Cleaning the Rags[Job]

Spoiler:

Yakuroro snuck away from the group he was traveling with in the dead of night by way of flying carpet. The blue magician left in secret as he was on his way into Zou to meet Lady Shousui. The nature of this journey was to unravel the secrets of the djinn Yakuroro now held slumbering inside of his ring. Or at least, what was left of a Djinn. To be honest, Yaku wasn't at all sure what he had received. Everyone kept insisting that it was so important that the very world as shifting in response. The Imuchakk felt that any information about it should be kept secret for as long as possible. So long as word didn't get out that HE was the wielder of world conquering power then Yaku should hopefully be able to move around freely.

With that in mind, he chose a new moon to make his midnight flight to Zou as it would mean less light to expose him. He would slip into Zou borders and immediately make his way to Lady Shousui's Estate. Upon arrival he was informed that his friend had fallen ill recently and refused to speak with him so as not to spread the sickness. Yaku hadn't expected his only hope to be incapacitated by some blight and he lamented the poor luck of it all. But instead of lingering in despair, Yakuroro simply sighed and accepted that the flow of the rukh needed him elsewhere.

Yakuroro bowed in respect to Lady Shousui's servants before taking his leave and heading into town. Yaku found his way to a local pub of sorts that had the smell of good food as well. Being an 8 foot tall blue haired giant, Yakuroro got a lot of strange looks and staring for the first few minutes he entered, but after he kept to himself long enough and politely ordered a meal people eventually got bored and went back to their own business. Yakuroro closed his eyes and listened carefully as a cacophony of conversations popped up all around. Due to his adept training in sound magic, Yaku was able to pick up on every rumor that flew around the room.

After a few hours the sun began to come up and almost everyone had long since gone home. Over that time Yakuroro was able to pick up on several stories about a serial killer. Some say the man had simply lost his mind and was killing people out of madness. Others told a different tale about how the empire had targeted his family with extra heavy taxes for a petty accident where he "disrespected" a noble whom liked abusing their power a bit too much. Supposedly the killings were all people who supported that noble in one way or another and were acts of righteous revenge. Some even posed that the killer was a phantom born of the peoples sin's come to punish them.

Yakuroro found an inn to stay at and rested most of the day. He only came out at night when the supposed killer was to be abound. There was a reward for ending the murderer's reign, but Yakuroro was out prowling the town for a different reason. The one thing all the rumors had in common as that they were all told with voices full of fear. Clearly this was why he was delayed from his meeting. If white rukh were to flourish here, then someone was going to have to do something about the root of all that fear.

~589/1500 Word Count~

As the sun set and the waxing moon began to rise, it was only a matter of time before the patrolling Imuchakk heard the first signs of trouble. The 8ft tall Yaku was painfully aware of his size and how much he stood out, so he stuck to the dark roof tops and made use of his flying carpet so as to not leave pounding sounds of footsteps. From there he simply listened through the darkness while saying close to the general area each victim had been found. It had only been fully night time for a couple hours before the sound of a woman's scream cried out to the west of Yakuroro's location. Blue hair would dance in the wind wildly as Yaku sped up to the carpets max speed of 25m/s heading directly to the source of the scream. The Blue Mage was fast to act, but he was too late to save a life. Yaku's flying carpet would carry him over to an alley way which now held the slowly bleeding out bodies of an already dead, beautiful young woman and her husband.

The woman's throat had been slit open and the man's corpse had fallen face down on top of her in a manner that suggested he was trying to protect her. Based on how many wounds were covering his back, Yakuroro judged that the husband didn't do a very good job. It was a horrible sight to behold and told a grim narrative of a man failing to protect that which was important to him. Yakuroro pitied their poor fortune, but silently praised that they were at least able to rest now. Sometimes surviving trauma like this just made people curse their fates and leads to manifestation of black rukh. Yakuroro shuddered at the thought as he lowered down into the alley to look for any clues as to the location of the culprit. There were lots of footprints showing signs of the struggle, but only one set of them seemed to walk away from the ordeal. Knowing that was probably his mark, Yakuroro looked up and sped out the alley in that direction as the killer should not have been far behind.

As the magician exited the alleyway the footprints vanished among a sea of other tracks. Yaku looked left and then right quickly and caught sight of something that put an uncomfortable knot in his stomach. The vestiges of a flock of lack fluttering butterflies caught Yaku's eye just as they disappeared down another alleyway. A fear different from what the townsfolk felt began to fill the Imuchakk's body. While the average people feared a murderer, Yaku was terrified of the tiny black creatures said murderer must be producing. It took everything he had to summon up the mental fortitude required to pursue the signs of black rukh, but Yakuroro was able to manage it before the killer could get away. Catching up to the target by way of magic carpet was so easy that it made the difficulty of confronting the depraved individual seem less real until Yaku was finally face to face with him. As the Imuchakk turned the corner of the alley he laid eyes upon Bou Ren.

The man was tall for a citizen of Zou standing seven feet tall almost rivaling Yaku in height. He was wearing blood stained cloths and a sick grin as he simply stared down at a small puddle of blood dripping from the machete in his right hand. Bou was mumbling something to himself in a fervor as a cloud of black rukh surrounded his body. The Imuchakk dismounted his flying carpet and readied his staff as he stood about 6 meters away, but he dared not get any closer for fear of what effects exposure to those terrible black things might have. Yakuroro gulped a mouthful of saliva down and found the courage to speak to the man swarming with Yaku's greatest fear. "Good evening...you look hurt, are you injured?"

~1262/1500 Word Count~

The deranged and depraved Bou Ren turned slowly at the sound of Yaku's voice. The Imuchakk was trying to feign ignorance as a simple concerned citizen in order to gauge how the serial killer would react. In a rather predictable fashion, the killer would respond with a glare full of animosity. The black rukh around him intensified as the man began to entertain thoughts of how to cut Yaku up. Should he start with the arms? Perhaps the legs? These twisted musings only served to deepen the serial killer's madness. Yakuroro was hoping that he would be able to turn the negative energies surrounding the man into something positive by showing empathy. The futility of his efforts was made all the more clear as the butcher knife wielding murderer began to approach Yaku whilst still mumbling nonsense to himself. The air was thick with killing intent and the black butterflies were coming ever closer.

Yakuroro might have feared the black rukh, but it was not enough to paralyze him. "That's close enough..." The magician spoke cautiously as he readied his staff and aimed the head of the magical medium towards the approaching butcher. When the man didn't stop, Yakuroro resolved to take him out before he would be able to do any harm. "Flood Domain!" As the blue mage shouted, water began to form and condense in from the atmosphere quickly filling the alley way with a huge ball of water. The killer looked around in a panic not expecting his potential victim to possess magic. Bou Ren began to run towards Yakuroro brandishing his weapon but he would not be fast enough as the water enveloped him and swept him off his feet into a powerful current. The currents would knock the killer against the alley walls and make it almost impossible for him to regain his bearings.

With no way to confirm which way was even up anymore the killer could only struggle against the currents in vain. Yaku maintained the spell for a few moments until the killer ran out of air and stopped struggling. Once he was unconscious, Bou Ren would no longer be a threat and the black rukh he was generating would fade away. Yakuroro then ended the spell before the murderer fully drowned to death before carrying him to a guard out post via magic carpet. The blue mage was rewarded for capturing the killer that had been plaguing the town before returning to his inn. Hopefully Lady Shousui would be feeling better in the morning and he would be able to do what he had come here to do.

~1699/1500~

Spoiler:

150/200 Magoi