[Common Region] Kikka

[Bloodedge]

"... Hai." Somewhat to Asher's surprise, the green-haired girl quickly accepted his terms for cutting their target off. Meeting her extended hand with his own, he counted down to the final moment when he used his light magic to move through the traffic and into the casino. In little to no time at all, they were at the opposite end of the opening to the crowd, and Asher was staring down the purple-haired woman opposite to them. He intended to confront this woman, but something else was bothering him. If he were in this situation and thought someone was onto him, the path he would have taken would have been a very different one. Where she seemed to be going wouldn't have led to safety from pursuers at all, leading the young man to believe something else was afoot. As such, he further closed the distance between Hikage and himself, brushing against her side so he could whisper as quietly as possible. "She was going toward this hall, but it doesn't lead to anything major. I think she either has more of those puppets, or more people with her nearby."

[Apollymi]

They did indeed make it to this spot in record time, and Hikage got to experience the speed of Asher's movements first hand. When they stopped she had wide eyes but seemed to recover easily enough. The lad even brushed her slightly to bring attention to what he thought was the major problem of the cut off of this woman. He was apparently of the assumption that either this was a place which lead to more of her comrades or more of the doll like creatures like the ones outside. To be perfectly honest, Hikage was excited either way, in fact there was a glow in her eyes which was almost childishly delighted. "Sou ka, it's a trap. That's fine either way. You can take her, I'll take everyone else," she mumbled this. It was apparently part of Hikage's plan to walk straight into this trap, if only because it would definitely start a fight. Of course, there was the matter that they had a good bit of information to run on, when considering that the woman was definitely selling the sort of items which were implied to be upgraded to induce death in people.

The purple haired woman's eyes widened in this moment where she turned the corner and the lad and the green haired girl who'd discovered her puppet were standing directly in front of her. "How!?" she stressed this, before she recovered a small smile coming to her face, as she turned on the charm while this set of teens whispered to each other. "I mean, only my best customers can see thorough that ruse. That is pretty impressive for the pair of you... perhaps you'd enjoy talking together in the back, and getting at look at the better merchandise," she said, practically sweating bullets. She looked at both of the teens, but flinched just a tad when looking towards Hikage, she decided in this moment that Asher was the better bet. "Can you keep her calm enough to talk business?" she asked of him, as if she expected Hikage to attack without provocation based solely on the amount of animosity in her stare. "That is the more normal reaction to me..." she mumbled to Asher, bringing back her earlier statement that the puppet speaking to her wasn't normal.

[Bloodedge]

"Good plan. It'd probably be best if both of us didn't confront her at once anyway, and you seem like you'd have a better time fighting a bunch of people," Asher replied to agree with Hikage's idea. Beyond this, she was certain to have an easier time picking out - and picking off - the purple-haired woman's associates than he would. Shortly after their brief exchange, they were being spoken to by the woman they'd followed here. Indeed, she urged them toward the trap they had assumed was in place, claiming they could talk business and look over her better wares. Before going into any further detail, though, she spoke to Asher about keeping Hikage calm, at which point it became apparent what Hikage meant when pointing out the puppet's reaction earlier. "... Sou ka. That's a shame," he said. A nod to Hikage would follow, prior to Asher stepping forward with the intention of handling this end of their task himself.

In a few steps, he was standing directly in front of the purple-haired woman. "She'll busy herself," he said as his hands slipped into his pockets, causing the jingling of many coins as if to imply he was the money-holder of this pair. In actuality, what he held in his pocket was his life's savings that he intended to use for the purpose of starting his new life as a Magic Knight, but that was neither here nor there. For now, he would continue his effort to pick this woman's brain for information, lest he make a bad move and blow their cover. No matter; this wasn't the first time Asher pretended to fit in with a bad crowd, in spite of his looks. As such, he got into character right away. His visage was no different than that which he'd used to gamble his way out of debts he'd been strong-armed into, or intimidate those who thought they could swindle him out of that which he didn't actually have. "I don't care to see what you've got in the back. I could be your new best customer, period... but your best stuff isn't in the back, is it? I think it's either on you right now, or nowhere near here. So... what's your real best merch? Tell me what it is you don't want to sell. And don't worry; we weren't coming to take you out or anything. We really are here on business," he claimed, and in no way was he telling a lie. Of course, the 'business' they were here on was very different from what he implied, but that was another matter for another time.

[Apollymi]

A simple nod came from Hikage. It was very true she was more used to taking on groups of people in combat, and beyond all of that she enjoyed fighting enough that it wouldn't matter to her if she had to face dozens of people at once so long as they put up a decent enough fight all together. As they paused though it seemed that Asher had picked up on what she'd meant initially when pointing out that the merchant speaking to her directly at all was strange. Hikage was quite used to people being afraid of her, or at the least wary of her presence. This was especially true of the sorts of people she came across in public. "Iie, it's normal..." she said to the idea that it was somehow a shame. She'd actually be a bit more confused if someone broke this, which meant technically she was more confused by Asher than this woman.

Moving right along, Asher's hint at holding the money sparked a bit of greed in this woman. Beyond the idea that she didn't wish to fight, was the matter that this casino only contained more puppets and that would be a bad match up for an actual fight against these people, if it even needed to take place. The lad even showed a bit of savvy by noting that her actual merchandise was logically either far away or on her person. She smiled then, because her safe house was indeed far away, but it contained all of her good merchandise and some trust worthy proper fighters. If these people happened to not be in the mood for a fight she could just make a bit of money and a new customer. "Hm, I didn't expect you to be clever. Don't take it to heart, I'm a woman running a business. I can't just have my face out there, people would try and take advantage of me or abuse me," she mentioned, this was a truthful reason for the amount of deception she went about as a matter of good faith she turned heading back out the front of this place. "Come. My actual wares are at a spot at the far end of the Black Market, but I can give you this as a sample," she said showing him a vial containing a strange purple liquid. "It's good for a boost at the very least..." she said giving the lad a wink. Hikage looked over the lad's shoulder at the offered vial and felt like something about it was off... she definitely wouldn't advise using it, but it definitely counted as made evil shit, in her personal opinion. And with that the woman began her exit of the casino, either her new customers would follow or they wouldn't, it didn't really matter to her at this point. And she'd lead the way to her true safe house.

[Bloodedge]

"The Forsaken Region isn't a happy place," was Asher's simple response to the woman he spoke with. She had become no less suspicious in this short time. Rather, she was becoming more of a suspect the longer they shared words, even if he could understand the realism of her alleged plight being a female vendor in the black market. "Sou ka. You're not strong enough to protect yourself against the types of customers you get. That's why you have so many puppets. Are they also tools, or is that your magic?" he asked. As he began to follow this woman, he took and inspected the purple fluid-filled vial he was given. She may have claimed this to be an act of good faith for a potential customer, but she had already tried to set them up once today. Either way, he slid it into his pocket and continued trailing closely behind the woman. "Arigatou. I'm Asher, by the way. My companion here is Hikage. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."

[Apollymi]

It was soon mentioned by Asher that the Forsaken Region was no happy place and the woman just gave a flippant shrug. "So I hear, never been there myself though, sorry..." she managed to actually sound a bit taken up by the plight of those who lived in the Forsaken Region. She couldn't imagine growing up in such a place but she didn't have to. Beyond this it seemed that the lad, was content to ask questions about her business, he seemed soft enough to have believed her story so she had no reason to tell too many lies. "Yeah, male customers are a bit of a problem and female ones are less likely to care as long as the merchant isn't creepy. The Dolls are a creation of mine, they aren't my magic, but they are run by magic. But your friend seemed to have already figured that out..." she mused without thinking about it much. Asher went on to introduce himself and Hikage, while the girl considered that she would have been bored fighting a bunch of dolls because she knew there wasn't any magic in that back casino room. "I'm Eve. Nice to meet you..." she said, stopping after a few more moments of travel in front of place that looked neither run down nor particularly flashy.

"This is the place, now, I can take you in and show you some stuff. You just have to let me know the kind of stuff you're looking for," she said to the pair. Hikage was still tossing around her knife, the entire time they'd been walking with this woman, she felt that the level of sketchiness she possessed was exactly the sort of thing that she disliked about the man who'd come to the Black Bulls Headquarters. She pushed open the door and about a dozen pairs of eyes looked up, Hikage took note of these and that intimidating light returned to the green haired girl. But she figured they should get as much information as possible out of this before she went crazy.

