[text] UN: mekakushisan

[suddenlybees]

[ posted some time mid-day on the 6th, because after nearly killing a person, almost dying himself isn't enough of divine retribution, he's also got to see the miserable child that he used to be walking around campus and he wants none of that. there can only be one. ]


Hello, hello~!!
It's Kano~
I'm here with an !!!URGENT!!! job offer for interested parties!
What I'm looking for is hunters and exorcists and the like~
No experience necessary!!!
Willingness is key!!!!!!
Please leave your resume and rates below~


[ He needs somebody who wouldn't mind killing a human child, essentially. For those who suspect something's up, or want an action thread instead of a text one, Kano makes it pretty obvious what he needs destroyed: anybody happening upon Lumière 303 can't miss the sound of muffled screaming and pounding of what sounds like a child who has been locked up in a closet, because this is obviously how you deal with seeing a kid version of yourself, you kidnap them and throw them in the closet and remove the doorknob to your bedroom so nobody can get inside. ]

Comments

[yokeye]

[Toki takes one last look down the hallway, but he's going to stop and talk to Kano. Probably a bad decision. Sorry, Shuuya.]

It's a risk you're willing to take!? What's wrong with you!?

[A question he's asked often, yet he has never gotten a satisfactory answer to.]

You're searching for people to kill a child! I mean, okay, he might not be an actual child and he's like a mimic or a changeling or something, but we don't know that!

[suddenlybees]

[ Haha, yeah, he doesn't know what's wrong with him either, so that's a question for the ages. But he's tired of a lot of things, and seeing how he used to be is one step further than he has patience for right now, so he just shakes his head and flops back down on the couch, staring up at the ceiling instead of at Toki. ]

Why would your first thought be that he's a real child? Those things, they're clearly unnatural.

[ Is this an "innocent until proven guilty" sort of thing? Because look at them. Seems pretty guilty to him. ]

[yokeye]

[Kano always has a way of making him rethink everything. Toki hadn't run into Shuuya, but the 'kids' he did interact with; not for one moment did he think they might be part of some malicious agenda.]

They act like children! They're cute and they're-

[He's attached to them. This was the plan, wasn't it?]

You're right! It's some kind of infiltration!

[suddenlybees]

[ It's the very first thing that Kano thought of, because it was the same when he'd first seen his "mother" after so many years. Unnatural. The longing was almost painful, and bringing another Shuuya into the world is just hateful. ]

You're catching on~ Doesn't that make more sense? Demons who can look like anything they want... if they can recreate themselves to look like ourselves, we'd naturally hesitate to kill them. How smart! Isn't that ingenious?

[yokeye]

[Toki never saw any Hollows, and he doesn't know anything about anyone else's encounters. No one tells him what's really happening.]

It does make more sense! Of course it's daemons! They have to be destroyed! They've got everyone worried about them when the kids are probably just a distraction and the daemons in charge are already putting their ultimate plan in motion!

[suddenlybees]

[ RIP everybody's kids. Time to die. ]

It's a good thing that we realized what's going on, huh, Toki? The timing is perfect too- right after break where everybody's minds are still on vacation, and then something like this happens! The perfect distraction~!! Say, weren't you thinking about learning how to fight, before? How was that coming along?

[ Want to kill a demon child, Toki? Here's your chance. ]

[yokeye]

It was a great plan! Daemons are smart!

[He was going to learn to fight, but then New York happened.]

I haven't done any-

[He stops talking and just stares at Kano for a minute while he gets a quick, flashing vision... Green butterflies eating a corpse; a long proboscis sucking up amber fluid, that is certainly not blood, from the body. The corpse is human-like, but has talon claws for fingers. There's Gregorian type chanting... That makes no sense. Whatever, he'll research later. What was happening? Children... daemons... fighting!]

Uh, I haven't started the fighting thing because, after New York, it's- things aren't good for that right now!

[suddenlybees]

[ God, that always throws him off, the way Toki would just bluescreen mid-sentence and then reboot himself like nothing happened. But this time, it didn't look too painful or distressing, and Kano peers at him curiously. After New York... yeah... it takes great effort not to look down at Toki's legs to check whether Hieke had broken them like Kano had wanted him to. ]

Something wrong? If there's a time to do the fighting thing, now's the time, don't you think?

[yokeye]

[Luckily, Hieke came to his senses and did not re-break anything. Toki made it back to Daybreak without further injury. Any lingering problems were vision-overload related. Short visions like the last one were generally fine and minimally intrusive; just a skip in the conversation if they didn't involve him directly. The longer ones Kano doesn't need to know about right now. Any discussion of this will derail the topic and daemon children were the important thing.]

I'll tell you later, it's not important right now! So, the daemons, do you think they're like extremely strong, or are they making every effort to be convincing children!? I mean, we can take down children pretty easily!

[There's a pond to drown them in.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Kano tends to believe that people's personal problems are bit more important that daemon children who may or may not actually be daemon children, especially since he doubts Toki will remember to tell him later unless Kano asks about it.

Alright! One thing at a time. First item on the docket is to drown children. ]

Hm~ Alright~ If it's daemons, there's no reason why they can't be both, right? Playing innocent in one moment to let down people's guards, ripping out your throat in the next, that's how I would do it! After all, they've got the protection of everybody else around them, if you were to barge straight in there and take them down!

[yokeye]

[Toki will definitely forget to tell him later and will never bring it up without prompting.]

So we surprise them before they get a chance to react~! The speed thing totally works! I've done it a few times now and there's been no problems! Or we get more people involved! Which is best!?

[Deferring to Kano's judgement has never failed him. That he knows of.]

