Welcome to Gaia! ::

Raine nodded slightly, listening to William's order. "Close to them, huh..." She muttered. She wasn't sure how to do such a thing, but she could half a** an attempt maybe at conversation. Those lot seemed like the kind of group to welcome anyone who seemed willing to try and make nice with them. "That book...right..." She nodded. That whole group, they knew of magic. Probably could pick up she probably did too. That would make things a bit easier for her. Kestrel chuckled, interested that Raine seemed perfectly willing to endanger the lives of strangers here. But Raine's mid was alreayd made up on that. "...I suppose I can do that." She could probably find them after class or something. She had no intention of going to class, unless she had to.

Raine thought to herself after William left. How owuld she have to approach them to make it seem casual? She'd have to find them, first of all...She stood up straight. "I can't believe I'm doing this." She said, in a complaining tone. She looked around. She had to head back to her dorm room and grab her bag. Her guns were in htere. And maybe it would give less of a picture that she was skipping class.
[Dorm Hallway]

(Ayame enters from the Shopping District)

The air was crisp and cool around the World Tree and she could hear the rustling of myriad leaves in its massive canopy. However, one thing she could also hear were the footsteps of another person as they paced about lightly, like a young yet strong and confident tiger looking for someone to try to topple it from its mountain. Ku Fei. She heard about this girl from one of the professors the previous night who used to teach in the Chinese Martial Arts Club until he turned the club over to some of the more senior students/combatants.

"They say two tigers can't live on the same mountain," Ayame told Ku with a subtle and somewhat playful smile as she silently approached, suddenly showing up within arm's reach (or killing distance if that was what she wanted to do) of the girl. "Must be lonely on this mountain of yours. Usanagi Kyouko (her false identity), by the way. And I'm assuming you're Ku Fei?" Ayame asked while extending her hand and smiling.

"The mighty Ku Fei," Ayame said with a slight tone of admiration. "Professor Katsuragi mentioned you during a conversation last night. Apparently you were one of his best students before he turned the club over to you and the other senior combatants. You should really hear what some people call you around here...Captain Fei, Ku the Ironfisted, or most famously the 'Tiger of Mahora.' " Ayame chuckled somewhat seductively and playfully as she spoke before pausing for a few seconds. "I'd like to see how much iron there is in those words one of these days. I'll be in Mahora for a while. Would you like to schedule a match at some point?"

Ayame, despite her facade and appearance, was always spoiling for a fight and good fights were hard for her to come by. Most people didn't last a minute against her or see her coming for that matter. Perhaps Ku Fei, the famed Tiger of Mahora would be able to give her the kind of fight she was looking for as well as something to remember her stay at Mahora by when she left...if she left, that is.

Ayame waved at Ku Fei as she left before she walked to the other side of the World Tree, shaded by bushes and smaller trees and where no one could see. It was the perfect time for her to spawn a simulacrum...a perfect shadow clone of full sentience and extreme density...a forbidden technique whose scroll she managed to get ahold of in the village's underground archives without anyone knowing. Ayame made a series of hand seals before waving her left arm out to the side, causing a long, thin, and flowing scroll with hundreds of symbols written in red to fly out of her sleeve, spiral rapidly in a strong gust of wind, and circle around her before settling on the ground in with all of its symbols laid out perfectly in separate concentric spell circles. She then began to chant silently after calmly stepping out of the circle before all the symbols slowly lit up in a burning red light.

Ayame finished her chant several minutes later as numerous small drops of her blood sprayed over the scroll, she said the last syllable, and the scroll seemingly came to life, rippling and spiraling through the air before coiling up into what looked like a mummified version of herself several feet in front of her. Same height, same build, just wrapped in fine paper covered with intensely-glowing red symbols. The scroll tightened into a knot at the back and the mummified form inside began to stir before Ayame waited for several seconds and gave the command for the spell to stop. The intense red light building up around her near the world tree quickly faded and the wind around her stopped blowing before she slowly stepped over to the mummified form, stared at its "face" for a while and then reached behind it, pulling the knot and causing it all to unravel.