[Bloodedge]

For all the purple-haired woman had to say about her customers of different genders, Asher couldn't figure out how one wouldn't consider her doll stand-in creepy. He did get more information out of this exchange though, like the fact that her magic remained unknown since the dolls were actual magic tools instead of spells cast by her. Soon enough, they were upon her place of 'business' as it were, and Eve was questioning what they had actually come looking for. Immediately afterwards, she opened the door to reveal what Asher could only assume was the rest of her group. Assuming Hikage would have anything involving them handled if it came to that, Asher continued his discussion with Eve. "We're not looking for anything specific. That puppet of yours was interesting, though. If I'm not mistaken, that little upgrade he was talking about would be good for... let's say getting someone out of our hair for a very long time, yeah?"

[Apollymi]

A few moments after they entered this place, Asher was still engaged in conversation with Eve. Eve managed to simply nod at the boy's explanation that he'd not been looking for anything in particular but was interested in the darker aspects of her upgrades. "Oh you caught that did you? Yeah, it could definitely make someone not a problem for a long time..." she said with a smirk coming to her face. "But if you wanted something like that, I'd need a show of good faith, yeah? I couldn't just show you or tell you properly about something like that," she said in a way which probably would have made a lot of sense. "So, just to make sure you're on the up and up, so to speak, drink that potion I gave you. Then I'll know you really want to be here and we can do business properly..." she left this open. Hikage heard this and her brow rose, she didn't like the look of that potion at all, and felt like it was likely poisoned as an idea way to get rid of someone in the middle of bringing them here. Or maybe just to paralyze them, she wondered what the lad would do but she didn't seem to break at all, instead she simply kept flipping that one knife around multiple times as she waited to see if she should start a fight or not.

[Bloodedge]

True indeed, Eve did apparently have methods of wiping out an annoyance. Asher now had little doubt that this was the target they sought, but... if only there could be something more solid, like proof that she wasn't actually lying on her merchandise just to make a sale. If this ended up being a farce, Asher and Hikage could accidentally screw up the entire mission. There was a beacon, though. The next words Eve spoke were a request for a show of faith before they properly conducted business. As skeptical as this was, Asher never broke his character. "Is that all? Well, I've had to do worse to get what I want. I just recently abandoned my adopted family for my ambitions," he said while pulling the vial of liquid out of his pocket. Without hesitation, he popped it open and tilted it to his mouth, pouring all of its contents in with no second thoughts. One could see his Adam's apple moving as he swallowed multiple times. When this was over, he began tossing the empty vial up and catching it, the same way Hikage treated her knife. The young man stared at Eve and smiled thereafter. "Good enough?"

[Apollymi]

Eve watched this lad as he removed the bottle she'd given him from his pocket. Surely he wasn't dumb enough to simply consume something because he was told to, even so, if he did, she'd have him right where she'd like him to. She then heard out a rather convincing tale about how the lad had abandoned his adoptive family just to get his goals in life. She could almost respect that, but still she watched. She watched as the lad consumed the contents of the vial and then much like his friend tossed it into the air. "Sou ka, well never get between a man and his dreams..." she said concisely. "And since you did what I asked, yes, I have everything necessary to upgrade that paralyzing dagger to one which will kill as soon as someone is touched with it. Doesn't matter how big or small the cut is, like you have to be careful drawing it... and it's not just a pitch," she said knowing one might consider her to be faking. She then had a huge grin spreading across her face as she spoke. "Not that it matters much, you won't be buying anything like that... in fact, you'll either buy the antidote for that potion which will also wipe your memory... or you'll die right here and my friends here will kill the girl just to get rid of you both. Nothing personal but I can't have people, actually knowing what my merch does, it'd be bad for business..." she said, rather callously. Hikage for her part in this looked around the room, having noticed that most of the men had stopped working and where now surrounded by open and glowing grimoires. "That's a threat right? I can fight them now?" she asked of Asher. Hikage didn't know if the lad had actually drank the poison or not, but she had faith in him nonetheless.

[Bloodedge]

There it was. In one shining moment, Eve admitted to everything that would see her convicted for her crimes and have her segment of the syndicate shut down for good. She also went on to say the potion he drank was poisonous. Asher continued smiling in the woman's face even as this was said. He would have laughed, but certain circumstances dictated that he didn't. When Hikage asked for confirmation as to whether she could fight them, he spared a glance in her direction. There was a threat on the girl's life to allegedly be executed if the poison's antidote wasn't purchased. Asher took a moment to compare Hikage's magic and obvious bloodlust to that of everyone else in this building, and when he was done, his attention returned to Eve. "Go ahead," he said both to Hikage's request to fight these people, and Eve's threat to have Hikage killed. "By the way, we're Magic Knights. You're all going to jail, unless my friend here goes too far and kills all your guys."

