thenearshore | [Closed] We could spend our whole lives waiting for justice to be done

Entry tags:

[Closed] We could spend our whole lives waiting for justice to be done

Who: Ginia and Shun
When: Some time around November 18th-19th
Where: Around the Near Shore
What: Ginia and Shun pick up and old lead and decide to pay a vice-principal responsible for draining the life out of children a visit... if they can find him.
Warnings: Violence, murder.

It's not that Ginia wants to personally punch the vice-principal. It's entirely possible the creep is long dead from the hands of someone else - Far Shore justice, Near Shore justice, who knows - or has long fled the area. But maybe, maybe he's still around and they can find out whether he was the first sign of bigger problems. And just maybe he'll say the wrong thing and Ginia can put her fist in his face.

It's not that she wants to punch him, but dammit, he was attacking children. There aren't enough punches in the world for that creep.

The thought carries Ginia from the run from Caster's temple to Shun's. Her backpack is a prepared for survelliance; two note pads, several pens and pencils, laptop, camera gear, battery pack, roll of duct tape. As always, her knife is in the sheath at her back, but it's more out of habit than out of a feeling of necessity.

She slows as she approaches his temple, keeping an eye on the vultures in the trees as she sends a message to Shun.

Just outside.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Ginia nods and checks the rest of the article, a summary of the opening ceremonies. There! The vice-principal's name! She copies the name and sends it to Shun's phone.]

I'm going to run his name on social media sites against some of the other staff at the school, see if I can build up a history for him and find more photos.

[It's remarkable what people share openly on social media. Even if he's not the most prolific user, there's a chance someone's tagged him in a photo somewhere. School staff drinking events, school occasions, as vice-principal he definitely had to make appearances one way or another. Even if they find an abandoned social media account, any remaining posts or pictures could give clues about his interests and places to search for him. People form habits that are difficult to break; unless he's a professional con artist or dead, there's going to be something.]

((ooc: Going to see if the mods can give some clues on the guy's whereabouts.))

[Shun pulls out his phone to check what the name is, then types it into his disk since he's already using that instead. He figures if they've got the name already, there's probably not a lot of point lingering on the stuff he's been looking at, and instead moving on...to, like Ginia suggests, sites that are more likely to have current information on him.]

I'll go through and see if there's anywhere I recognise in his photos.

[It takes a little while to pick back through other school Twitter pages to reach his - since Shun figures that's likely to get set aside for later if Ginia's looking into his history - but thankfully, the very first thing on the guy's page is a huge flag already. It's a skyline photo from a high storey of a building, and Shun scans it for a moment before turning it towards Ginia and tapping one of the buildings in the image.]

I've seen that place while I've been patrolling the Near Shore. [The others are more nondescript buildings, but that specific one has a line of very bright signs sticking out up the side of it for the various businesses within. It's a common sight in Tokyo, but Shun's quite sure he's seen that specific combination of them before.]

[His Facebook presence is lacking; a handful of comments asking how his health is, expressing condolences at his resignation from his job around May, then not much else. A few people tag him in the following months, though nothing of any note, nor is there anything about his current job.

Ginia looks at the picture, frowning as she studies it. The angle of the shot places his location as somewhere fairly high up. She memorizes his twitter handle and opens his page on her own laptop, scrolling through his feed. Cryptic comments that don't make much sense, the occasional landscape and food picture. There's a napkin under a bowl of ramen with a name of the restaurant; Ginia searches for it and finds several locations. Searching for the names of the businesses on the signs narrows down the area even more. She turns her laptop to show him.]

Looks like he's somewhere in that radius. There's a name of a nearby ramen shop in one of his food pictures, maybe it's a spot he's a regular at. Time to pay the area a visit?

[Shun keeps looking over the photo he found as Ginia searches, picking out other details to confirm it's where he thinks it is. Considering the height of the shot compared to the other buildings in the photo, it looks like it's about the tenth floor, and he's definitely seen a couple of those storefronts too now that he thinks about it...

He glances up when she turns her laptop, and he nods at the name - it's familiar too. It should be the place he's thinking of.]

I know which district it is, so I can take us there easily. [He still prefers to teleport into back alleys rather than onto main streets, but it'll shorten their journey compared to going from his shrine.]

