Mission 6c - The blood of the arcane

"I know what you mean.  Who has time for pets, let alone exotic ones.  Like your friends, they even had to train theirs with a parazoologist.  What was his name? T.. Ta," Emiko feigns ignorance, trying to gauge Shachi's reaction.  She assenses him to see if he's holding back information or if he really doesn't know any of this.  

Assensing: 2 hits

"Taro Doubutsu," she snaps, "that's the guy.  Did you ever meet him when he trained the basilisk or any other pets of your friends?"  Emiko looks to the two girls and says, "I'm squeamish around some of these exotic pets.  I once came across a pair of some creatures that could have sliced me into tiny pieces.  It was the size of a bear but a cross between a canine and feline.  It was the color of fire too!  So, I like to stay safe.  Did you ever meet Mr. Kuba's basilisk?"

Emiko looks around the shop and then back at Shachi.  "Mr. Doumeki, we spoke to someone that was paralyzed by the basilisk... temporarily paralyzed, I should say.  It's gone.  Gone with whoever killed Mr. Kuba.  When you went to the house of Mr. Kuba, how did the basilisk act around you?  I'm wondering why the basilisk wouldn't paralyze someone attacking Mr. Kuba but paralyze someone non-threatening."

Genuinely curious, Emiko asks, ""what's the difference between being paralyzed and petrified? In both cases you can't move, right? Where's the differentiation?"

After the explanation, Emiko looks to Shachi and says, "there is one more thing I'd like to understand, if you don't mind. Many of the mages killed were performing rituals or into performing rituals; that's not out of the ordinary. What I'm curious is what the rituals were for. I'm very ignorant on the subject, so please pardon my intrusive question, but it may help our case. What ritual, or rituals, would you and your group gather to perform?"

Realizing she's not getting any information of real value, Emiko moves to wrap things up. "For that reason, I give my condolences. I'm sorry you have lost your friends. My friends," Emiko says while turning to Edison and Kin and back to Shachi, "and I are trying to find who is responsible for this. Please, if you think of anything that may seem the slightest importance, call me on my commlink."

Emiko turns to the girls, "Madouka, Homura, it doesn't seem you knew your grandfather's friends, but, for his safety, please call me if you think you know something that could help." She turns to Homura and adds, "or you can call me and talk about being ghosted by our mutual friend, Kitaro." Emiko finishes with a smile and a wink before turning to the door and walking away.

"Enjoy the rest of your day and be safe," she says while walking out.

Kin starts to follow Emiko out and turns one last time toward the grizzled orc. Unable to control the volume of his voice due to the earplugs, he raises his voice a little and asks two final questions.

"Any idea why the blood of Hermatic mages like yourself would be in demand? Are you familiar with any rituals that might involve this blood?"

Kin thinks of one more thing to ask for Shachi.

"What do you know about shinigami?"

Emiko turns back around,  surprised by the loud voice of Kin.

To Madouka (used to say Madonna) she replies, "I have a feeling we're not going to be seeing him again.  He ghosted everyone, myself included."

Emiko says, “I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to upset her. I was actually trying to be nice but, as you can see, I failed miserably. I recognized your sister from conversations with Kitaro. You know, he saved my life once. Some thugs cut my throat. I would have bled out and died but he called in help and paid for some of my medical expenses.”

Emiko pauses she continues, “still, it’s inexcusable that he just stopped calling Homura.”

“The real reason we are here is because someone out there is cutting necks and bleeding people out, people like your grandfather, and these people are not being saved. I should have stuck to that. Please tell your sister I am very sorry.  You have my number, you can call me any time and I promise not to ghost you.”

Seeing that Kin is engaged with Shachi, Emiko pursues this new information from Madouka. "What? Unlock magic in me? No, I don't have magic in me. Do I?"

Emiko looks around the room, now with a different curiosity. "How would it work? How would you find the magic in me?"

“Words I live by,” Emiko says with a chuckle. “And too late, hope is already up. When this investigation is over, I want to see what potential I have.”

Emiko adds, "by the way, you mentioned about potions. I have a feeling I might run into a pretty powerful magic user and I'm worried they'll easily outmatch me. Do you have anything I can take that will make a magic user have more trouble controlling me?"

Edison excuses himself as politely as possible and leaves the shop. With little brother in tow he has to his sedan and sends it back to his house. When he gets there he retrieves his Steyr, working all the parts and putting it back in its concealing holster. He messages Kin for the address of the next crime scene. When the info comes back he heads towards it with LB in the sedan.

"I think I understand. If I have a good idea that we'll be having a confrontation, I'll stop by here first. How much time do you need to prepare a potion?"

After the potion conversation, Emiko says to Madouka, "thank you for everything. Please, tell Homura I didn't mean anything bad and I am truly sorry for upsetting her."

She turns to the old ork and says, "Sir, you be careful. Someone, or someones, have an affinity for mage blood and they're not kind how they get it."

Emiko taps Kin on the shoulder and waves him out the door. She calls her car to the magic shop and waits for it to arrive. Once there, she directs her car to drive to the home of Isei Takata and meet Edison there.

Tingling runs up Emiko's spine as Seichi walks past the group. Emiko, using her voice modulator, lowers her voice to barely audible so the two men next to her can only hear her. "I know that guy. He's a friend of Isei. I spoke to him and we were supposed to meet before he blew me off. I didn't trust him and I still don't. Edison, can you send LB to tail him so we can go into his apartment? We need to know if he comes back to the building."

Emiko takes out her deck and, in AR, logs into the matrix while running silent. She sets her deck to D8 S6 A4 F2 and looks for the building's directory. She's looking for Seichi's apartment number.

If she has to hack the information, she hacks on the fly while running silent.
HotF: 7 hits

Edison sends an electronic communication to Little Brother.
1. Follow Seichi
2. Do not be seen
3. Protect Seichi if he is in danger

After they leave Edison turns to the others and lets them know he is going to follow behind LB, in the sedan, incase of trouble.

Edison recalls LB instead of risking him. It wouldn't do for him to be caught with all that illegal hardware. After LB returns to the sedan they go to catch up with the others.

When Edison returns the trio, plus LB, go to the second floor; Emiko suggests they take the stairs.  They head to Isei’s apartment and enter. Emiko takes her deck, keeps the same settings, and finds a chair to sit in while she jacks into the matrix via hot sim. She tells the men, “give me a moment and then go see if you can get into Seichi’s apartment. Edison, have LB wait by the lobby and notify you if he comes back home.”

Once in the matrix, she searches for the building’s camera program. Taking a cue from her friend Sam, she works to put the camera on a continuous loop on the second floor.

Hack on the Fly: 3 hits