"Shou. Shou, wake up." Nazrin pokes her with her dowsing rod, grumbling. "My mice found something great. Come on."
The tiger just grumbles, rolls over, and continues sleeping. Stupid cat. Nazrin huffs and draws her rod back. She'd show her when she woke up, then. Whenever that ended up being. Shou and her naps. Nazrin walks out of her room, leaving the door shut behind her, trying to leave the temple without having to deal with any unnecessary conversation.
Of course, for someone like herself, this was pretty easy. She had gotten in without anyone noticing she was there, and getting out was equally simple. Of course, it should be simple, but – "Oh! Nazrin!" A loud voice interrupts Nazrin's thoughts and she winces. Too loud. Kyouko bounces up to her, waving her broom around and grinning. "I didn't notice you were here!"
It takes a moment for Nazrin to compose the words to respond. "Uh, hi. Kyouko." She shifts nervously, tail swinging back and forth. "I was – just checking to see if Shou was awake. She isn't, so - "
"Shou?" Kyouko echoes back. "She's asleep!"
The mouse sighs, shrinking back a bit. "Yes, I know, I was in her room. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some work to attend to - "
"Work! Byakuren's making me sweep the front of the temple again!" Kyouko immediately interrupts her, still smiling brightly. "It's so dusty. And boring! I wish Mystia would come by, but ever since Byakuren lectured her about 'proper behavior' she hasn't wanted to come near the temple!" Every syllable is a shout that hurts Nazrin's sensitive ears.
"Well, that's too bad," Nazrin mutters, looking around. Somehow, Hijiri hasn't come out to check on Kyouko, yet. She should get out before she shows up and starts lecturing her. She'd rather not have to spend another hour in the temple. Shou probably wouldn't even wake up in that time. "Uh, so, that's great and all, but I gotta get going. See you, Kyouko."
"Oh, okay!" Kyouko waves good bye as Nazrin takes off. "See you, Nazrin! Say hi to Mystia for me if you see her, alright?"
By the time Nazrin gets back to her small house at Muenzuka, her newest haul is missing. All her mice are squeaking half-hearted excuses, but she ignores them, fists clenched around her dowsing rods. It had been so cool! What was she going to show Shou now?
"Who was it?" she hisses, rummaging through her many, many shelves, knocking over assorted goods and treasures. "Who would dare - " Nazrin realizes who stole it before she finishes her sentence.
Marisa Kirisame. Her mice squeak apologetically, but she just shakes her head. She'd go get it back herself. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go find it!" She points her dowsing rod in the vague direction of the Forest of Magic. "I'll catch up."
As her mice rush away from her hut, Nazrin floats out and settles on the riverbank. Gorgeous purple blossoms and blood red lilies float down the river, and she takes a moment to prowl up and down the bank. It's very possible her mice just misplaced the object – again – and pinned the blame on Marisa. Similar things had happened before.
She doesn't find it, though, although she still finds some things of note, which she tucks away in her basket. A rusted old pocketwatch with something unreadable etched into the metal. The skeleton of a small crow. A wallet from the outside world – with still usable yen, no less. Eventually, Nazrin drops off her small haul in her hut before she leaves, locking the door shut behind her.
Don't want another annoying rat stealing her treasure.
By the time she arrives at Marisa's house, her mice have already searched through it. They didn't find anything, though, and squeak apologies to Nazrin. She just nods bitterly and breaks in through the window. Figures that Marisa wouldn't bother even making a half-hearted magical seal to protect her house. Nazrin doubts anyone ever dares steal from her. Other than the scary blue lady the Taoists keep around, but Nazrin's pretty sure she steals from everyone.
Still – there's a first time for everything.
Marisa's house was a mess. There were bookshelves stacked all the way up to the ceiling and packed with all sorts of things – books, jars containing insects, pots filled with plants or fungi, assorted bits of junk. Nazrin takes everything that looks even slightly valuable or interesting and stuffs it into her basket.
She'd teach her to steal from Nazrin, Bishamonten's finest.
The books are the first things she grabs. Marisa stole them from the Scarlet Devil Mansion, right? Remilia is supposed to be crazy rich. Maybe she could sell them back to the mansion and get some more money. Her tail twitches and she hums to herself. She finds a lot of stuff she thought she had misplaced – which isn't something that should surprise her, but still only makes her angrier. Stupid witch. "Where's Marisa, now?" She looks back at her mice.
They inform her that she's at the other mage's, showing off what she had stolen. Nazrin grits her teeth and dumps the full basket in front of her mice. "Take that back home, I'll go get my treasure back."
The mice do so, although not without hesitance. Nazrin ignores them and goes over to Marisa's kitchen. There's not much food, there, which doesn't surprise Nazrin in the slightest. Most if it smells rotten – no wonder Marisa mooches food off of everyone else. Nazrin eats what isn't rotten and dumps the rest over the floor.
Time to go retrieve what was rightfully hers.