What was inside surprised even Ayame...a perfect clone of herself, but one that could be deactivated and destroyed at will. All that was needed was a single command from her, after which it would quickly die and reduce itself to coarse ash within minutes. "Lookin' good...lookin' real good," she said as she straightened the clone's glasses and fixed the creases its clothing. She then handed the clone a planner and research materials from her satchel. "That's my schedule and the material you're supposed to be researching. I'll meet you back at the apartment later on, alright? For now, I have a more important job to do," Ayame spoke to the clone before her clone left for the Library, Ayame walked behind the World Tree, and came out dressed in a black kunoichi's outfit (similar to Kaede's but with a dark blue sash and scarf) along with a blue and white kitsune mask before swiftly jumping into the World Tree's branches and disappearing.

(Ayame's clone leaves for Library Island)

High in the World Tree's branches, Ayame was perched, completely invisible while watching people go by through her kitsune mask's empty eyes. Or at least they seemed empty from the outside. Inside that mask was a completely different story. She paid a lot of money in the Magic World to get that thing constructed, though Masato paid for more than half of it the last time they went there. He was too generous to her, but it was one of the many things she loved about him before the other Koga nins reported him dead with his bloodstained sword as the only trace they found of him. The interior of Ayame's mask had a full holographic magic display, giving her a live feed from any shikigami she sent out as well as data and communications from others with similar devices on the fly. She bided her time up in the branches, perfectly still and watching silently until "Mariko's" video feed suddenly went dark. Wait....how did that happen?

Ayame quickly touched the side of her mask lightly and had the video feed from her shikigami play back before it paused the moment before a kunai went through the window and knocked Mariko out. That fox. That fox threw it, as she could see before Mariko's video feed came back online and she saw that same fox sniffing at the "camera" before opening its jaws and eating Mariko. "Dammit..." Ayame growled beneath her mask. Now she'd have to do things the old-fashioned way. Track that fox manually and then kill it. That was definitely no normal fox either and it couldn't be one of their own either. No...the Koga clan was very thorough and efficient in killing its foxes who were actually rogue members and criminals polymorphed into that form for easy disposal, not to mention the fur they yielded afterward. Plushie fox fur. That fox had to be one of those Iga b*stards and an important member of that clan for them to send her out to get it and she'd have a nice new scarf made from its pelt once she was done with it.

Kage appears near the top of the world tree but inside enough to were people would spot him to well from below unless they can detect his presence. He sat down on one of the trees large branches and stared off into the dark star filled sky. The nice weather (at least to him) made him feel comfortable as he continued to simply stare off into space. Suddenly he felt a familiar presence appear behind him. "Well I never thought you would find me again. To what do I owe this disturbance.

The strange man in the white robe with his hood on simply continued to stare at Kage. Suddenly he started talking in a tone just a bit more higher of pitch then Kage. "You know why I am here. You know what you did. You know why you must pay."

Kage simply chuckled a bit to himself. "Cut the heroic crap why don't you. You know you cannot take me on anytime soon." He said still staring off into space.

"Perhaps...but if everyone of magical abilities was to team up with me against you...Well you know were I am going with this." The strange man said.

"Good luck with that. I know I am not the nicest guy but they don't even know you." Kage said as he looked from the sky down at the city.

"True...but how would they think of you if they knew what you have done in your past. All the lives you have taken. All the hope and dreams of people you have crushed. The fact that you nothing more then a monster...I will return he eventually. And when I do. You better to ready to suffer the way you made me suffer...Brother." The man vanished without another word and without a trace.

Raine looked around. She'd left her empty dorm and came here. Three days without Kaede or Ayaka around would be nice. The problem was, she already felt like the time alone wasn't what she needed now. She looked at the picture in her pocket. She had found it on Ayaka's pillow, which actually pissed her off a good bit, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it since teh girl was now miles away on a class trip. She pocketed it again and sighed, as the small shadow creature she chose not to destroy or summon away crawled up out of her jacket from her sleeve. She glanced at it. Annoying little thing, it was like keeping some intelligent tamed lizard, but whatever.

She sat down, her black tail twitched as her ears as well underneath her hat. Damn. Kestrel was beginning to show more and more of himself, and there was little she could do about it. If she wasn't careful, he'd get out completely, and she would be dead. She frowned. Yeah, she'd be dead.