Lucky Lulu

Somehow even smugger in her recent success (as she chose to interpret it), and decidedly unruffled from her recent tossing, Masako gave the occasional flap and floated along with the others. She brushed off IP's confusion with a wave of her hand. "Nonsense- I was perfectly professional. Scarlet simply needed a proper push from someone clever enough (me) to see it, and she'd take Izayoi back without any problem whatsoever. Which she did! And without reducing any of my humans to a fine red paste, too." Masako swooped down, just enough to give Isobel a prod on the nose. "Not that some of us aren't trying, anyway. You really ought to listen to the maid, here! Just because we tengu are above it doesn't mean OTHER youkai wouldn't look at an outsider human and decide you look like some sort of... well, blood milkshake, in this case. Everyone's perfectly in their rights to eat you--until you properly settle in, in any case. Afterwards, they at least have to ask permission."

Isobel, though, had made a potentially fatal mistake. So concerned was she with telling off Rory, Empi, and Lotus, that she forgot the biggest (metaphorically and metaphysically) problem in the room. Fortunately, she would quickly be reminded. "Oh, this is plainly silly." The tengu landed sharply atop the cap of the vampire, in full defiance of literally everyone in sight. She leaned over, hands on her hips and wings flapping to stabilize herself in the face of any flailing, glaring down at the Scarlet Devil herself. "And shameful! You really call yourself a youkai, hiding back here from humans like that? Where's your pride? Your charisma? Did you lose it? Or did someone steal it? Because, if so-" Masako reached into her pocket and pulled out one of her business cards, which she promptly jammed into Remilia's face. "Chichimura Masako, Gensokyo's finest detective (accept no substitutes!), is on the case! And, remarkably-" The tengu straightened back up, a smug expression as she lit her pipe once more, giving it a pointed puff. "-I have already deduced a solution to the crime, as my assistants have already explained. Now hurry up, stop embarrassing yourself (and ME, frankly!), and re-hire Izayoi so I can take my commission and go do something else."

"Oh, don't be silly. She'll be fine." Masako waved her hand dismissively. "Her boss will probably hire her back in about five minutes once she realizes she only has fairies and hobgoblins and China around to serve tea, and if someone trying to stab her (Scarlet really ought to be used to people trying to stab her by now) is enough to stop her, then she has bigger issues. Besides, none of this is my problem, and it's not like there's anything worth the time of Gensokyo's finest here to distract from the bigger issue. Unless..." She paused, considering. She COULD probably rummage through Remilia's stuff to solve a few unrelated questions. Maybe if the others dragged her along. "Anyway-" The tengu leaned back in the air, resting her hands behind her head as she floated along. "I don't know what you're so worried about; kappa are pretty easy to bul- talk into working with you. Or with me, anyway, since we have a few agreements going. Even if we did need to beat them up, it'd only be a little bit. And if we run into some other tengu by the mountain, so much the better, since I'm sure everyone who's been stuck at home has heard something about it by now."

Masako, meanwhile, was thinking. Sure, she'd ignored Patchouli's warning for a little, but her rapid return after what looked like some trashy wizard romance novel verbally threatened to eat her wings had given her the opportunity to overhear the magician's claims. Certainly, it raised some interesting questions. Possibly, even, a new avenue of investigation. Though from what they'd learned so far... "There's definitely weirder stuff here," she mused. Goodness knows her past investigations and recent incidents were pretty messed up. "But the evidence doesn't suggest that this is a local artifact. One way or another, it's a new arrival--or at least, a new creation--and someone or something is PROBABLY guilty of dropping it here for some reason. Someone always is. Why? THAT'S a little trickier. BUT we just need to do a little more hunting, and it should be easy to piece together the answer." "You-" She jabbed her finger at Patchouli, to the point of outright prodding her in the forehead. "-said these things would probably respond to aquatic creatures, right? Because if so, I know several people who we could kidna... conscri... investigate."