Alice's house is flanked by dolls, which Nazrin avoids, instead settling in the top of a tree to watch Marisa and Alice through the window. They're talking, with tea set out on the table. Are they having a date? Nazrin's tail twitches. "Stupid humans." The mouse on her shoulder informs her that Alice isn't a human, but Nazrin ignores it.
Eventually, Marisa pulls out what she had stolen, showing it off – no doubt bragging about how SHE had found it – and Nazrin clenches her little fists around her dowsing rods. What was she going to do now? It's not like she was anywhere comparable to Marisa when it came to a spell card battle. Maybe she could beat her otherwise, but that'd just get her exterminated by the shrine maiden. She really hadn't thought this through.
Nazrin just waits until Marisa leaves Alice's shack. The witch is carrying her broom, and takes a moment to get on it. Nazrin's ear twitches. Marisa was definitely faster than her on her broom, so if she let her go now she wouldn't find her again, and she'd never get her treasure back.
So this was really the only option.
As soon as Marisa takes off, Nazrin jumps from the tree and swings her dowsing rod down at her head. The sound it makes is intensely satisfying, and the witch flinches back and falls from her broom. She makes a dull thump when she hits the ground. "Ow." She mumbles, rubbing at her head. "What was that for, Nazrin?"
She speaks like they're old friends and it makes Nazrin want to punch her in the face even more than usual. But she's pushing her look as it is. Instead, she races to the treasure she had dropped – and thank god, it's still in one piece – and grabs it. She looks around. Marisa had dropped other things – the mini-hakkero. Or whatever it was called. Nazrin grabs that too. And her broom.
Then, she shoots off into the sky, ignoring the two magicians down below and going on her way back to Muenzuka.
On the ground, Alice looks at Marisa. "You just got mugged by Nazrin."
Marisa rubs the sore spot on her head and puts her hat back on. "Eh, it's whatever. Probably deserved it, to be honest."
Once she's at home, Nazrin locks the door to her house and falls to the floor. That was a terrible idea. Marisa would come back and beat the shit out of her, steal everything, and burn her house down. Then she'd have to stay at the temple and even though she'd be with Shou she'd have to deal with Kyouko yelling and - why did she think this was a good idea?
One of her mice starts chewing on the mini-hakkero and she snatches it back, before throwing it out the window. The glass shatters and Nazrin winces. She forgot to open the window. Shit, fuck. It didn't matter, she could get it replaced. Maybe with the money she made by selling all these books back to their original owner? Whatever. She throws the broom out, too. Everything else, though, is shoved onto a shelf, with the exception of her newest treasure.
Nazrin doesn't know what it is. It's some sort of mechanical device from the outside world that Nazrin found on a dead human by the riverbank, with two screens. When she presses the buttons, the screens light up and there's all these options she barely understands. What its intended use is doesn't really mean anything to her, though. It looks cool and it sounds cool and that's all that matters.
She should probably go show it off to Shou before Marisa sets her house on fire.
When she gets to Myouren, Shou's up and awake. "Shou! Shou." Nazrin waves her dowsing rod, trying to get her attention, before the tiger looks over at her and grins, floating over to her. "Shou, look what I found!" She raises the device up to Shou's face, and she looks at it, curious.
"Oh, wow. That's cool. What is it?"
"I dunno. Something from the outside world," Nazrin shrugs. "Look at it, though! It's so cool." She waves it around, eagerly, before the screen flickers out and dies and she grumbles in frustration. "What? Aw."
Shou pats her head, gently. "It probably just ran out of, uh. Battery life? I think that's the term. Whatever the weird outside world technology is. I'm sure one of the kappa would know."
Nazrin shrugs, kicking her legs. "Oh, who cares. It's still cool, alive, or... dead? Is that what you'd call a thing that ran out of battery life?" Shou shrugs and all the sudden she's wrapping her in strong, warm arms, and pressing a kiss to her cheek. "S-Shou!" Nazrin squeaks, flushing.
"What?"
"... Bleh, it's nothing," she mumbles, fidgeting with the thing's buttons and bowing her head to hide her blush. "I'm glad you like it."
"I'm just glad you decided to come over to show it to me!" Shou beams and presses another kiss to her cheek, and Nazrin fumbles the device. "Come on inside! Byakuren's cooking, and I'm sure you must be hungry after a long day of treasure hunting."
Nazrin's stomach growls. "... Maybe a little," she admits, leaning against Shou. "Maybe I'll stay over, tonight..." she says, slowly. She'd rather not be at her hut when Marisa shows up to get her stuff back, and it's not like she's complaining about the chance to spend more time with Shou.
Shou grins and pulls her inside, and Nazrin gives her a small smile in return.
She'd say that moments like these were the greatest treasure of all, but that would be WAY too cheesy, even for her. Wait, that was a pun. Fuck. Nazrin scowls to herself, but Shou squeezes her hand and Nazrin pushes the thoughts out of her mind.