Bootstrapping Book 1

by Tersin22

An insert wakes up on the first day of her new life in a world of magic, with none of her own. No advantages, no starting place, knowing nothing but that she's out gunned at every turn and power is out there to grab. One way or another she'll drag her way to safety and arcane power, over the bodies of everybody in her way if she must.

23. Strange Birds

As it turns out Pua does have an answer, and that answer is, "Sympathetic magic."

I blink and lean back in the chair that came with my much nicer hotel room. Money still isn't really an issue for me Six or so years of working for spirits that don't value the same things that humans do, and spending next to none of it, has left me with a more than comfortable amount of savings. So once it became clear that I'm not going to be leaving Kyoto in the five or six days I naively expected, I upgraded my accommodations.

"You mean like what you did, casting the ward spells into the trees? Making the wards grow as the trees do?" It'd been an awesome way to get around her relative lack of power, though I have no idea how she did it.

"Exactly, though what you'll want to do will be a lot easier. You've heard the saying that the map is not the territory?"

I nod.

Then I remember that I'm on the phone, and she can't see me, "Yeah?"

"Well, what you're going to want to do is make the map the territory." Pua tells me, sounding somewhat excited about the whole project.

"What."

Pua sighs dramatically, "What you need to do is convince reality to be a little fuzzy on the difference between two things. The more similar the two things are, the easier it is. This is the sort of magic that makes Vodun dolls and European witchcraft's poppets."

"So I convince reality that the map and the city the map is of are... if not the same then interchangeable, then what I Script onto the map..."

"Is placed on the city as well." Pua confirms.

"So I can do something that only needs to cover the map and still apply it to the whole city." I glance at the already purchased, very detailed map of Kyoto which is spread out on my bed, "Thanks Pua, I think you just saved me a lot of time and a repetitive stress injury."

"Can you even still get those?" My kahuna asks with a smile in her voice.

"Probably not, but I didn't think I'd ever be sore again either, and I've done that several times." We laugh together for a moment, before saying our goodbyes. She has work to do for her village, and I need to figure out a Script to make two very different things functionally the same.

I'm honestly looking forward to it.

###

My desk is covered in snow globes, paired statues, and one to scale model of the Tokyo Tower. It's taken a week of almost constant effort, but I think I've finally managed to get a functional Script to forge a sympathetic connection, at least strong enough to work on the map and city. It's only taken twelve pairs of broken snow globes, half a dozen scratched up paired statues, and one perfectly matched broken antenna on both my model and the real Tokyo Tower.

I would be prouder of that one if I'd done it on purpose.

Still, that particular mistake did give me the key to making the Script work, so I'm not exactly upset. Some part of me wants to send a note of apology, to whoever has to climb the damn thing to fix that antenna though.

The second part, the Script to track Tengu on the map linked to the city, is actually much easier. With the Tengu feather, finding the Script symbol for 'crow demons' is straightforward enough, and after that it only takes a couple of hours of trial and error to get movement tracked through the city on the map.

All I have to do is wait.

I'll give it a week.

I pin the map up on a wall where I can watch as lines trace themselves on it, following where Tengu move, and where the lines intersect over and over again. When I can't stand just watching the map any more, which takes about two minutes, I turn back to other pursuits.

Now that I have my soul back in one piece, and I'm not traveling, or working on some more immediate problem, I can focus on older ideas. After my first nightmare after my soul got shredded, I had an idea for a Script that would hopefully mean that leaving this reality wouldn't mean leaving my friends behind forever.

I hadn't gotten very far then. Hadn't gotten anywhere at all, actually. Now that I'm firing on all cylinders again, I'm ready to give it another shot. It will be by far the most exotic and complex Script I've ever made, even more so than my tattoos. So I temper my expectations and get to work.

###

A week later I spread my map of Kyoto out on my desk, and examine my results. Over all, Tengu get around. Their trails wander all over, congregating at more than two dozen places scattered across the city. Checking all of them will be a pain, and one I suspect I'll have to endure before this is over, but I can at least try to make it easier on myself.

For all that there are plenty of places that Tengu seemed to visit regularly, there are three that seem to be the most popular. With the huge number of Tengu that are coming and going what seems like constantly, the places would be perfect to disguise more sinister comings and goings.

So I'll start with them and work my way down in order of popularity.

I pack up Sclamhaire in her carrying case, hide the athame under my coat, look longingly at where my armor is still packed away into a duffel bag, and head out to my first stop.

