The Red Sisters

[Fushichou]

Outside the store

Aka lowered his head as the woman turned to him. As she pointed to the corpse, he advanced to have a better look at the grisly scene. Taking in his left hand the prayer beads at his wrist, Aka made two quick prayers to Kannon before returning his attention to the mysterious red haired woman.

"I think someone is digging two graves."

 

[Requine]

Cassandra frowned. "Not picking up anything magical. Glad we have a Lead Investigator here, though. Any witnesses? Neighbours who heard something? Any leads? I ain't much for forensics."

 

[Collapsible Myth]

Looking at each of the gathered agents Wayne simply shook his head "leads are small of it at that." Motioned towards the front door, the door frame at first glanced appeared normal but under closer scrutiny one would have noticed several slash marks about halfway up on either side "our victim must have known the perpetrator since she had not opened the store yet for her to have opened the door. You can see the blood pool there near the door leading over to where her body is currently."

Outside a growing commotion is becoming noticeable as one of the local vampire refugees is trying to rush the scene "come on guys, get these people and leeches back!" Wayne shouted to the uniforms outside.

If one would study the grisly remains you might notice some of the jagged edges appear singed.

 

[Fushichou]

Outside the store

Aka lowered his head at the red haired woman.

"If you would excuse me miss."

And he then strided between the vampire and the law enforcement community, adressing the other vampire, the one who had not move in for a drink yet, with a calm voice.

"You should take your kin out of here before you get into troubles sir."

 

[Collapsible Myth]

The vampire turned to look at the man addressing it, making a few guttural noises the other vampires backed off before slowly walking away. A meal that would not be theirs.

One of the officers gives a thankful nod to Aka as he goes back to making sure the rest of the crowd stays back. A medical examiner has arrived on the scene and slowly goes about her duty of looking over the remains and writing notes within her book.

 

[Stella Barthersby]

Stella shook Sartre's hand. "Junior Inquisitor Stella Barthesby," she proclaimed. "I don't know about any of that. Sounds like school stuff." And the pink haired young woman looked barely old enough to have left school. "I'm here to get answers." She looked around, hands on hips. "Let's ask the neighbours what they've seen." She went striding off towards a group of gathered citizens. "Who here heard anything? See anything?" She herded around them with the instinct of a collie dog.

 

[Fushichou]

Aka found himself cornered by an incarnation of Tsukino Usagi before he could make his way back to the crowd and the anonymous red headed woman he was conversing with before the vampire incident.

Politely bowing low to the young woman, the Asian man wearing worn out sportswear with spots of white paint answered her sincerely:
"I was going to the grocery shop to buy soy beans for the new year festival when I heard screaming, it came from a couple of students over there that had seen the corpse. I looked around but saw nobody, more people arrived to the scene till the Red Coats eventually showed up."

Keeping his head low he continued:
"I saw nothing more than what all can see: the murderer could have just push the victim inside the shop and do his grim work there yet the corpse is exposed; a single strike would have been enough for a kill yet the body was dismembered; a chainsaw would have make a lot of noise yet the cuts are not clean."

 

[Collapsible Myth]

An older woman gently pushed forward "I was on my way home when I saw a tall figure running past me from this direction. I couldn't see there face but I did notice that their gloved hands seemed wet and now thinking of it, perhaps it was blood."

"What are you going to do Templars? You're supposed to be protecting us or does Darkside have an exception and anyone or anything here free game to killers. Hell, you're letting this leeches remain here, maybe it was one of them!" A some what beleaguered gentleman shouted to the agents, stirring up several others within the crowd.

The red haired woman began to move slowly away from the crowd, keeping a low profile.

 

[Requine]

"We're working on it," snaps Cassandra to the malcontent shouting in the crowd. "Look, we're on it. Trust us, this will be taken care of swiftly."

She takes notes. Singed material, a tall figure, gloved hands. It's a start, if not the best one.

Perhaps the medical examiner has some more clues?

 

[Collapsible Myth]

The crowd was close to becoming an issue, the growing tension between the residents and the refugees was close to boiling over.

"Clear the area! Now!" Investigator Ennis shouted to the rest of his team. The crowd reluctantly dispersed as the tension slowly eased.

"Sir, just a preliminary review of the body before further review back in the office. The body shows signs that the limbs were torn apart not with any blade or any other known weapon but a heated device as several of the remaining skin around the wounds are singed. Also sir if you look here." The medical examiner knelt next to the torso pointing to what remained of the left shoulder. With the fading light of the oncoming evening the faint outline of a small blue brand in the shape of a triangle with one of its sides missing, in its place are two small red dots.