[Apollymi]

It seemed the woman known as Eve had tipped her hand a bit too soon. Strangely this lad didn't even seem afraid of what was happening, nor did he immediately try and buy his way out of his impending doom. No, instead he simply mentioned that he and the girl he was with were both Magic Knights and that everyone in this building was going to jail. Hikage's grimoire began glowing as multiple other knives were produced and she got a wide grin on her face. "I... don't kill people," she said, which was true. Even the lad who'd been rude to her in the Entrance Exam wouldn't have lost his life from the injuries he'd received. As such, Hikage found herself staring down a man who aimed to maim her with a fire spell. She rather easily moved down of the firebolt and launched a knife into the man's shoulder only to immediately charge forward and spin into the man lashing out at him and the man beside him before another spell could even be launched. "I have this by the way," she said with battle mania in those golden eyes of hers.

Meanwhile Eve was left standing there looking amazed. "But that doesn't make sense, why aren't you writhing on the floor in agony? You should be poisoned by now... you drank the vile," Eve said, her own grimoire now visible a deep purple color with a diamond in the center of the front cover. "I was hoping to avoid this sort of thing. I can't get shut down..." she mumbled. "One chance leave and forget you saw us..." she mentioned as several balls of purple energy began floating around her and she let them hover in the air.

[Bloodedge]

Hikage said she had the extras covered, even though Asher could already tell this was the case. Not only did he believe she could easily deal with Eve's associates, but she seemed like she would enjoy even the opportunity to do so. Asher nodded to the girl, but continued with his own end of business nonetheless. When it was claimed that he should already be writhing in pain, he remembered something important. "Oh, right! Sumimasen, I've never been able to get rid of it so soon," he said. The final time the vial he'd been tossing hit his hand, he brought it to his mouth again while using his left hand to pull on his cheek. After this was done, his lips pursed and out came the full vial's worth of poison, right back into its original container. Asher plugged the vial again, and held it out with his right hand thereafter, while holding his open grimoire in his left hand. "We can't just leave. Besides, I don't want to be arrogant or anything, but... I don't think you can beat me. Can't we just arrest you now?"

[Apollymi]

Hikage continued her work throwing and kicking knives into individuals, if one bothered to look she'd halved the number of individuals she was fighting even as they launched countless numbers of base elemental spells at her. She couldn't help this as most seemed to be incapable of stopping now that she'd started. Even so the wounds on these men were shallow and only enough to stop them from moving and not nearly enough to cause them any lasting damage.

Eve on the other hand had a different plan entirely. She watched as the lad managed to spit out all of the poison which he'd taken earlier without any real issue. "Oh... that is kind of gross," she said as if she hadn't just tried to poison someone. To be honest she was a bit upset she'd been out-played like that. Those glowing little balls soon lashed out as she addressed what this lad had to say. "Sure, whatever you say. But no one wants to be arrested and I won't apologize for whatever happens to you..." she said these balls aimed to converge on Asher where he stood, if these made contact they'd dull his senses and cause him pain as they were filled with cursed magic. "Hai Juso Mahō : Kiki Kai Kai," she stated of the spell she'd just used.

[Bloodedge]

Asher agreed that his method of avoiding a potential poisoning was somewhat gross, but it was a survival tactic which had served him well more times than he'd like to admit. Eve seemed totally disinterested in giving up to make things easier. In fact, after Asher's suggestion, she used her curse spell to attack him almost instantly. Asher's already open grimoire glowed bright gold as this happened. "That's the difference between us. Sumimasen," he said, apologizing for any damage he would need to inflict just to restrain this woman. "Hikari Mahō: Retten no Senkō!" Asher's high perception showed itself once more as the cursed orbs came his way. Quick-moving eyes pinpointed each of them, and with his own spell, he summoned orbs of light that intercepted each part of Eve's attack without moving to meet them. These orbs of light were only the starting point of this spell, though. Once Eve's attack was stopped, Asher's orbs each unleashed beams of light which traveled outward at blinding speed, then turned in toward Eve to target numerous non-vital points along her entire body.