groundzeroes | IC Inbox

[When Rei breaks into laughter Hijikata's pissiness returns with a vengeance, and it even stays after he explains that he's just laughing at the weirdo of a ghost peddler, with a brief intensification as he asks about his rough start. Nevertheless he answers most of his questions.]

Most of them did. I'm still gathering all the descriptions of those who trapped them from the ones we found and released. A few are still unaccounted for, though, and if those are the ones that person has...

[He trails off with an angry snort.]

Anyway, there were two quests. One on the standard QuestBoard asking people to help trap allegedly malicious ghosts - that's how they got the good citizens -, and one on the dark web that outright said "Let's mess up the Yuureisengumi".

[Well, rather than that it talked about how annoying a meddler Hijikata was and how they should see to it that he'd be too busy to keep interfering, but details!]

Anyway, Rei, what do you make of their accusation that I sent a hitman after them?

[There's an edge in this question, now. He actually wants a convincing explanation.]

Told you I managed to get in contact with them, didn't I? Guess it spooked 'em. [Rei's smile returns to its smooth calm, letting the aggression roll off of him.] Since you were so recently the target of their harassment, I'd imagine that's how they assumed you were involved. Pretty prescient. [Since it was correct.]

Ah, but the "hitman" part is an exaggeration. I'm an informant, not a murderer.

[That much is true, at least! Still, Hijikata's probing has gotten far enough. Time to redirect, like a true professional. (??????)]

Well. I might not have caught that particular troublemaker, but I do have some information you might like. [Rei slides the dossier he'd pulled out across the table for Hijikata to peruse.] This is one of the folk involved with the "prank." You can see their forum comments on the second page.

[The dossier is on a succubus: a dark web regular. Her crimes are mostly low-tier-- more bored troll than career criminal-- but it's clear from the dossier that this particular fey is a petty sort and found Hijikata's undoing Very Funny. Actually, she's gonna get REALLY MAD at Rei and raise some hell later, but that's a problem for Future Rei to find out.]

And one more thing. [He reaches into his desk again, giving Hijikata a moment to look everything over.]

[Okay, that all adds up... so the ghost hunter just overreacted to Rei approaching them, huh. Frankly, even if he had threatened or otherwise scared them Hijikata would have been more than willing to turn a blind eye to that; he just doesn't want to end up tangled up in anything messier than that (but Rei seems to be on the same page as him in that regard).

He takes the dossier and reads. That dark web user's comments incense them, and his frown briefly get steeper as he sneers around his cigarette. A succubus, huh? He can't help but think of Klaudia, even though she already took great offence at him calling her a demon and certainly wouldn't appreciate being filed with a succubus in particular... come to think, she's one of the few people who saw him flounder around with his new death magic. And she has a special interest in ghosts...

Rei's remark pulls him out of his train of thought.]

Yeah?

Here.

[Rei pulls out Hijikata's fixed-up burner phone, handing it over with a self-satisfied grin.]

Got the enchantment made permanent. Won't have to come in for tune-ups. And hopefully you'll avoid more of these... outages at pivotal moments, heh.

[THANKS KLAUDIA!!!]

Oh!

[Finally the frown dissipates! He takes the phone and tries out some basic functions, but of course there's no tangible difference.]

Why, thanks for that.

[He puts the phone away, extinguishes his cigarette in the ashtray and gets up, having come to the conclusion that that irreverent succubus could stand to be taken into closer focus by him personally... along with a certain irreverent alchemist.]

I think I can take it from here with the information you gave me.

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