###

The single most popular stop for Tengu in all of Kyoto is a coffee shop. At least that's what the sign over the door says, advertising the extremely unoriginal name of 'Crow's Coffee'. My confusion comes from the blacked out windows, and the sound of muted thumping club music coming from inside. That I'm hearing this in the middle of the day just means I'm even more confused.

Taking a deep fortifying breath I push my way into the... coffee shop...

It's like walking into a wall.

The temperature is ten degrees higher inside, the music that had been muted now has a baseline that I can feel in my chest like I'm getting hit by a hammer, and the entire building is packed. Young looking men and women with long noses bounce and jump around each other like the entire coffee shop is a mosh pit.

The most jarring thing about it all though, is the decor.

The walls are covered with random junk. Bits of mirror, silverware, flatware, tinfoil. Everything and anything shiny has been glued, nailed, or attached in some other way anywhere it would fit. Hanging in the middle of the otherwise dark room is a disco ball. The ball spins throwing spots of light everywhere, which in turn bounce off the endless supply of shiny objects attached to the walls. The entire room turns into something that ought to come with a seizure warning, the light flickering and bouncing around the space in a manner that's entirely unpredictable.

It's a night club in every way that matters... except that it serves coffee instead of alcohol, and operates during the day.

The entire experience is jarring in a way that I haven't really experienced before. A blast of sensory overload paired with cognitive dissonance that physically and mentally rocks me back onto my heels.

After a moment I manage to push the mental static down enough to more or less function. Gathering my wits and my courage I push my way further into the nightmare.

I get a few strange looks from others, clearly I'm not one of them, but my lack of reaction to them prompts a lack of reaction from them in turn. Also, as I work my way through the crowd I begin to doubt that what they're serving is actually coffee. Everybody here is acting manically high. I don't know enough about recreational drugs to speculate what they might be spiking their coffee with, but it had to be something. They jump and bounce and gyrate, flinging sweat around them as they engage in what for them, in this place, passes for dance.

Or some sort of Tengu mating ritual, given what I can see a few couples doing on the dance floor.

I've been inside for maybe two minutes, and I'm already developing a pounding headache.

Between the mass of people and the throbbing music I can't really get a clear picture of what the interior space looks like. So heading straight for the employee only areas is right out, because I can't find the employee only areas. I'm going to have to do this the hard, extremely unpleasant way. The way that involves me staying here for any time at all. Pushing to the edge of the crowd, I hug the wall like a lifeline and start to make my way around the exterior of the main room.

I'll find the back areas eventually, one way or another.

###

It takes two hours to find and search everywhere in the coffee club, but I manage with frequent uses of my glamor to get into places where I'm pretty sure the staff would have objected to my being. Unfortunately, aside from a huge number of edged weapons that I'm pretty sure are illegal in Japan, there's nothing to find.

So with my head splitting, I manage to make my way back to my hotel and only just make it to the bed before flopping onto it and passing out. Which means I get woken up in the morning by the hollow empty ache that tells me I forgot to take in mana the night before. That plus a lingering headache means that I'm not in the greatest of moods, when I set out to check out number two on my list of favorite Tengu hang out places.

On some level I feel like I shouldn't be surprised by what I find, but I'm really not expecting it, no matter how much sense it makes in hindsight. Really, where else would you expect to find a bunch of sword obsessed anachronisms who don't really know how to get along in modern society, other than the SCA?

When I arrive I find myself standing at the edge of a park filled with maybe two dozen people dressed in modern takes on medieval European armor, beating each other with sticks. Why they're dressed as European knights when Japan has a rich martial culture all it's own, I have no idea.

They seem to be having fun though, and the Tengu are easy to spot. Not from their noses for once, but from how differently they use their swords. Not that they use a different style than anybody else, but every time they pick up a sword, even if that sword is made out of rattan, they're comfortable with it in a way nobody else is. Like they've regained a limb that has been missing. As hard as the phenomenon is to put into words it's obvious to see.

Still this clearly isn't what I'm looking for. The number of Tengu aside, I doubt that the coup that's coming has it's secret headquarters in a large empty field.

I groan and run my hands through my hair, tugging it slightly in frustration. This is going to take forever, but I really don't have any better ideas, so I'll just have to tough it out. I turn, and run over a small girl that's standing right behind me. I'm so surprised that I utterly fail to do anything to stop my fall, so I manage to take both of us to the ground.

The girl squeaks as I hit her, and grunts as I land partially on her. I lay stunned for a moment, having face planted into the grass. After a moment though I collect enough of my wits to roll off the girl, regain my feet, and try to help her to help her up.

"I'm so sorry." Japanese has a depth to it's apologies that English really lacks, "I didn't notice you there..." And how the hell had I missed her? I hadn't smelled her, heard her, or felt her mana. It's the first time anybody but Ku has managed to sneak up on me since I started upgrading myself.

The girl looks to be in her late teens or early twenties, and would have been rather pretty but the Tengu nose is kind of a deal breaker for me. Otherwise she looks a lot like every other Tengu I've seen, pale skin, raven black hair, and very dark eyes.

She's a little stunned from the impact, but bounces back very quickly, almost literally as she hops to her feet, "That's okay! Hi! I'm Mia! What are you looking for?"

I want to ask, 'what makes you think I'm looking for something'. Instead what comes out is, "What?"

The girl, Mia, has the hyperactive adorable stereotype down pat. It's almost more than I can keep up with. "Weeeellll... I saw you at Crow's Coffee yesterday, and you clearly weren't enjoying yourself but you wandered around plenty anyway, and you clearly didn't belong there, so I followed you around, except when you disappeared, and how did you do that anyways, it was really cool, and so I followed you back to your hotel room, and looked around while you were sleeping, and you're tracking Tengu all over the city and then you came here today, and you seem frustrated so you obviously haven't found what you're looking for, so I wanted to know what that is!" She bounces on her toes with a big smile on her face, like she hasn't just admitted to breaking and entering and stalking me all over the city.

Though I suppose given what my map is doing I can't really complain about the last one.

I'm again reduced to mono syllables, as this girl explains what she's done. Following me while I'm in the coffee club is one thing with how overwhelmed I was, but continuing to follow me without being spotted across the city?

"How?"

Mia gets an evil glint in her eye and smirks, "I'ma sneaky bird."

###

Mia was an opportunity or a disaster, and I honestly can't tell which. She'd stalked me, my efforts to go unnoticed in the coffee club having come to nothing. She'd broken into my room, and followed me around for the entire next day. And apparently all she wants to know is what I'm up to. Not even in a threatening manner, more the feel of somebody who saw a very lost tourist and wants to know where they're trying to get to.

On the one hand, why the hell did I even bother to get all these improved senses when they don't do shit? Is it me, or the small Tengu? I have no real way of knowing, and my first instinct is to get rid of the potential threat in a way that'll guarantee that it never becomes an actual threat.

On the other hand, I'm beginning to worry that my plans for finding the coup's HQ have been overly optimistic. What if there aren't as many Tengu involved in the kidnapping as I thought there were? What if only a couple of the Tengu actually go to wherever the planning is happening and the rest are compartmentalized?

The longer I think about it, the more ways I can see for my plan to never get me anywhere. Right in front of me though, I have a Tengu, that if I can bring myself to trust her, can possibly just ask, and learn everything I need to know.

So what the hell am I going to do?

In the end what makes up my mind is something that really shouldn't influence me as much as it does.

She offers to buy me coffee.

She smiles at me from across the table, drinking her coffee through a straw so that her nose doesn't get in the way. My own hot chocolate isn't bad, not the best I've had, but certainly not the worst.

"So? I have paid your fee, what are you looking for?" Mia chirps eagerly.

I sigh wrenching my thoughts back to the issue at hand. The real question is, 'can I trust her?'...

No...

The question is, 'can I take her if I take a chance and end up being wrong?'

I eye her again, modern loose clothing makes it difficult to judge her build, but I'll just assume that she can kick my ass in a sword fight. I have telekinesis though, and as I've already figured out, telekinesis is a blatant cheat. With that plus the advantage that I really don't care about exposing the supernatural to the rest of the world, I'm leaving after all, I think I can probably put her down if I have too.

"I'm looking for a conspiracy." I tell Mia slowly, watching her reactions with care. Just because I've decided to take a chance, and I think I can kill her doesn't mean I'm not going to be careful, "There's a group of Yokai working with outside agitators looking to overthrow Yasaka, they plan to do this by kidnapping her daughter, and holding her hostage. The outsiders want access to the ley node that Yasaka's plugged into, but I'm pretty sure the locals just want her under control."

When I started talking Mia lost her smile, as I continue though she gets more and more pale, and as I finish, she looks down right murderous, "Kunou-chan?" She asks, her voice a little faint.

I nod, taking another sip of my hot chocolate. That reaction looks legitimate at least, and she certainly smells like she's in shock.

Shock that rapidly becomes fury.

Time to make it worse, "If that's the girl's name." I shrug, "Unfortunately, all I know is that the conspiracy is largely organized by people working for a group called the Khaos Brigade, spelled with a K, and a lot of Tengu are involved."

The Tengu in front of me grimaces at that, "How did you find out about this?" She asks, interesting that she's not arguing for the innocence of her species. Also not acting nearly as bubbly as she has been up until now.

"I have rather extensive contacts with the little spirits." I tell her easily. Anybody who asks around about me at all will find that out, so I'm not really giving anything away, "Strangely, nobody really thinks to worry about the terrain when they start talking about secret things." I nod in the direction of the cherry tree that's planted not far from our table.

Mia jerks her head around to look at the inoffensive tree. Which giggles at her. Or maybe it's just a conveniently well timed breeze through its leaves.

Anybody's guess really.

The Tengu turns back to look at me like she just discovered that the large dog she's been playing with is actually a Grim.

Apparently my intelligence network makes me scarier.

Mia takes a long breath and lets it out, seeming to refocus, "If somebody is trying to kidnap Kunou-chan... well that's not something I can let slide. So your plan is to check anyplace a lot of Tengu frequent?"

I shrug, "Pretty much."

"That's a... plan that would require a lot of patience..." Mia tells me diplomatically, "I could probably find out where they are if I asked around a little."

I sit back in my chair eyeing the Yokai, "Which just leaves us with one issue."

Mia nods, "The question of trust."

"Yes..." I'm really starting to wonder just who the hell Mia is. She refers to her faction leader's daughter with personal affection. She seems legitimately, personally, pissed at the idea of something happening to the girl. Sneaking up on me should not be as easy as she makes it sound, between my enhanced senses and the extra sense for mana that Mana Breathing gives me. Now she's spectacularly relaxed in a situation that ought to be extremely tense.

Well let's see if she's still as accepting when I explain what I want as insurance, "Trust. You come with me back to my hotel room, and I'll put a tag on you that will detonate if you commit to treachery."

The Tengu seems to study me for a moment, then smiles, "Okay!" She chirps happily.

"Okay, I can't not ask at this point. Why are you so okay with this?" It's honestly kind of creepy. I just told her I want to put a bomb on her for fucks sake!

Mia just smiles, "Because I know I'm not going to betray you, or Yasaka-sama, or Kunou-chan. So I've got nothing to worry about, right?"

I stare at her, for a long moment unable to do anything else. After a minute, during which her smile never wavers I manage to croak, "Right."

I'll be pissed as hell if our positions were reversed, but she seems completely okay with the idea.

"Great! Let's get this done then!"

Completely. Okay.

Really, what the hell is wrong with this girl?

###

Treachery is pretty easy to work with in Script. It's a concept that's easy to express, so the Script ends up the closest to programming code of anything I've ever done before. 'If the target decides to commit a betrayal, explode'. It's a little more complicated than that, but not much.

Really the explosion is the much harder part.

Unless I know the precise Script symbol for what I want the end result of the explosion to be, which I don't, I need to describe what I want to happen. There are two ways to go about that, the first is in physics terms, the other is in what I want the explosion to accomplish. I typically go with the second option. If I describe the explosion as 'so many newtons of force pointed in x direction' it would be quicker and easier, but there's also always the chance that I'll hit something that I don't mean to.

Something important.

Something like one of my mother's prized rose bushes.

Not that anything like that has ever happened.

On the other hand, while the second option takes more time to write, and is more complex, I can know for certain that I'll only damage what I mean to.

Which leads to me spending some fifteen minutes describing in excruciating detail exactly how the Script will break the Tengu's body if it goes off. It also lets me sneak in another function I haven't told Mia about. Using my new experience with sympathetic connections I manage to sneak an eavesdropping Script into the tag without it being obvious.

Just in case she figures out some way around the rest of the Script, I'll hear everything going on around her, and will hopefully hear something that'll give her away before it becomes a problem.

The remote detonator to the Script is another thing that I don't mention, but it seems obvious to me.

After spending a half hour filling a paper tag, that's unsurprisingly easy to find in Japan, from edge to edge with Script symbols, I stick it to her back right between her shoulder blades and send her off.

I sort of trust her.

I trust her with my Script on her much more though.

We'll see how dumb that is given time.

I spend the next day listening to Mia over the tag, and working my way down my list of Tengu hang outs at the same time. Just because I have another, perhaps better, way of finding what I'm looking for, doesn't mean I should stop looking myself.

The next place on my list of Tengu hangouts is the Kyoto sword museum. Which is a cool place that I wouldn't mind spending more time looking at, but doesn't have a secret conspiracy working out of it.

After that comes a building that's interior is covered in trampolines.

Then an arcade.

Then a high school weirdly enough. I don't know why, but the school is the stop that weirds me out the most. It's just a normal high school that doesn't look or feel special in any way shape or form. It still has a huge population of Tengu though. Nothing else supernatural about it, just Tengu.

Weirds me out something fierce.

None of them are hiding a conspiracy though.

So I'm both glad, and slightly resigned, when I open the door to my hotel room and find Mia waiting for me sitting on my bed. Already exhausted I raise an eyebrow at her in question. I stopped listening closely to what she was doing around the time I found myself searching the back areas of the arcade, so I don't know what she's found if anything. Just that she hasn't exploded, so everything is, at least, not as bad as it could be.

Mia grins like the proverbial cat with a canary, which sounds odd with her being a crow and all, "Found it~!" She sings cheerfully.

I blink, giving my tired brain a chance to process what she said. Part of me, the larger part, is thrilled that I've found what I'm looking for. That doesn't prevent a smaller part of me from resenting all the time I put into my Tengu map, only for it to have done absolutely nothing in the end.

"So are we going now?" The excitable Tengu asks, bouncing on my bed.

I just glare at her, and head into the en-suite bathroom to take a well deserved hot shower.

Shower, then dinner, then refilling my mana, then bed.

Everything else can wait for tomorrow.

"Is that a no then?"

I slam the door shut and ignore her.

"I'm gonna take that as a no then." A long pause, "So I'll be back tomorrow?"

###

As promised she's back the next day. She actually wakes me up, far too early in the morning. She does come with hot chocolate for me though, so I forgive her.

Still...

"Why are we going this early in the morning?" Sitting up, I can barely see out the window, sun only just rising, the gold disk peaking over the skyline of the city. Which explains why I'm having so much trouble getting started. I down half my drink as fast as I can, enjoying the way the hot liquid burns on the way down, and drag myself out of bed. I stagger my way over to the hotel room closet, I'd stashed a large piece of cloth in there with my Pressure script on it. Not having to rewrite it every time is such a relief. I can't wait to have a place of my own so I can set up a permanent one. As handy as my current solution is, the cloth will only last for maybe a week before the energy moving through the Script burns through the cloth.

For now though, I roll out the cloth and sit myself down. After a few minutes of meditation I trigger the Script, and open myself to the world as much as I can. My senses explode outward as the mana is forced into my network. Both the distance I can detect, and the fidelity of my perceptions improving massively. I can feel every person staying in the hotel, I can feel the birds nesting on the roof, and the rats in the basement.

I can feel the thin shell of mana surrounding Mia that'd hidden her from my senses. It's a neat trick, note to self figure out a way to beat that without active Mana Breathing later.

Mia, unaware of the minor religious experience that I have every time I feed, answers my half awake question, while watching me with interest, "Because, like many conspiracies perpetrated by amateurs they like to have their meetings late at night." Implying you're not an amature, Mia? She examins my Script, moving carefully around the cloth and continues to talk, "So I figure that early morning is when they're least likely to be there. Since they'll all be asleep." She pauses as she makes it all the way around the Script, stopping in front of me, "What are you doing?"

"Feeding." is my one word answer. I don't really feel like explaining the details of my dietary requirements. Fortunately Mia just shrugs and happily continues to talk about whatever crosses her mind. This girl is so confusing, I wish she'd just pick a personality and stick with it.

That doesn't seem likely though.

I'm done with my 'meal' only twenty minutes later, and shanghai Mia into helping me put on my armor. Even with the help and some practice it still takes me forty five minutes of awkward contortions to get it all on. Though once I do, I feel some part of my soul that's been stretched too far, relax again.

I really need to figure out how to store the armor and Sclamhaire with the rest of my soul, because this is just unacceptable.

Mia stalls out when I pull Sclamhaire from the bag I had her hidden in. The Tengu's gaze is drawn to the sword like she has a gravitational pull. I swear there's a little bit of drool there.

"What is that?" Mia asks staring wide eyed, her voice thick with awe and reverence.

I hesitate for a moment.

In a very real way, Sclamhaire is a part of me, and I worked damned hard, I'm still working damned hard, for her. Mia's admiration feels good the same way Sarah gushing over something impressive I've done in the classes we shared, did.

After that moment I decide that a little bit of bragging can't hurt, "This," I say as I pull her from her sheath, "is Sclamhaire, the Devourer. Forged for me along with the armor by the Lady of the Lake." Mia stares in awe at the absolute blackness of the blade and the faintly shimmering Script symbols that seem to float in that void.

"So cooool..." The Tengu breaths, eyes sparkling at the mention of who forged Sclamhaire. Vivain, probably, isn't nearly as well known out here in the east as she is in European countries. She's still one of the best smiths in the world though, so I figure anybody as sword obsessed as Tengu have proven to be, would still know who she is, "Can I hold her?" Mia asks, beginning to sound giddy.

My flat, "No." sends her mood in an instant one eighty, and has her pouting at me as hard as she can, "No!" I repeat more emphatically, and sheathed my sword, "When I said Sclamhaire was forged for me, I meant it. I'm the only one who can touch her. I don't know what would happen to somebody else who tries, but I was warned that they'd probably lose a hand at the very least."

Mia narrows her eyes, gaze flicking back and forth between her hand and Sclamhaire's hilt, "Ummm..."

"Are you trying to decide if losing a hand is worth it?" Really?

"No?" The little Tengu offers.

I secure Sclamhaire's sheath to my back plate shaking my head, "Just... show me where these people have been hiding." I head for the door hearing Mia follow behind me, "And pouting harder at the back of my head won't make me change my mind."

"Awww..."

###

Mia leads me to a warehouse that's actually just outside of the city limits. Thus not on my map. So my method would never have found them.

I am in no way bitter about this.

"Are you pouting?" Mia asks. She's standing next to me on the roof of another wearhouse across the street from where she says the coup does it's plotting.

"No." I'm not!

It just feels like Mana Breathing all over again. So close to success, unknowingly making one mistake that means I would have never succeeded, no matter what I did.

So really, really annoying.

"You totally are!" Mia snickers.

"Just... shut up." I sigh, pulling up the face mask that's hidden in my gorget. The face mask is the same mat black as the rest of the armor, and merges with the shadows that always cover the top of my face with my hood up. With both up, the interior of my hood looks like an empty void. Like this I could be just about anything. I have no skin showing, and the armor completely hides my gender. All that shows is that I'm humanoid. Which narrows things down not at all. Sure my armor is distinctive as hell, but at least I'll still be able to walk around safely without it if I get spotted, "I'm going to sneak my way in and look around. If nobody else is in there, I'll just grab everything that looks interesting and get out. If somebody else is in there... Well, same plan. If I can't get to the evidence though, I'll keep whoever it is busy and you come in and see if you can grab the evidence while I keep them distracted. Just keep watch."

Mia turns the plan over in her mind, her head cocking to one side while she thought, in a gesture that's adorably bird-like, "The plan sounds good in general. But... why are you sneaking in first?"

I smirk at her, not that she can see it and, I'm not here, to all evidence erase myself from existence. I drop my glamor quickly to not waste mana and use a telekinetic boost to leap across the street towards the target warehouse.

I only just catch Mia's, "Oh, that's why." behind me.

Catching myself telekinetically at the other end is still harder, but I manage without embarrassing myself at least. Once I'm steady on my feet, I take a look around. The warehouse itself is indistinguishable from any of the innumerable others that are in the area. I never would have looked at it twice if Mia hadn't pointed me at the place. I glance over my shoulder at the building I'd just come from, and see the Tengu has vanished from view.

With a shrug I turn back to my task.

Sitting in the middle of the roof I close my eyes and try my best to once again push through the block that keeps me from connecting to the world's mana on my own. I hardly need refilling, but the boost from becoming one with the world would give my mana senses would be handy.

After a minute or two beating my head against that metaphorical wall, I give up and resign myself to using my unenhanced mana senses. Detecting mana is a lot like seeing light in a dark room. Every source of mana is a point source, the more powerful the source, the brighter the light. According to Ku, there's all sorts of information one can gather from this based on color, pattern, consistency, and a million other details of the mana source. If I could detect those details anyway. I'm not nearly good enough to distinguish any of that though, I'm pleased that I can detect a mana source at all.