[Ginia saves a copy of the skyline picture and the few photos of the vice-principal found from the school's website and other social media to her phone. She fires the copies off to Shun and closes up her laptop. The guy is alive, they have a possible location. Things are looking up, but Ginia doesn't let herself get too confident. Ayakashi were involved the first time with him, maybe they'll be involved here too.]

What do you think? If we find the guy, should we confront him directly or watch him and see if he does anything?

[Shun flicks his phone on briefly to check the pictures, then puts it away again once he's satisfied he's memorised the face. As long as he can identify the guy when they encounter him, that's all they need.]

Watch him first, then confront him. Getting an idea of how to go about it first would be best, especially since even if the people around him won't notice us, they can still hear him if we corner him somewhere public.

[Unfortunately, the fact that he can't teleport living people doesn't help there.]

If he's not in his presumed apartment, we should look around. Doubt we'll find any black robes or spell tags, but maybe there's something else. Otherwise I'm ready for a long day of surveillance. Got camera gear in my bag, the buildings in the picture look usable.

[She pauses and cracks a wry smile.]

I have duct tape too.

We'll have a hell of a time asking him anything about what happened if we have to resort to duct tape. [Shun puts that rather dryly, though it might be useful to get him to somewhere private without sounding the alarm. But that's a bridge to cross if it actually does turn out they need to go that far.]

I can follow him on the ground while you keep track from above. Make sure he doesn't slip away between us.

[Ginia makes sure she has everything she needs before putting her backpack on.]

Works for me. The buildings look close enough to jump between if needed. [Thank goodness for the long jumps shinki can do if they focus. Failing that, borderlines can serve as reliable bridges.] Though if he spooks, try to corner him in an alley, I'll block him with a borderline. You need to grab anything or are you good to go too?

I'm fine. [He's got all of his usual equipment plus a few other things he thought might come in handy that he could hide under his coat, so though he's not carrying anything visibly, he's certainly not under-equipped, especially when taking what Ginia also has into consideration.

Since it seems like they're both ready in any case, Shun offers a hand straightforwardly. They can scope out the street a bit first before they pick out a good rooftop for Ginia to position herself on.]

[Ginia takes his hand and one teleport later they're in the Near Shore. Ginia studies their immediate area, pulling out her phone to check the map. The area is pretty straightfoward; the usual main streets with business, the occasionally branching alley leading to dumpsters or back entrances. If need be, there are a few easy areas to trap him that won't pull too much attention.]

This looks like the right spot.

[It helps there aren't that many buildings over ten stories in the area and there are signs and buildings to align with. Ginia studies the buildings, taking a second look at the distance between them and the alleys around.]

I'm going topside. I'll text if I see anything notable.

[No one matching the photos leaves the building they're watching until after dinnertime, when a man in a plain dark track suit lets himself out and starts down the street. He looks more tired than the person in the photos; perhaps it's the patchy stubble on his jaw that does it, or the dark circles under his eyes.

His features, though, under the marks of recent lack of sleep and care, are the same.]

[Shun's satisfied enough with extensively scoping out the area while they wait, mapping useful routes to get someone somewhere an interrogation is unlikely to be interfered with, and good places to hide or ambush from. He's waiting near the building by the time the man finally emerges, though, and as soon as he can see the face clearly, he knows it's their target.

Letting him get far enough ahead that he doesn't seem suspicious on the off chance the man actually notices him, but not quite far enough to lose him in the crowd, Shun begins to follow the man. He figures Ginia will take the hint from seeing him follow that this is their target, if she hasn't spotted him already.]

[Ginia settles in for the long haul on top of the roof. It's boring and tedious at best, but so goes surveillance. She takes pictures of the surrounding area for reference, plots out pathways and notes where her blind spots are.

When their target emerges, Ginia snaps a few photos of him, tracking Shun's position against their targets as she packs up. Her concentration turning inward, Ginia runs and leaps to the next rooftop, sailing through the air and landing lightly on the next rooftop as she watches them from above.]

[The man seems distracted, absorbed in his own thoughts. He's tracing out a simple route; down two blocks, a left at the light, across another block and a half, to a Lawson's convenience store with its sign glowing blue-and-white above brightly lit windows.

He disappears inside, heading back for the liquor shelves to buy a six-pack of beer first, and then forward to the counter to get a styrofoam bowl of oden and a pack of cigarettes. It doesn't take long before he emerges with his purchases and sits down on the bench outside the store to eat.]