"To answer the fairy's questions-" The tengu had been flying up to do a bit of what might be called aerial reconnaissance investigation after growing bored listening to Rory's panicking over the weird maid robot meat metal(?)-shield. Though, given the usual conditions around the lake, it hadn't really accomplished much. So with things turning back to the proper investigation (and local gossip, she'd come zooming right back. "-a vampire, a vampire, and because she breaks everything. And is a vampire. Mostly because she breaks everything, though." "In any case..." The tengu landed, peering at the (still, somehow) perfectly elegant maid. She had a feeling she knew how this was ACTUALLY gonna go. But hey, on the off chance she was wrong (rare), she might as well roll with it. "Fired for trying to stab the so-called Scarlet Devil? I would've thought she'd be used to that by now- Still, it hardly matters. You should think of this as an opportunity! After all..." Masako adjusted her glasses, her expression perfectly smug. "I have been considering getting a new intern, and Iyazoi is already well-known for her skill in staking things out. How about it? Obviously I can't let you in my office except to clean stuff and I wouldn't pay you anything, but it'd be a really good experience for a human like you, working for the finest detective in gensokyo-"

"What, the fairy? Don't worry about it." The tengu shielded her eyes and peered out at the lake, where the gray object had plopped not moments before. Then she shrugged and settled herself down next to the second of the presumably evil objects. "They die all the time. And whatever crashed just now is probably alive, maybe. More importantly, I've somehow solved the second part of the investigation! So we can move on once we deal with the evidence."

"No, no," Masako said, floating on down next to Empi to examine the gate, having long since lost interest in lecturing the lump of stone that was the lizard faunus. "There's only really one gate guard, and she's normally supposed to be bad at her job here. I usually see her sleeping out in front of the gate when I fly by on a case. Curious, not to have her around." Masako flew closer, until she could peer through the iron bars at the mansion. It almost seemed more foreboding than usual. "Well, if she DID end up with something like that rock, maybe the maid finally decided to kill her for sleeping on the job? It seems likely." Masako folded her arms and tapped the base of her chin, still staring inside. She wasn't looking forward to this bit. Not just because it would involve trying to beat up a potential serial killer with time powers and FAR TOO MANY KNIVES, but because Sakuya just kinda weirded her out.

"Don't interrupt me!" She snapped, puffing out her cheeks a bit and glaring between the two of them, newly-freed hand resting on her hip as she continued to jab her kiseru into Rory's face. "I just said I couldn't be distracted, and I meant it. Now keep quiet; I need to finish listing your many mistakes before I deal with the evidence for whatever it was. Now, let's see... Ah, of course! Your next problem was your inability to stand still when someone's trying to use you to rest her wings while getting a decent view of things, which is yet another example of your staggering lack of good sense, nevermind your lack of proper etiquette-"

She didn't. She was still ranting at him, either totally unaware or totally indifferent to the bag being gone. And it didn't look like she was running out of air any time soon.

"A foot-" Masako paused in her half-mad rambling, spinning on Rory. "Really? Really? A footprint! As though that is enough to distract me from the prospect of ultimate (investigative) power? Well, I never! As though I, the most insightful detective in Gensokyo, would fall for such a cheap scam!" The tengu huffed, glaring at the faunus and poking at her face with her pipe. Given that, and the way she was waving the bag around wildly behind her, it seemed she was rather incensed by his crummy attempt to distract her. She may have been a curious sort, but that didn't mean she wasn't focused. "I can tell you without even looking whose footprint it is: yours! You were the only one trampling around over there, and anyway, the footprints would have been several feet to to the left of where you were looking, because you just pointed at what was probably formerly a tree. And you really thought that would work? That I would be distracted enough to let you steal the evidence bag with the evidence hat and the evidence rock? Really! You must be-" And on and on. She wasn't even paying attention to the bag itself anymore.

"Precisely!" said the bird, who hadn't actually been aware of that. She wasn't entirely sure if it was true, either, though she wasn't really bothering to check right now. She was too busy puffing on her pipe and musing to herself, by this point. "Hmm. Then I would have gotten to see what it could really do in a properly controlled environment, of course. After all, even if this sort of thing isn't normally worth my time, if we gave it a boost..." Masako waved the bag containing the rock around, ignoring Walmond's perfectly reasonable request. "Well, perhaps THEN I could think of something to do with it during the investigation. And after! In fact, ignore the gap hag--I can seal it myself later, probably. If I should decide that doing so would actually be beneficial to the case. It did look like it had some power, after all, and clearly a tengu would make a better wielder of it than some human witch. Especially someone as brilliant as I, Chichimura Masako, finest detective in Gensokyo-" Might be going to her head a bit. Probably not a great plan to let her keep holding on to that.