The range of my mana senses don't quite cover the entirety of the warehouse. They cover enough of it that I feel comfortable saying that the only living things in the warehouse aren't big enough to be a concern, though. I'm still going to proceed like the place is occupied. As Mia taught me recently, my mana sense is far from infallible.

The next step is getting myself inside.

There aren't any convenient doors or sky lights on the roof, which doesn't honestly surprise me. There are ventilation windows along the top edge of the walls though. In absolute terms the windows are big enough for me to fit through, what that means practically will depend on exactly how the windows open.

A quick check around the edge of the warehouse finds me one of those windows that's already open. It's easy to spot as the window tilts open so the top half of the window leans outward, the bottom in turn swings inwards. The damn things couldn't just slide or open like a normal window could they? Unfortunately, I'm a little too big to squeeze through the open portion of a center pivot window. Maybe before I'd grown I could have wriggled through, but not after, and certainly not in armor.

Still it's my best bet for an inconspicuous entrance, so I'm gonna have to work with what I have.

I grab the edge of the roof and hop over the roof edge, hanging by my fingers and ending up pretty even with the window. I hook a finger around the pivot, brace my thumb against the cheap metal of the frame, and do my best to tear the window pane free without breaking the glass.

The entire maneuver is something I wouldn't have even thought about trying before I got troll strength. I have troll's strength though, so it's worth a shot. Slowly the metal bulges, stresses, and finally after what feels like a small eternity, I manage to rip the window free of the metal frame somewhat quietly.

I sigh in relief, and slowly pull the window free. Keeping a delicate grip on it, I pull myself up to carefully place the single pane of glass on the roof out of the way. Getting both hands on the edge of the roof, I shimmy sideways until I'm perched right over the window. With a short drop I latch onto the bottom of the window frame. Planting my feet and pushing off of the wall, I roll my way through the window.

I control my roll enough by hanging onto the window frame, that any noise from landing on the catwalk around the inside edge of the warehouse...

A cat walk that doesn't exist.

Apparently not all warehouses are built the same.

A two floor drop isn't something that's very scary for me now luckily. I flick my 'I'm not here' glamor on for a few moments before and after my feet hit the ground, making sure that I produce no noise on impact.

I let out a sigh of relief as, for a moment, I can't help but think of all the ways that could have gone so much worse.

Remember Ericka, 'look before you leap' isn't just a pithy saying, it's practical advice. You should follow it.

Refocusing from my inner voice of self admonishment, that sounds a lot like Pua strangely, I start to look around.

The warehouse is far from empty, and is mostly filled with crates of various sizes. I waver for a moment, before giving in to my curiosity and prying one of the smaller crates open. Inside are an assortment of swords, that all look like they should be on the wall of some nerd that has never seen or handled a real sword. Show pieces, basically. I almost dismiss them as exactly what they looked like, but something catches my attention. Something just on the edge of my senses, like catching movement out of the corner of my eye.

I look around, and sniff the air before I realize that it's my relatively new mana sense that's trying to get my attention. The swords have mana in them. Not a lot, the amount of mana is nothing compared to any of the weapons that Ku has collected, but he tends to pick up powerful relics so that's not a great benchmark.

It does feel like the swords have enough mana to make a supernatural creature know they've been hit though.

Frowning I close that crate and check another.

Then another.

All the crates of about the same size and dimensions of the first one are filled with magic swords.

I've never seen a Sacred Gear in use, but I do know that two of the more common ones are Blade Blacksmith and it's opposite Sword Birth. Both do pretty much the same thing, they make magic swords. Either infernal or holy flavor, depending on the Gear in question.

This looks very much like somebody is using one or more of those Gears to mass produce weapons without arousing suspicion. Weapons that would be able to harm supernaturals. The sort of thing that you'd need if you were arming a rebellion.

I check a few more and find medical supplies, rations, and armor. All of it mass produced, but of decent quality. Any doubts I might have had that I'm in the wrong place, vanish.

Moving with more determination, I start to search the warehouse for more easily transported evidence.

Which isn't hard to find as it turns out.

The center of the warehouse is open, free of crates. Instead there are several clear, dry erase boards on stands with all sorts of things taped to them. They're all arranged around a central table that's also covered with plenty of both loose paper, and files.

Jackpot!

I head over with a large grin hidden under my mask.

I check the boards first. They're covered with pictures of various people, a map of what I assume is the Yokai palace, time tables listing guard rotations and who's on duty when.