Investigator Ennis turns to those still gathered around "Anything come to mind? Magic cults, witches or anything?"

 

[Fushichou]

Peering over the inspector shoulder the Asian man could only shake his head as he looked at the strange symbol on the shoulder.

"I would have said Oni but noone mentioned sounds of hooves or a black horse... some criminal organizations uses brands like that but this one does not ring a bell... also may be once the body is moved and the blood is cleaned, we could see if there are residue of the weapon that was used on the ground, with such a blow may be the killer did not stop his move properly..."

Aka paused.

"You were not truly addressing me, weren't you?"

 

[Collapsible Myth]

"Thank you, at least someone has a clue in what goes on around here unlike you brain dead idiots." Wayne pointed to his agents standing around "you have complete access in this case."

The ME had finished their on site investigation and had started the grim task of putting the body parts into a body bag.

 

[colts450]

Anybody have any idea on motive? Another case of stolen artifacts by rouge Carthaginian Phonetician pirates Theyll do anything for a price Sartre said to the group.

 

[Fushichou]

Making a few steps away from the crowd and toward the group of investigators, Aka gave a last glance toward the crowd, before turning to the grisly scene again.

He bowed low to the inspector "You do me too much favor sir..." before bowing in turn to the three other persons near him.

Speaking as if saying a mantra he continued:
"I am nameless, nobody but one among an endless stream... thus you can call me Nanashi"
((Nameless in Japanese))

Making a pause and his voice now low, he said to the inspector, Sartre, Stella and Cassandra:
"You know that actually looks like an execution, knowing who the victim was and to what group he belonged may lead us to the why someone killed him. The Red Coats are renowned for their extensive libraries, may be that unknown symbol will find its explaination there... Anyway it seems there is at least another blood soaked person that we should try to find while the trail is not completly cold... if you can get efficient bloodhound here swiftly we could avoid bargaining for the temporary cooperation of the hungry denizens of Darkside."

 

[Collapsible Myth]

"That's the first thing we don't want to happen is for people around her to think someone is going around killing indiscriminately. I tell you what, speak to my assistant over there" Wayne pointed over towards a young man dressed smartly in Templar uniform "and we'll procure access to the lobby of the library. Just the lobby since we wouldn't want anyone to get some bright ideas of trying to sneak deeper."

 

[Fushichou]

Aka bowed to Wayne but eventually let the more professionally looking Agents go first, instead he chosed to linger a bit more on the crime scene.

Approaching the body as much as he could without disturbing the Templars working on forensics and meat picking, he looked the visage of the dead woman for a long moment before standing up again and turning to the crowd.

"Does any of you know who that woman was? Where she lived? And more importantly what was her faith so that she can receive proper burial rites?"

 

[colts450]

"Ill take The Templar Library. That symbol from an ancient culture?" He fumbled with his phone , looking down.

"Yes Geary. Ill find this John. My guess is Chandra is close by."

He thought of the disapered. Especially Roselynn.

 

[colts450]

He entered the library and strategically flashed his council badge to the receptionist, knowing they wouldn't take kindly to the blue one. "Mam, do you have any books related to this symbol." He took out a photo of the sigil.

 

[Collapsible Myth]

Outside the Store:
The remaining bystanders had slowly dwindled away, leaving only the old woman and a few on-lookers. “I don’t have any ideas but she I did see someone leaving her store every other day, a younger looking man.” The old woman spoke with slight empathy towards the victim.

Inside the Library:
Barely giving him her full attention as she poured over a reasonable stack of paperwork before her “We have books on everything and anything in this known word and the next. That is something that’ll be in the lower archives.” With a heavy sigh she pressed a button on the phone hidden just under the counter “Dimitri, could you come up and take care of this inquiry?” Without waiting for a reply the receptionist returned to her work.

 

[Fushichou]

Outside the store

Aka bowed to the old lady.

"Thank you for those informations, would you be kind enough to leave your adress to this gentleman..." Aka gestured toward Wayne while bowing again "We may call you at later time if we need to identify that man. We will find the responsible and bring justice to him, I can promise you."

Turning to Wayne he continued bowing slightly.

"May be we should find and consult that woman's ledger and searches her shop to find information about that mysterious visitor, her other customers and if we are lucky learn about her religion. I can assist on that if you would allow me."