"Nope!" Masako yoinked the hat back at the last moment, inadvertently bonking herself with the stone in the crown. She did her best to ignore this and pretend no one else noticed as she hopped a few feet further back, beyond the witch's grasp. "I'm afraid not. As I said, it's evidence-adjacent, and thus mine until the case is resolved. I'll give it back when I don't have a use for it anymore. Still-" The tengu snatched the proffered bag from Isobel, not bothering with more than the most perfunctory nods of thanks... and proceeded to stuff the whole darn hat in there before zipping it on up. "Redundant containers are always a good idea, probably, so this should be helpful. Now we just need to decide who to take it to for analysis, so we can figure out who we need to beat up next to continue the investigation. Normally I'd do it on my own, but these magical trinkets are so far beneath my deductive skills that it's hardly interesting enough to bother." That sounded very much like a lie. Though given the bird detective's lofty expression, she'd probably ignore being called out on it anyway.

"Sorry, no can do. It's not a hat, now." Masako hopped back to stand beside the fallen witch. Smug as the tengu's grin was, she at least opted not to use her most recent suspect as a perch. For now. "It's a bag. An evidence bag. An evidence bag with evidence in it. Which, given the ongoing investigation, means it can only be trusted to the hands of Gensoyko's finest detective-" The chattery sleuth paused for a moment, glancing down to make sure the stone was still secure in its temporary container. She snapped it shut soon enough. Even looking at it or holding it like this was enough to make her feel a little... off. "But I can consider returning it to you if you answer our questions. You know, later. After we've finished our investigation, 'cause I'll need it 'til then."

"She does that to a lot of girls around here," Masako said offhandedly, hovering down now that the danmaku had finished flying. "Though the gap hag is more the freight train railing sort, from my experience. Not that trains are really relevant here. They don't have anything to do with this, so far as I can tell." The tengu flipped herself over, peering down at the witch's face. She gave the black-white's cheeks a few none-too-gentle pokes, confirming that she was indeed alive (and awake, given her complaints), before flipping herself upright and landing on her feet beside Marisa's head. "No, this time, I don't think it's entirely Kirisame's fault. Only partly her fault, 'cause it was still her shooting at us. No, my dear fairy, the true culprit is..." Masako paused, settling one of her geta on Marisa's head to give herself a more dramatic perch. She raised her pipe to her lips, closing her eyes and puffing on it with what she assumed was an air of mystery and insight. One had to do these things properly, after all. "Not a human at all. Nor even, I suspect, a youkai of gensokyo! The force that turned Marisa against us was, in fact..." Masako's eyes snapped open. The weird rock floated on by. She stared at it. Then continued staring at it as it floated on past Chen. In a flash, the tengu yoinked off Marisa's hat. She bolted past the feline familiar, leaping on the magic rock of evil magic in the hopes of trapping it within the makeshift bag.

Masako darted back after her last attack, eyeing the un-ordinarily crazed witch. She was starting to lag a bit, so far as the tengu could tell; about time, after the amount of danmaku they'd been tossing. But while Marisa was on the verge of getting forced to eat whatever grass was left in the craters that were the local battlefield, that just meant she was plotting to use a big, last-ditch spell card. One which, by all the logic (!) inherent in danmaku, would be going off whether they attacked now or tried to wait down the timer. Still, with the others already pulling back on defense, she couldn't use any particularly clever solution to the problem. Unfortunately, she was forced to follow suit for now, waiting for an opening--and planning her own rebuttal, if Marisa should give up on waiting. Masako guards. Masako activates her conditional! If targeted by an attack that would reduce the tengu to 0 hp, Masako activates Crow Sign "Reflective Mimicry" on Marisa. As a free action, Masako uses Swift Scan on Marisa! As a free action, target one enemy. Reduce that enemy's flat DR by (3/4 INT), and reduce percentile-based resistances to all effects and debuffs by (INT*3) percentile, to a minimum of zero, for 1 turn.

As a free action, Masako uses Swift Scan on Marisa! As a free action, target one enemy. Reduce that enemy's flat DR by (3/4 INT), and reduce percentile-based resistances to all effects and debuffs by (INT*3) percentile, to a minimum of zero, for 1 turn. Masako uses a basic danmaku attack on Marisa, dealing 1d4+Int(19) damage.

Masako uses Swift Scan on Marisa. Masako uses a basic danmaku attack on Marisa, dealing 1d4+Int(19) damage.

Well. This wasn't good. Masako winced and did her best to weave through the danmaku, sending a burst of her own back at Marisa. Better fight through this quickly before they could slip up more and get knocked down. As a free action, Masako uses Swift Scan on Marisa! As a free action, target one enemy. Reduce that enemy's flat DR by (3/4 INT), and reduce percentile-based resistances to all effects and debuffs by (INT*3) percentile, to a minimum of zero, for 1 turn. Masako uses a basic danmaku attack on Marisa, dealing 1d4+Int(12) damage.

"Hm. I'd suspected as much, but that confirms it." Masako adjusted her glasses with the bit of her pipe, just as Marisa finished flailing against the tengu's distraction. The glass reflected the light of the danmaku that began to spread amongst the field, forming a familiar network. "That whatsit she's holding is definitely messing with her brain, if not controlling her outright. Ergo..." The detective spread her wings. And once more, lightning-flashes burst the danmaku into a dazzling hailstorm of insight, drowning the witch beneath them. "We need to get it away from her, one way or another!" As a free action, Masako uses Swift Scan on Marisa! As a free action, target one enemy. Reduce that enemy's flat DR by (3/4 INT), and reduce percentile-based resistances to all effects and debuffs by (INT*3) percentile, to a minimum of zero, for 1 turn. Masako uses Deduction "Shocking Insight" targeting Marisa and her weird, evil rock! Deal 1d6+Int(12) damage. The targets are stunned for 1 turn. After taking this action, the tengu loses -2 initiative for the remainder of the battle. Two turn Cooldown.

Masako flipped like a pinwheel in midair, somehow managing to catch her hat while upside-down and place it primly upon her head, using her wings to steady herself upright after another circle around. It took her a moment more for her head to stop spinning. When it finally did, she gave herself a little shake, and tried to focus on Marisa again. "Well," she huffed, "as I was saying..." The tengu paused. Very slowly, she reached up to pat herself on the head. Nothing. No fairy, at the very least. Masako pulled a face and gave the shady witch a good glare. One which--thanks to Marisa's spellcard--insisted on sliding off towards once of the floating motes of light whenever she tried to use it to make any proper observations. This only served to annoy her more. It really was basically cheating. So she took a deep breath and raised her pipe, watching somewhere slightly to the left of Marisa's head. She could probably manage some basic danmaku, but with that seal around her, she doubted she could manage anything more complicated. Let alone figure out what the black-white's deal was. Which meant she sorta had the start of a plan, but... Her eyes darted back to Isobel--and to the fairy she, fortunately, held securely in hand--for a brief moment. Yeah. They looked like they'd work. "Hey!" She tossed the botanist her magnifying glass. "Now, I will need that back when you're done--a detective isn't as effective without the tools of the trade, after all, no matter how brilliant they are--but you should be able to disrupt the seal with the lens. Long enough for me to figure out what's going on, anyway." That done, she flew a little to the side, doing her best to observe through the smoke and danmaku-cluttered field, muttering her observations to herself. And, after a moment's thought, offering a few of the more interesting deductions to Marisa as well. In a voice to which the witch might normally pay a bit more heed. "A witch losing out to their magical artifact?" Marisa's vision began to fill with an indecipherable pattern of illusory danmaku. Some of which looked, strangely, like her own. "Again? That's pretty rough. I'm gonna blow you up just for makin' me look bad, ze. And maybe give me a few seconds to figure out how this works..." Masako uses Crow Sign "Reflective Mimicry" on Marisa, forcing her to target herself! For 2 (1 Base+1 Speed of Thought) rounds, the target(s) are Confused (may only target the tengu or an ally with an offensive action if they also treat themselves or another of the tengu's enemies as a target of that action). The tengu may specify that one victim of confusion must target themselves, rather than targeting randomly. 5 round cooldown. As a free action, Masako uses Swift Scan - Full Scan on Marisa! As a free action, target one enemy. Reduce that enemy's flat DR by (3/4 INT), and reduce percentile-based resistances to all effects and debuffs by (INT*3) percentile, to a minimum of zero, for 1 turn. In addition to all other effects of this action, collect detailed information about the target in an instant, revealing all their resistances, weaknesses, and immunities, as well as any other pertinent character details (mechanical or fluff) the DM may choose to provide.

As they began to approach the clearing, a thousand warning bells went off at once in Masako's mind. Not the craters and smoldering remnants of trees--those were common enough, even if it looked like there were far more of them than usual--so much as the witch who hovered before them. Not that her presence didn't raise warning bells a good fifty percent of the times they'd actually run into each other, given how often the human decided to steal other people's stuff. But this time was different. This time, something was very, very wrong. "Lotus..." She pulled the fairy and hat down for a moment as a trio of the scattering fairies' bullets grazed past her head, quickly replacing both as soon as that danger passed. Though she left a single finger pressed to the tiny fairy's lips to keep her from speaking. "I may have slightly underestimated the seriousness of this case. Now, be quiet for a second. I'm thinking." The tengu lowered her hand, only to reach into her coat and pull out her pipe again, weaving her way a bit closer to the black-white witch so she could examine her properly. And she definitely didn't like what she saw. The messed up fairies from earlier were weird enough, even if she hadn't really commented on them. But this... It wasn't even just the eyes, really, though that would be the most obvious tell to anyone familiar with gensokyo's second most famous incident-resolver. Nor was it necessarily the shadows, though you'd have to distrust anything that prevented you from seeing Kirisame's trademark grin when she was flying right in front of you. It was something in the voice. The echo, yes, but the words too. Like hearing someone trying to duplicate the witch's usual spiel, exaggerating it, and then screwing it up just ever so slightly. "Magic artifact, huh?" Her intense gaze dropped to the stone in the girl's hand, instantly examining it and codifying it in the context of the rest of her examination. Yeah, that was bad news, alright. Masako narrowed her eyes, tipping a bit of tobacco into her pipe and giving it a few experimental puffs, hoping the smoke might calm her nerves a bit. "Well, I'm not really investigating you blowing stuff up exactly, but I suspect it's related this time. Now, if you'd be so kind as to stop threatening us with an ominous rock, I have a few questions I'd like to ask. Besides, if you were actually serious about fighting people, you'd have brought that mini-hakkero instead-" The tengu's eyes slipped from the stone to Marisa's other hand. At which point she broke out into a cold sweat. "Which you apparently DID bring. Oh. That kinda seems like cheating." There was a moment's pause. Promptly followed by Masako darting behind the nearest trees, very loudly advising everyone to similarly scatter. And, more quietly, suggesting a few particular, specific courses of analysis to the fairy upon her head while she completed her own. Masako takes evasive maneuvers to avoid the bullets directed at her. As a free action, Masako uses Swift Scan - Full Scan on Marisa! As a free action, target one enemy. Reduce that enemy's flat DR by (3/4 INT), and reduce percentile-based resistances to all effects and debuffs by (INT*3) percentile, to a minimum of zero, for 1 turn. In addition to all other effects of this action, collect detailed information about the target in an instant, revealing all their resistances, weaknesses, and immunities, as well as any other pertinent character details (mechanical or fluff) the DM may choose to provide.

Masako had to admit, despite some continuing queasiness in her stomach, that she was mostly feeling better. Even if her mouth currently tasted pretty darn weird and her attempts to share analyses with Lotus or suggest points of inquiry were rather muffled as she continued chewing on the flower she'd, naturally, shoved in her mouth at Isobel's suggestion. The tengu gulped, then poked at a petal that had managed to sneak its way out, idly nibbling on it as she observed the remaining fairies. Not, it seemed, terribly many of them remaining. A good thing, as it lead to only one (well, two or three, maybe) conclusion(s)! "If I'm not mistaken--and someone as brilliant as I almost never is--we should be drawing closer to the first crime scene." Masako reached up, adjusting her hat to give LOTUS a better view. "Keep your eyes open for someone with an oversized hat. She's definitely gonna be a witness. Which, as any decent detective could tell you, given the wealth of evidence-" Masako swerved a little to avoid a bullet, pointing her magnifying lens towards her attackers and returning fire. "-means we'll need to beat her up for the sake of the investigation." Basic danmaku attack on Fairy swarm D for 1d4+INT(12)+12 damage.