On one of them are two pictures that stand out. The first image is of a voluptuous blond woman with asian features wearing a miko, or shrine maiden, outfit. Two fox ears sit on top of her head that match her hair in color, and behind her nine golden furred fox tails spread out like a fan. She's sitting in a formal seat, and the entire feel of the picture is that of a state photo.

The second picture is of a small girl with similarly colored hair to the older woman. The girl is wearing similar clothing, has similar ears, and two tails visible in the photo. The kid is trying as hard as she can to be serious, but hasn't really pulled it off. Instead she looks like a grumpy plushie. That poor kid must get glomped by at least half of everybody that sees her.

Yasaka, nine tailed fox, and her daughter, Kunou, kidnapping target.

The kid is cute, but I don't really see why everybody is so taken with Yasaka. Probably just personal taste.

Turning from the boards I look over the table. Most of it is taken up with a much larger map of Kyoto than the one I have. It not only includes the city and the warehouse district, but actually shows the Yokai's hidden forest as well. Paths through the forest are marked down, as well as the territories of various kinds of Yokai. Papers scattered across the map have a breakdown of the wards that protected the forest, and profiles of powerful people that I assume they think might be around when they kick things off.

Most incriminating, is an itinerary that, based on items on it like class times and play times, has to be Kunou's. There's even a smaller copy of the palace map attached to it, that traces the little fox's most common routes through the palace.

Everything you need for a kidnapping in other words.

Also enough evidence to convince Yasaka to at least start and investigation.

I start collecting everything that looks important, pulling various stacks of paper together so they'll be easier to carry. Interestingly, I find a profile with Mia's picture on it.

Note to self, read that and figure out who the hell Mia is before you meet up with her again.

All in all though, this is everything I need right here.

I really hadn't expected it to be this easy...

I freeze as soon as the thought crosses my mind.

God damnit, Ericka.

As if summoned by my thoughts, a spell circle lites up on the floor in one corner of the clear area. For a moment I just stare at it in incomprehension, it really kind of looks like the teleportation circles I've seen devils use...

I sprint for the nearest crates and dive behind them, trying to reach cover before whoever is teleporting in finishes. I plant my back up against the wood of one of the larger crates that I haven't looked in, and try to calm my breathing. I listen as hard as I can, to map what's happening so I won't have to stick my head out of cover, and give myself away to know what's going on.

It kinda looks like I'm going to have to go with plan B.

I really hope that Mia is paying attention.

I pull myself into a crouch, readying myself for the coming fight as two people step free of the teleportation circle. One of them sounds nearly seven feet tall. From the sound of his footsteps, and the shape of him, he's probably something like four hundred pounds of solid muscle.

The other guy is a much more reasonable five and half feet, give or take an inch. He doesn't walk so much as glide across the floor, his footsteps soft enough to be inaudible to a normal human.

What nearly has me giving up on the spot though, is what my mana sense is telling me.

The big guy has more mana than a normal human by a mile. I figure that the shorter one isn't a slouch either, but I can't tell because he's almost entirely blotted out by the solid bar of mana he's carrying.

He just has it casually leaning against one shoulder.

It's more mana in one place than I've ever sensed before.

More than Ku or Pua.

More than the hopping vampire, or the stray devil.

More than the Mo'o.

More than the god damned lady of the lake.

I have no idea what the hell it is, but it's powerful enough that if it's so much as waved in my general direction, then I and the surrounding several city blocks will probably just, cease to be.

I can't fight these people.

"I'm just sayin, once they let us in there's no reason to keep them around right?" The big one sounds frustrated, "Then we could just..." He slams a fist into the palm of his other hand, creating an explosion that makes my ears pop painfully from the shockwave that blows past me, even with the cover of the crates breaking it up.

I grit my teeth to keep from making any noise. Fortunately they're talking loud enough to be heard over the faint ringing in my ears.

"You're a brute." The shorter one says with friendly despair, "I refuse to be bound to a plan with a single point of failure. My way either our temporary allies," the sneer on the word is audible, "succeed, and give us what we want, or we do and win anyway."

The bigger man grumbles but doesn't argue, "God damned freaks." He mutters not at all softly, given the way his voice is as large as he is, "One of them was in here messing around. Stacked all the papers together. Now I'm gonna have to sort them all out again."

I hold my breath as the shorter man freezes, "Say that again?"

"Somebody's been in here fucking around. Messed with the files." The big one repeats.

The short one moves faster than I can track to the big one's side, "Yes, somebody has been here. However possibly not one of ours. Search the place, we're not alone."

Well...

Fuck.