pulling the strings

                          ✂ Miura pulled on his bloodied shirt, fidgeting with it as the stains grew cold and gross on his skin, he could feel it through the fabric. Peering down into the alley way where he had slaughtered some horrible men trying to hurt an innocent person. Crumpled Jenny from their wallets were stuffed in his pockets; they wouldn’t be needing that money anymore since their deeds earned them death.  

He could almost taste the rising fear and rage on the wind as it blew, cold, causing goosebumps to rise on his wet skin under his dark clothing. Miura wore black because it made him feel safe, blood did not show up on it either. He’d been sitting up on the roof of a building for awhile now but since the moon was high, night growing colder, he decided to get up and climb down, being careful not to be seen. 

It was only natural that Machi wouldn’t stay in one place for too long.  Not officially existing had quite a number of benefits given her occupation, and lingering around gave people the chance to remember her.  Still, it wasn’t as though the Troupe was able to get by on their own all the time; they had a network of particular sources for whenever they needed public services- ones that would mind their own business and never attracted too much traffic.

The hotel she stood in the lobby of was one of them.  A familiar fake name and a fistful of Jenny was enough to net her a room key- thankfully she never had to throw out some passive excuse of another “vacation” with the workers here.  She was soon to get back to unwinding in her room, having made what would be a quick trip to the lobby to grab a drink from the vending machine.

Her trained senses were quick to detect the footsteps of someone new entering the building.  A disinterested glance over her shoulder brought her attention to the darkly-dressed figure approaching the front desk.  While he seemed unremarkable enough, something in her gut told her not to dismiss him just yet.  She picked up on something he was holding- a doll, it looked like.  He was fiddling with it as he spoke to the staff...then suddenly he was being handed a key, no payment exchanged at all.  With her suspicions flaring up even more, a quick application of gyo revealed the concentration of Nen around him and the toy.  A manipulator... she thought.  At the very least he was using that sort of ability.  What was someone like him doing here, though?