If she was surprised by the detail and accuracy of Lotus's assessments--which she, quite frankly, was--Masako didn't bother to mention it. Not because she was focused on more important things, no. Rather, it was a result of the fungal poison, and the suspicion that if she tried to speak overmuch, she'd just throw up. Instead, the tengu took a breath of fresh(er) air, letting the provided data feed her own deductive insight. Rather than letting the spellcard end and fade away, Masako spread the network of danmaku further and wider with each of the tiny fairy's whispered observations, reinforcing the connections near the great fairy and racing out to meet the incoming swarms, blasting them all in the apparently-unending storm of bullets and intellectual energy. Masako uses Deduction "Shocking Insight" targeting both fairy swarms and the Great Fairy! Deal 1d6+Int(12)+12 damage to each. The targets are stunned for 1 turn. After taking this action, the tengu loses -2 initiative for the remainder of the battle. Two turn Cooldown.

Masako tsked on seeing the incoming streams of danmaku, her obvious routes out of the way cut off by clouds of poisoned gas. This sort of nonsense was precisely why a lot of people avoided going here. Granted, parts of the forest were terrific for when you hit a mental block and needed a change in perspective to work out the really tricky sorts of puzzles, but beyond that? Rarely worth the time. Still, a few fairies and mushrooms were hardly that much of a deterrent. Particularly when there was a trail to follow and a mystery to solve. Masako gave her hand lens a little twirl, drawing in a deep breath as she dove down through the cloud of spores. She slowed and held it to her eye, danmaku appearing in the focus of the foggy image, doubling and redoubling through the whole field. Then, once again, they burst and bathed the field in chains of racing light and lightning. In each flash, she observed the form of the Great Fairy, watching for anything to exploit. Not that she really needed to go to the effort. But hey, she needed something to keep herself from getting bored. As a free action, Masako uses Swift Scan on the Great Fairy. Reduce that enemy's flat DR by (3/4 INT), and reduce percentile-based resistances to all effects and debuffs by (INT*3) percentile, to a minimum of zero, for 1 turn. Masako uses Deduction "Shocking Insight" targeting the fairy swarm, great fairy, and poison mushroom A and B! Deal 1d6+Int(18) damage to each. The targets are stunned for 1 turn. After taking this action, the tengu loses -2 initiative for the remainder of the battle. Two turn Cooldown.

"There, you see?" Masako dusted her hand on her coat, apparently rather pleased with herself as her spellcard ended. "It's all very-" THONK. Masako crashed head-over-heels through the branches of the nearby trees, coming to rest upon the upper boughs only with a loud THUMP and a weak pichuun~ as she slammed into the trunk. And there she lay, her head swimming and dazed until she gave herself a good shake. At which point she carefully extracted the impromptu missile which had sent her careening out of the sky from beneath her and held it up before her badly-askew glasses to examine. ...A rather small fairy, apparently. A really cute one, too, now that she had a chance to look closely. Though, as she couldn't recognize what type she was supposed to be or see any resemblance to the other fairies they were busy fighting, neither of those helped or told her anything much beyond distracting the tengu a bit. Masako was just getting her magnifying lens out of her coat to examine the culprit further when she finally recognized her. "Lotus, wasn't it?" The tengu puffed up her cheeks, giving the tiny fairy a rather grumpy Look. Though the few stray streams of danmaku cutting through the branches soon forced her to relent, settling the fairy somewhat-securely beneath her hat. "Well. You do look like you might be of SOME help. So, then-" Masako pulled the magnifying lens out of her coat, twirling it in her hands before raising it overhead, sending a burst of danmaku right back at the attacking fairies. "-I trust you understand the rules?" Basic danmaku attack on Fairy swarm A for 1d4+INT(18) damage.