[suddenlybees]

[ He's getting a bit tired of people going 'Hey, Kano, what the actual fuck" so it would probably be better with just Toki's help to start, and if he needs backup, the job offer is still open. ]

Getting more people involved means a greater chance our plan will get leaked before we can act, so let's keep it between the two of us, okay? But the speed thing works, huh? That's good to hear! [ At least one of their fey magics works ] Are you able to maneuver well when going that fast?

[yokeye]

[Kano should really find someone more reliable.]

I don't know! I just used it stop Avery- uh, a daemon child, from hurting himself going down a hill in a box, and otherwise it's just been pretty straightforward one place to another on campus! I can't run over water though! 'Cause I tried that! I haven't like gone into the woods or anywhere without a lot of open space!

[suddenlybees]

[ More reliable people won't listen to him, so really, his only option is Toki. ]

Hm~ I think we can work with that~! I was talking with Adelaide earlier, and she mentioned the Mythril Cage. That sounds like a good place to round everybody up without having them escape, doesn't it? Keeps all the daemons inside one safe little place~ Think you can get them underground, or is that not straightforward enough?

[yokeye]

I'm sure that's fine! It shouldn't be a problem unless it, you know, starts going all weird like fey magic apparently does! Really, for me it just feels like everything else is happening so slow!

[Unless that perception changes with fey shenanigans, he will accomplish this. That said, he hasn't experimented with potential time limits or complications from constant use.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Things going excruciatingly slowly sounds like a hell of a problem to have, and Kano would hate being stuck in that sort of perception for too long. but if it's something that gets better with time, Toki might as well practice it now, on this child that Kano's so kindly captured for him already. ]

Let's try it out before it gets time to get all weird~ I've got one locked up in my room we can take, and— you don't happen to have a daemon child too, do you, Toki?

[yokeye]

[It really would be, and Toki has not considered that fey powers getting stuck in the 'on' position might be a horrible chaotic mishap. If he had, he would probably never use them again.]

Okay! We'll take that one first! But no, I don't have one! Or, I haven't seen him anyway! If they're acting like we would have at that age, though, he might exist after all and he's just hiding in the parking garage because it would remind him of the city and there's too much open space around here!

[Please don't exist. Toki doesn't think he could kill a daemon that looked like kid him.]

[suddenlybees]

[ That's how daemons get you, playing on sympathies for children that look like you. Kano is determined not to be fazed, though, and that's why he's hiring hitmen instead of doing any of this himself. ]

He~h, let's go check that out after, then! Our second target will be your daemon, and then they won't have any more hold over us~

[ Here, Toki, take this. It's the doorknob to his room and also a screwdriver and some screws so he can replace it and open the door. ]

[yokeye]

Right! We can't let them win!

[He's already having second thoughts, though. They're children and he really liked Avery and Ricky. Toki takes the doorknob and screws and starts to ask why Kano isn't doing it himself, but yeah. He'd be faster. With the doorknob successfully re-attached to 303, he opens the door cautiously; just in case little daemon Shuuya is ready to attack.]

[suddenlybees]

[ That's how they get you!!! Don't give in, Toki.

Little daemon Shuuya is nowhere to be found inside the room- not at first. It's a completely empty room, but the furniture seems to have been... rearranged. The desk is in front of the closet, and inside the closet comes a muffled sob, like somebody's got their hands clamped in front of their mouth so they wouldn't make a sound but it escapes anyways.

There is also a bearded lizard chilling on Kano's bed. ]

Alright, are you ready? [ Kano strolls over to the desk and places his hands on the edge. ] I'm going to unleash it!!

[yokeye]

[The crying is unnerving him already. How can he kill a tiny Kano who's crying!? No, that's how they get to you. It's how they get to you. He doesn't notice the lizard, which is good, because that would be another derailment in this mission. Toki approaches the closet and he's ready to grab the child should he try and run for it.]

Okay!

[suddenlybees]

[ The desk takes a while to shove all the way aside, but even after that, there's no noise or movement from the other side of the door and Kano has to break the suspense by stepping forward himself and pulling open the closet door. Shuuya doesn't try to run, but he does try to hide. Instead of clothes, the closet is filled with cardboard boxes, some of them overturned with how Shuuya had been kicking up a fuss inside, but most of them stacked up how they used to be, enough to sort of hide the boy who shrinks into the corner and tries his best to hold his breath and be quiet, like there's still a possibility of escape. Kano claps Toki on the shoulder. There you are~ Go in for the kill~ ]

[yokeye]

[Toki expected the daemon child to rush out try to escape, but he's hiding in the corner. Toki used to do that. Oh my god. He can't hurt this child. Even if he's a daemon.]

Alright! I've got this!

[Project confidence to Kano... while he steps into the closet to retrieve Shuuya. He picks up the boy, hoping he won't fight too much. Out of the closet and he's ready to run out the door. Toki hesitates a minute, because he's considering this a betrayal of their friendship, if Kano would even call it that. He can't take Shuuya to the Mythril Cage. He's taking him to Ekkehardt.]

I'll be right back and then we can look for kid me in the garage~!

[And he's gone.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Shuuya flinches and squeezes his eyes shut, freezing in place when he sees Toki reach for him, but that just makes it easy to haul him out and pick him up and run out the door...

Kano can only stare at the empty space where the two of them were, rubbing at the back of his head. Man, Toki's become real reliable, huh? He's grown up~

Alright, alright, now he can shove the desk back where it used to be and take the doorknob back off and wait for Toki outside, knowing absolutely nothing of Toki's FRIENDSHIP BREAKING BETRAYAL. ]