned Chikushudo as well as Sakakku. They're investigating further. This thing seems different though." He finished the drink and looked at the team.

"Could be the Magistrate's involved in the cult, so she's covering up everything just in case it's related. In this case a tsukai has been benefitting from it." He shrugged. "Either way, theres a cult ritual coming up and a murderous bastard on the loose."

Eriko sighed at Hide and Akemi, "Too late to go back in time now."

With the truth out, she happily returned to the heart of the matter. "We can worry about connections later. Someone got an ID on a maho-tsukai? Our maho-tsukai?"

"Isawa Shin." Yul said shortly. "The fashion designer. He's definitely a tsukai. What I'm not sure of is if he's the one who was on the ship, too. The voice sounds kinda close, but..."

Yul put his densai down on the table. Pushing a button, it began to play, first the sound of applause, and then a voice...

"Innovation. Beauty. Excellence. Imagination. My new clothing line seeks to transcend the very bounds of the real and the unreal, a swirling universe of creation and destruction, chaos and order. The perfect imperfection. Let the inward become the outward as my path-breaking designs lead the way into a tomorrow birthed from the realm of the unexpected!" More cheering followed.

Yul shook his head. "Wow. Okay. Does that sound familiar?" He looked around.

Hide shook her head, not quite able to fully remember what the voice sounded like. “I... Can’t tell. I don’t remember a lot of details, mostly just my blood being distinctly outside of my body. I dunno, I tend to disassociate while fighting?”
____
D9: Voice clip please? Cooperative raw Int +5, VP for 1k1 TN 20: 3d10o10+5 13

"Between the echos and the zombies we had a lot going on. Don't sweat it Hide-san." He looked at Yul. "Doesn't change much though. If the designer is using the same sort of zombies then either it's him and he's working alone, or he's working with someone and we can beat more info out of him. Assuming we can catch him."

The Firefly turned to look at Eriko. "So. What does a witch-hunter do now?"

Eriko went quiet as she took a listen of the voice clip. She couldn't quite get a sample of it until now. It should have been pretty easy on face value but with all of the wails of the undead, the shooting of radiant weapons, the haunting acoustics of the derelict ship and finally the muffled of a voice that was likely speaking through a gas mask...it was hard to truly know. She sighed and considered the pleasant voice with her eyes closed.

"It's him, that's our guy," she said plainly.

Day 9, Early Afternoon: Intelligence Roll with Void!: 4d10o10k4+5 30

She looked around at everyone, "Do we have an idea of the scene of the crime?"

Yul nodded, his expression bland. "It was in the slums. I was there last night. I could take us there... or give directions, I think."

His jaw clenched a moment, then relaxed. "Damnit. I wish we'd taken a shot at him when we were there." Sighing, he took a sip from his cup. "I'd like to tell my wingmate about this. Utaku Hyeon-ju-san. She was there too, with Matsu-san."

"It's probably cleaned up by now, right? So Utaku-san is the only witness to the crime scene who is likely to talk to us. Although Naukachi-san might be able to summon up a spirit to talk to I guess?" He shrugged, not knowing much about shugenja.

Appropriate music plays in Hide’s head as she goes full big brain mode.

“A group of us would be highly suspicious.” Hide pondered the circumstances, “Area will have magistrates poking around. And with what happened with the Lord Magistrate... At least three of us are under a lot of scrutiny. So...”

She paused before gesturing to Eriko in particular. “No lone wolfing this. The only thing more suspicious than a group of people at a miai is a lone person. So any investigation should be done with some form of cover... Wait.”

Hide just had the biggest realization ever: this was a miai. “Pairs. We investigate in pairs. This is a fucking miai, this late into the miai people are kind of expecting people to pair off somewhat so it draws less attention. Yul-san, you trust Mumei-san enough to tell her about this stuff? Not sure about anyone else here. Someone you can trust but also has been seen in public with you recently.”

Her gaze fell across the entire group. “Ideally it would be each of us that paired off, but math doesn’t add up and we all don’t have public appearances that add up right. So at the very least we need to rope in one trustworthy person to help. I mentioned Mumei-san off-hand, but I would understand if you don’t want her involved, Yul-san.”

Yul cleared his throat. "Actually, Mumei-san was there last night, too. When I got the call from Hyeon-ju-san, I thought it would be a good idea to bring someone who could perform healing magic. We could probably investigate further."

He cleared his throat again. "I'll message you the directions." He pulled out his communicator, sending them the address that he'd gotten from Hyeon-ju.

Eriko merely nodded at Yul, "I think directions will be good enough for me. And no need to beat yourself up on what you could have or what you couldn't have. It's pretty clear to me that the son of a bitch was more than comfortable standing far away from us while we took on all the pain he threw at us. I'm sure everyone needs to know at this point, he doesn't deserve the protection of prestige and anonymity, you hear me?"

"You do have a point, Hotaru-san, and none of us are exactly expert at the kami. I do bet you they probably have a few yoriki posted too in case he comes back. They, unfortunately, know my face already," she sighed.

"Someone mentioned something about a Fan Con and this creep?" she brought up.

"Yeah... Something about a fashion show at the Fan-Con that Asako Chiruha-sama has been organising. It's on later today." He gave her a curious look. "Wait, do you think he might still try to go? In costume?"

That seemed insane, but the guy was turning people into mushroom things so he had form. "I mean, maybe he's that crazy?"

“A Con, huh?” Hide rubbed her chin, processing the information. “Should a couple of us attend just in case? We could make sure nothing’s amiss.”

Yul frowned. "I heard he was going to have a show at the castle, but it was cancelled. You heard he was going to do something at the con?"

"I don't think getting his cover blown was ever part of his plan. The fact that your friend managed to get away was something she should count her lucky stars on, no offence. He fucked up somewhere. I don't know what he ever had in mind in public but the fact he was willing to show his face after whatever he was going to do to Utaku-san is enough of a warning sign. It's not like the taint exactly makes you a better decision-maker, as records go."

"It might do us some good to check it out, at least, for those who can only loiter around. The travel ban sucks too, I'd say," she sighed.

“We could go, Eriko-san.” Hide offered with a slight shrug. “I’m assuming travel ban means you can’t leave the city. Good thing I called the meeting here and not like out at the farms or something.”

"I was planning on taking a look around and helping Asako-sama as a volunteer. Would mean being able to get into most places." He shrugged. "So there's that. From the sound of him I'd guess this whacko is interested in the costumes but who knows."

He glanced over at Yul. "Want me to call Mumei-san or have you got this?"

Yul considered a moment. "I won't be seeing her until later. You go ahead."

Eriko gave Hide a sidelong look, wondering if she was trying to make up for the ruined date last night. "Well, some of us could consider keeping eyes on that. I'd like to think that the magistrate is keeping watch around the place after what happened that they aren't paying so much attention to me but I don't know if it's worth tiptoeing...Well, the answer is obviously yes but doesn't me a whole whack of good if they are going to put me behind bars before I do anything."

"If we could get a shugenja, that could help," she nodded at Koseki as well.

"Sure thing team." He pulled out his communicator and fired off a message.

"Yeah. Let's try not to get locked up for sorting out their tsukai problem for them." He looked around the group. "We got this."