[Shun continues following, maintaining that distance, until the man enters the store and he has to close it up a little to follow. Nothing exactly suspicious in his purchases - it looks like the shopping list of someone with a lot weighing down on them, which could mean a lot of things - and Shun exits at a similar time to the man, heading off to one side and letting himself be swallowed up by those on the sidewalk, though he's still close enough to observe.

Unfortunately, a bench in front of a convenience store is somewhat too obvious to swipe the guy from, but if he traces the same path back to his house, there should be somewhere quieter they can pick him up.]

[It's a good thing people rarely look up and denizens of the Far Shore go unnoticed as is, though Ginia still keeps her profile small as she perches on a rooftop across from the Lawson's. She takes out her camera, snapping a few pictures as he eats.

Even haggard ex-vice-principal's responsible for summoning on ayakashi need to eat, she supposes. Ginia continues to keep an eye on him, in no rush to make a move, especially with Shun already on the ground.

[The beer goes unopened for now, but after the man finishes his oden, he pulls out the pack of cigarettes and lights one, leaning back on the bench and appearing focused on his smoking break. His silence stretches as the cigarette burns down... until, about a minute later, he looks to the side at Shun, among the workers and schoolchildren rushing home along the sidewalk, and his eyes narrow. He raises his voice enough to be heard over the murmur of the crowd.]

Are you following me?

[That shout gets him a few sidelong looks and a lot of deliberately averted eyes from the people hurrying past. He doesn't seem to mind.]

[Shun simply raises a brow at the man initially - he'd had some suspicion he might be sensitive to the Far Shore, given the trouble he'd tangled himself up in, but his yelling isn't making Shun any more noticeable to the rest of the crowd. Trying to dive on him right here and now, however, absolutely would.

He does, however, step forward calmly so he doesn't have to draw attention to himself to respond to the man. There's little point in pretense if the other is aware of him.]

What makes you think that? [Simple enough question. Either he's noticed Shun the whole time, or only just spotted him now. And he figures at this point engaging is probably the better option, one way or another - he may have seen Shun, but Ginia is still out of sight, and Shun would prefer to keep it that way.]

[At her distance, the man's words are lost, but she can see him look toward Shun, his mouth move. A few people notice his words, but no one seems to find a reason to react. Ginia lowers her profile a little more as she observes. Shun's smart and reliable. Until there's some kind of indication she needs to take action, she'll continue to shoot pictures out of sight and study the people around for anyone else that might take interest in the conversation.]

[The man gestures at Shun with his lit cigarette, leaning back on the bench as Shun approaches. His eyes are narrowed, although the skin around them is puffy from lack of sleep.]

Because you've been hanging around since I went out to get dinner. I don't know you. What's this about?

[He takes another drag on his cigarette, and lets the smoke trickle out through pursed lips.]

[Shun gives a faint snort at the observation, looking over the man in the brief, calculating way he's prone to. Wary, sleep-deprived - either he's haunted by something or expecting something, or both. It's clear no amount of honeyed words are likely to convince him to be helpful, so Shun elects to be blunt.

It's not as if fleeing is going to work out for him if it comes to that, anyway.]

April 5th. The school you used to work at. You remember, don't you? [There's nothing overtly hostile in his tone (yet), merely a blunt clarity.]

Why wouldn't I?

[He starts to make another, sharper gesture, but stops himself halfway and settles back onto the bench again. His attempt at a casual posture isn't working very well.

He doesn't invite Shun to sit.]

I'm guessing you don't just want to ask me if I remember.

[Shun's not the sort to take an invitation to sit anyway, so he remains standing, watching the man as if to check for things like tells or signs of potential retaliation.]

I want to know who led you down that path. If you can see me, obviously you perceive things from the other world better than most people, but the kind of magic you were working doesn't seem like the kind of thing to just fall into someone's lap, even with research.

[And now that there's certifiably someone working against the Heavens who's rallying humans to their cause, there's the question of what exactly this was born from.]

So I want to know what happened from your perspective. [He's curious, as well, whether the man has genuine regret - his manner is clearly different and there's presumably something eating at him considering his condition, but the question is whether it's guilt or fear of something catching up to him.

If he doesn't have some level of regret, then...well. Shun and Ginia may turn out to be that something.]

Study, research...

[He waves his hand, airily, drawing a red line across the twilight air with the burning tip of his cigarette before he returns it to his lips.

Silence, for a moment, as he inhales.

Then his gaze cuts back over to Shun.]

... selling my soul.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject