Spirals, Threads and Guttering Flames

[luscen]

Casmir watched Sara process his offer, her tail twitching as she clutched her phone in an increasingly white-knuckled grip. He shouldn't have been so careless to make this offer- what if he couldn't do anything? It was bad business to make an offer he couldn't deliver on, for a start. How many times had he been taught this lesson, already, and yet here he was, doing it again. It would have been better for the both of them if he'd kept his bloody mouth shut.

And yet, didn't he at least have to try?

"What can ya do, like? An' what precautions do ya need tah take, is it dangerous?" the redhead asked, obviously anxious but wanting to believe he could do something for her friend. “An' is there anythin' ya'd need from me, like?”

The Hunter took a drink from his water bottle. “It can be...” he replied. “As for what I can do, well... It's not me, it's my... roommate.” He tapped one of the scars along his upper chest, right near the clavicle. “The short version is: she has a unique method of healing, and her abilities have kept me out of Death's door more than once. If you want a more detailed explanation about it, I'm sure Delphi would be happy to give it to you. Also, you know, I'm...” A Hunter, was the reply in his head. And yet the idea of simply expounding on that made him feel uncharacteristically self-conscious. Sara had to know, of course, she wasn't stupid. And yet saying it aloud made it seem more... real, for lack of a better word.

He didn't like making that admission. Not yet.

“I'm a little scary-looking,” he finished, with a shrug. “So I would need to prepare a simple glamour. Something that'll keep people from noticing these ugly scars of mine and asking why someone like that's skulking around in a hospital. Which,” he added, gesturing to Sara. “You're going to have to take me to him, obviously. I don't know who I'm looking for, or where. And while I could likely find him, if you wanted to make this into a game, I get the feeling you'd prefer I help him sooner, rather than later.”

[tsukikoko]

Sara's eyes tracked the tip of the hunter's finger as he tapped it against his own marred skin, before flickering up to his face. The intensity of her focus, stark in contrast to the exhausted, pitiful woman that had stood before him earlier, took on every word he said with a clarity borne of the drive to help Koji. At the mention of his scariness, she snorted, remembering all too well how the pair of them had first met. But there was humour in it, too.
"Eeee man, don't ya know? Chicks dig scars, like. Reckon ya could use it tah git past the receptionist no bother, like."
She winked; but there was a slightly manic, forced edge to her humour. It likely wouldn't take long for Casmir to recognise her jokes as a coping mechanism.

There was curiosity too, shining in her viridescent gaze. It burned, despite the stress and lingering exhaustion, the anxiety, piqued by not only by the mention of his companion's abilities, but by the 'roommate' themselves. Sara wondered just who and what they might be.

"Why aye man, I'll take ya to 'im, like-" the shifter said without too much thought, "-ain't worth wastin' the time, ya know, for ya tah find 'im? I can 'elp with that."
It didn't even cross her mind whether she should be taking Casmir into the hospital or not. Even though she knew he had... some kind of dangerous profession, she... trusted him, for better or worse. Especially after the events of the last few hours. Already the redhead was forming loose plans in her head. She'd bent the rules before - such as when sneaking in those puppies to see a recovering Aaron - and if there was a chance this could ease Koji's suffering, for Sara there wasn't really any debate to be had.

She exhaled, slowly, composing herself and easing the fierce intensity of her gaze into a thankful smile.
"Thank ya, luv, I appreciate this." Again that flash of determination. "Ya just need tah give us a time and date, alreet? Whenever it is, I'll make it work, like."
With the conviction in her words and the sudden surety in her body language, it didn't take a genius to figure out that she shifter meant what she said; whatever the time, whatever plans she might have otherwise had for the day, she would put it all aside and make sure she was present at the hospital when she needed to be, if that meant she could help the fiery Genasi she'd grown so fond of.

[luscen]

Casmir chuckled in response to Sara's comment about his scars. “I suppose that I could claim I got into an argument with my cat...” he mused. The tightness around Sara's emerald eyes was hard not to notice, however; she was likely clutching onto her drive to keep herself from falling apart, again. A nap, a meal, and a brief whack of a punching bag wasn't enough to undo the sheer mental and physical exhaustion she'd been going through, after all.

“Still, better to go with the safer option,” Casmir continued, polishing off his water. If she was forcing herself to maintain a sense of joviality, then it was best if they do this now, rather than later. “It'd be best if we go during normal visiting hours to avoid any undue suspicion. No need to overcomplicate things, after all...”

The Hunter brushed past her, heading to the door to the Safe House. “As for time and date,” he explained, looking over his shoulder at her. “I'm not usually one for wasting time. So if you can manage it today, say in a few hours? I need to make my preparations, and I'm guessing you need to see to your own arrangements. As long as I don't use my key again, I'll simply exit out your front door again. Then we'll go to the hospital and take it from there.” He'd need to fashion a proper disguise- nothing too complicated; the idea was to blend in, and the more elaborate the disguise, the more attention you'd draw to yourself.

'A hospital... some scrubs shouldn't be too hard to get. Then again I could simply pass myself off as a civvy. Though the best way to stay close to her would be to pose as an officer. Being the Flashbulb's SO likely means he'd want someone to keep an eye on her...' He'd been keeping an eye on Agent Telmore discretely since their scuffle outside the coffee shop- the man was boring as a bag of rocks, it turned out. Fairly predictable, but “safe;” he didn't mistreat her, was very work-focused, and didn't seem interested in making waves. The only question was whether or not anyone who knew Sara and her pet glowworm would find it strange that he had someone on security detail for her. Hopefully that wouldn't present a problem.

Casmir turned the knob, holding the door open for the shifter. “Do what you need to do. Don't worry about getting in touch with me, I'll pick you up in a few hours. Maybe take the ghost dog for a ghost walk; he's probably worried about you.”

[tsukikoko]

Sara tried not to let her sigh of relief be too loud, but she couldn't have been happier that he only needed a few hours. That was less time for Koji to have to wait, less time that she needed to fret about things that may or may not go wrong in the run-up to their hospital visit. It was better, really, to just bite the bullet. Even if it didn't give her much time to prepare.

She'd figure it out.

At the threshold of his Safehouse, the shifter paused, turning her gaze up to his scarred face. A smile, small but firm, crossed her features. Briefly, with hardly more than the weight of a feather, she laid her hand upon the Hunter's arm.
"Thank you, Caz."
Her normal instinct, in a situation like this and with what he was doing for her, would be to lean up and give Casmir a kiss on the cheek. But she curbed the behaviour - already she'd been in his personal space too much tonight.

After leaving, Sara spent the few hours she had calming Bruse (who had rushed her immediately, checking her over and generally exuding stress) and ensuring she had nowhere to be that she might have forgotten about. Luckily, the time of day meant work wasn't an issue and she hadn't made any plans of late. So often tired, busy or fervently focused on trying to fix the situations around her. There was Aaron, too, to consider. Still she'd had no contact from him, but with a bit more sleep under her belt, the shifter realised that he'd already told her he was away on a stakeout for a couple of days. God... even with the tiredness, how could she have forgotten that? Sara fiercely resolved with herself to pay more careful attention to the agent when she was with him. What else might she have forgotten?

A walk with Bruse helped settle her nerves some. They didn't go much further than the edge of the garden, barely dipping into the trees, but as the spirit had assured her nothing untoward lurked in the shadows and she believed him, Sara didn't feel the usual prickle of uncertainty about being out on her own. She'd had far too many kidnapping experiences of late.

She'd even managed a shower, blessedly revitalising but not helping too much with the creeping return of fatigue. Still, she felt better for it. A change of clothes followed, to ensure everything had been charmed and would survive her shapeshifting, should she need to utilise it. Nothing fancy, just khaki combats and Ramones shirt.

Further conversation with her ghostly Bond partner followed said shower, in which she explained she would be going to the hospital to see Koji. A familiar location and a name she'd mentioned before, along with an escort to keep her safe (Aaron often sent a member of the WDSA to keep an eye on her up in the mountains, when an agent could be spared), seemed to settle the spirit further. Especially when she pet the air where he should be, allowing their essence to gently brush against one another.

Thus, when a short, sharp rap of the front door echoed through the shifter's old home, Bruse stirred, but did not rush the newcomer with the intent of driving them off. Sara remembered, with a fond smile as she approached the door, the one time she'd forgotten to mention an agent would be coming up to the abode. The poor man near had a heart attack.

It was a good thing the redhead was expecting a large male visitor, and had half-expected him to be disguised in some manner, or it may have taken her far longer than the thirty seconds it did, to recognise Casmir.

"I'm here to escort you, to see a friend, Miss Summers."

His hair was brown now, whether dyed or glamoured she wasn't sure. His striking, heterochromic eyes were now a soft shade of green, deeper and darker in colour than her own. The scar, too, another feature that stood him out from a crowd, was gone. The Hunter looked... plain, no-one particularly interesting or different from half a dozen other men - aside from maybe his large build. Which was certainly the point.

But the voice was still his own, a graveled pitch she knew rather well by now, and it was that which clued the shifter's still tired and sluggish brain into who was stood on her doorstep. She placed one hand on her hip and regarded him with a clear flick of her eyes, pursing her lips.
"Hmmmm..." One corner of her mouth curved upwards. "Think blonde suits ya better, like." Another full body check with her gaze, followed by a gesture with one finger, indicating his clothing, as she stepped out of her house and closed the door with a soft 'click'. "Ya plannin' tah tell us where ya got the uniform, like?"
Both humour and just a touch of chastisement made up the layers of Sara's tone. Because that outfit looked rather suspiciously like WDSA uniform.

[luscen]

“Standard-issue WDSA uniform, Miss Summers,” the field agent replied, pushing his square-rim glasses up the bridge of his nose with his fingers, a slight smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “As for my hair color, I have no idea what you mean.”

Really, it was a very simple disguise, but the simplest ones were often the most effective- natural, temporary dye to mask the eye-catching blonde color, contacts of a matching shade to go with the hair, a glamour to hide the scary-looking scar so his face didn't stand out too much, and average glasses to give him a boring, bland look. The uniform may have been something out of the ordinary, but nothing else about Casmir's disguise really stood out, so if anyone happened to bother looking in his direction, they'd immediately see just another face in the crowd and turn their attention elsewhere, which is exactly what he wanted them to do.

The Hunter stepped back, and gestured to the redhead's vehicle. “If you're ready?” he asked, and the two of them entered the shifter's '05 Ford Fiesta, Sara driving them to the hospital. There wasn't much in the way of conversation, save for a discussion about the redhead's shirt and which album was the band's best, Sara's vote being The Ramones, while Casmir's was Too Tough to Die. Eventually, however, they made it to their destination, and the sight of the WDSA tower looming overhead caused Casmir's brow to furrow.

'Didn't exactly expect to be this close...' he mused, adjusting his glasses again. Then again, he shouldn't have been too surprised; he knew she'd been seeing an Agent of theirs, and in all likelihood, she'd gotten her Glowworm to pull some strings and get her friend some premium care on the company's health insurance. He didn't hold it against her- after all, what good were the perks of this kind of law enforcement if you didn't use them? But having said that, it still meant the Hunter was within spitting distance of an entire building full of people that probably wouldn't balk at throwing him in a holding cell.

Casmir didn't so much as quiver, however. He stepped out of the car and walked around to let Sara out, as naturally as if he belonged there. Regardless of the nature of it, the Hunter had learned that the surest way to blend into his environment was to behave as if he belonged there- the eye was trained to notice inconsistencies and discrepancies, even if the brain didn't immediately catch onto what it was seeing. So, he played the game, acting as he knew other Agents would, opening doors for his charge, and staying a half-step behind her at all times, while scanning the perimeter, all the while saying as little as possible. Given that no one seemed to pay him any attention, even the other few Agents they passed, it seemed to do the trick.

Sara seemed to have a solid grasp on where they were going, as she took them to her friend's room with little distraction or diversion. Just as she had placed her hand on the door, however, Casmir touched her shoulder to get her attention. “If anyone who's more familiar with you steps in and tries starting up a conversation with me, it's going to raise some questions while I'm wearing this.” he explained, gesturing to his uniform. He didn't want to assume it'd be just them, and beside that fact, her friend may be familiar with the fact that she would have an escort, and be chatty. Or, conversely, if she didn't tend bring her babysitters to these things and told them to stay outside, that'd also be an oddity. Better then to err on the side of caution.

Casmir took his gloves off momentarily, then doffed his distinctive WDSA coat, holding it by the lapels. His fingers brushed over the section of threads Delphi had pointed out to him on the underside of the fabric, and as Sara watched, the black color shifted into the hues of the local varsity, the WDSA emblem changing into the team's decal. Casmir shook it out, then slipped it back on, adjusting his pants so the hems sat over his boots. To any normal observer, he simply looked like an average civilian college graduate, now.

“Well then? After you, Miss Summers.”

[tsukikoko]

Watching Casmir change his outfit was fascinating for his shifter companion, even when she was beset by the nervous energy of being discovered. There could be a thrill to rule-breaking, she couldn't deny that, but even Sara knew how much she was putting on the line by sneaking the blonde-haired Hunter in here. Needless to say, she was glad of a secondary clothing change; Koji was a supremely perceptive sort and the longer she'd thought about it on the way here, the more Sara had been concerned he would see through the original disguise and report a WDSA impersonator - they really didn't need another incident of that variety, given the relatively recent Zramek infiltration.

She also wasn't about to let Koji see her, with a man she thought he might find suspect, when the Genasi was well within his rights to reference her involvement. Not that she'd blame him for doing so, mind, but the shifter was under enough scrutiny as it was.

So, when Casmir gestured for her to proceed, the red-haired woman shook her head.
"Ain't gannin' te risk 'im knowin' I was 'ere, luv, if I can 'elp it like. 'Ave enough people breathin' down me neck withowt bein' suspected of aidin' and abettin'." Though she winked, to alleviate some of the tension she felt inside, and the shifter in no way regretted bringing Casmir here, if it would help Koji, she also had to think about where she would be best placed to help others down the line. She couldn't afford to be stripped of her position and would take great care to avoid just that. The scarred blonde would just have to win the Genasi over himself (though she had every intention to step in, regardless of consequence, should the situation escalate).

"Besides," she said, with a tap of her tail tip to the Hunter's chest, "-ain't gannin' te pass up an opportunity tah see ya social skills in action, like. Think I 'ad the special treatment, ain't fair tah judge based on that." Enough time had gone by that she could reference their initial 'gun-incident' meeting with legitimate humour.

Not a moment after uttering those words, Sara's body began to ripple in that familiar, disconcerting way. Within a fraction of a second, the woman was gone and only a supremely keen-eyed observer would notice the tiny jumping spider that quickly hopped onto Casmir's leg, up his clothes and then came to settle upon his breastbone, half-concealed by the folds of his clothing. She hoped the man's far larger heat signature would conceal her own tiny one. This form had eyes evolved enough to see what she needed, to keep track of the unfolding conversation and make sure it wasn't turning to sour without listening in. Plus, if she had to move particularly quickly and vacate for any reason, this spider was perfect.

[luscen]

Casmir raised an eyebrow at Sara's “aiding and abetting” line; while technically true, of course, the Hunter wasn't really committing a crime, at the moment. Unless “helping a person with nothing expected in return” was suddenly illegal. Though given he had assaulted an agent of law enforcement... if anyone had recognized him, there'd be questions. Questions that Sara would have to answer, as well, and she didn't deserve that. So, her caution had more than a bit of merit, on consideration.

So, when the redhead's skin rippled in that strange way, and in her place was a jumping spider currently making its way up his body to nestle close to his chest, Casmir could only shrug. “At least you didn't use this opportunity to get into my pants,” he said quietly with a small smile. “Wouldn't want this to be awkward or anything, would we?”

The Hunter took a moment to concoct a suitable cover. As it stood, he had to do three things: run a rune test, observe Koji's condition, then – if necessary – contact Delphi and find out whether or not she could offer any aid or some form of medical advice. Her poultices and remedies were second-to-none, as far as he'd seen, so perhaps there would still be options they could pursue. But in order to do that, he had to examine Sara's friend without arousing any undue suspicion.

'Not dressed for the role of a doctor, or a nurse. Don't know the time-tables, either, so one may have dropped by already, anyway...' Casmir considered, closing his eyes as he contemplated his approach. 'Could feign being a family member of a patient who'd stumbled into the wrong room... New father would be the best approach; 30-ish is still young enough to have a child. Could probably pass the runic test off as just nervousness and trying to stall for time to work my nerves up. That should work.'

His cover story set, Casmir shifted his stance somewhat, adopting the air of an anxious parent, who was dealing with his child being in the hospital- hunched shoulders, fidgety hands, tremulous smile... to add to the illusion, he took a few breaths, as though he were calming his heart rate, then placed his hand on the doorknob and turned it, knocking with the back of his hand as he came in. “Hey there, kiddo,” he called into the room, his voice pitched to make him sound more like Jeff Goldblum, to sell the part. “Sorry I'm... late...”

Casmir paused, genuinely taken aback when he saw the familiar face of the Magpie from the alley lying on the hospital bed, the windows open to give the crimson-haired probie a view of the outside. Koji's eyes were closed at the moment, however, keeping him from enjoying the view of the rather nice day. Though given the frantic sounds coming from the Holter Monitor, Casmir doubted the pick-pocket was sleeping soundly. 

'Well,' Casmir thought to himself in annoyance, unsure if he should be concerned or amused. 'This was entirely unexpected.'

[Sharei]

The door is closed.

It's fine.

The door is closed.

It's going to be fine.

The door is closed.

Just sleep. Try to sleep it off. Someone will come-

The door-

It's fine-

It's not fine-

It's not fine-

The door-

The door-

The door-

There was nothing calm or steady about the beep of the heart monitor. It spiked erratically, sometimes skipping for tense half-seconds before another cluster of frantic activity. It was the only outward sign of what he did not show, an act trained by many years of obedience. How long had that door been closed? How long had it been since the walls had begun tilting inward, encroaching, suffocating? Koji knew that it could only have been a matter of hours but the deep scratches in his palms said days. Keep it together. But the anxiety was gnawing, growing, becoming an uncontrollable fear. 

When finally the door opened with a tentative knock and halting words, Koji's response was to breathe out roughly and unclench his white-knuckled fists. One orange eye opened, the other empty socket hidden behind gauze and bandage as he turned his head to look.

In the initial moment it didn't even occur to him to be concerned by the unscheduled visit or lack of accompanying agent. All he felt was relief.

"Wrong room," he said, sounding more hoarse than he'd intended. Koji unclenched his stiff jaw.

[luscen]

'Jesus, this kid's been worked over...' Casmir thought to himself as he examined the Magpie. Just from the door he could see bandages around his throat, skull, eye.. the signs of broken bones that had been mostly healed, and heavy trauma to various parts of the body. The man looked like he'd been dragged through the cleaners, both ways. No wonder Sara had been worried about him.

Now if only the Hunter wasn't also dealing with the annoyance of this brat having stolen his equipment from him, including his old rune bag! He was particularly cross over that little detail, more than even the $2000 in spending money, in all honesty. That'd been the same set Verdandi had given him, when he'd first learned about how to use Runes, and he'd come to consider it a keepsake. He'd managed to hang onto the bloody thing for ten years, only for this lousy little-

“Wrong room,” Koji croaked in what was likely the sign of a damaged vocal chord. The Hunter frowned at the sound. Whoever had done this to him was exceptionally thorough.

'Calm down.' Casmir hid his assessment and brief mental fit under what seemed to be a slow wit, blinking, then letting his eyebrows fly up to his hairline. “Oh! Oh dear,” he fussed. “I'm sorry, this is-” he checked the room number. “Augh, 408. I was looking for room 406. My uh...” he paused, anxiously swinging his hands together. “... My son he's uh... he's in here. Been in here for... for a while, now...” Another pause, taking a moment to observe the room while stalling awkwardly. A concerned father's stewing over his sick son, naturally. Would Koji ask him to leave, or would he sympathize and lend an ear?”

“Sorry,” Casmir apologized with a weak smile. “I know I'm probably being a nuisance, just... heh...” he took out his rune bag and started to rifle through the stones as he walked further into the room, mindless rambling, though taking in all the details. "It's hard. I've never... never had to deal with this kind of thing before." Sterile room, lots of flowers. Apparently the Magpie either had a lot of friends, or simply someone who dropped by regularly and brought a new pot every time they came. He wondered how many of these potential friends the redhead had thrown into a wall.

The Hunter's eyes discretely examined Koji further now that he was closer, hiding the urge to frown as he saw the sheer number of cuts and wounds, along with a cast around each of the redhead's legs. There were also scars around his hand and fingers, showing that they'd been broken at one point. “Thorough” didn't begin to describe this- Koji had been tortured. Despite himself, Casmir felt an irrational spike of anger at the thought, his hand tightening around the rune bag in reflex.

[Sharei]

One red eyebrow rose in bewilderment. Did he honestly look like someone who was interested in some dad's sympathy story about his hurt child? Koji was not great at empathy, nor did he give any indication that he might be. In fact, most people found him vaguely threatening when he looked directly at them.

But that wasn't it, was it? The Genasi's visible eye sharpened as he took in the man's posture, his gait, the way he moved his hands. The micro-gestures told him more than the modulated tone did, though no amount of trying to change the man's voice could completely cover his accent. It was all strikingly familiar.

Wait.

They'd met only briefly but the fight between them had revealed much of both of them. Koji's obsession with the hunter after the fight, the fixation on the fact that he might be Zramek, had meant endless hours replaying the man's voice and memorizing his movements before time faded the images.

"I know you," he said bluntly, and his gaze cast past Casmir to the hallway, looking for something, before returning to the man's face. "The hunter from the alley. What are you doing here?"

[luscen]

The Hunter watched the gears turning in the Magpie's head. He managed to act oblivious, making a show of rifling through his rune bag, pulling out the Jera rune. He'd just opened his mouth to spin a yarn about them, a hapless nerd finding them at a convention when he was younger, and keeping them around as a good luck charm, when the other man's voice cut over him.

“I know you,” the redhead stated matter-of-factly. That single orange flecked eye swiveled back to him, and Casmir saw the pupil shifting as the other man narrowed his focus on him. “The Hunter from the alley. What are you doing here?”

Casmir blinked slowly, lowering the rune bag but keeping the Jera rune clutched in his palm. “Interesting,” he replied, dropping the American accent. “Never been outed before. Least, not so quickly. You're a sharp one for a runt barely separated from the litter; you're what? 20? 22 at best?” He reassessed his gaze of the Magpie, thinking over the details. “I thought there was something funny about you- no probie is that reckless and talented. You're not Law Enforcement. Too 'overly qualified.'”

“As for what I'm doing, well... First of all, you owe me two grand. Though it doesn't look like you have it on hand.” He took the glasses off, popping the contact out of from his right eye, revealing the red false one underneath. “Second of all, I still have to pay my son that visit." A little smirk tugged at his lips before he gestured to the redhead's sorry state. "Anyway, how's an Elemental get that banged up? You'd almost think you had a human body, the amount of scars you have. Can't be a dragon, you wouldn't be able to maintain your human form with that amount of damage...”

[Sharei]

"Twenty-three," Koji supplied, perhaps unnecessarily. "Paramilitary. And I'm a Genasi. You need to expand your creature library."

Helping a friend? Koji's suspicious stare never let up as he regarded Casmir cooly across the room. He didn't seem particularly worried, just annoyed by the interruption. With a grunt of effort, careful not to show how much it hurt to do so, the Genasi pushed himself upright and leaned back into the pillows. From this better angle, he had a clearer view of both the hunter and the doorway, and a better position to defend himself if necessary.

"What do you mean, 'probie'?"

[luscen]

"'It means you're a rookie learning the ropes. Someone looking to make the cut and become a proper Officer. In other words, someone that doesn't have your level of field expertise." Casmir flipped the rune in his hand like a coin. "Gensai, huh? Not familiar with that one. I'll be sure to add it to my library."

It's vision unobstructed, the Eye of Ahura took in the Gensai's form; where once there was a bright, blazing fire surrounding the boy, now it was nothing but a weak sputter. A pitiful, guttering flame in a back alley barrel on a winter's night. And what was worse, there was a faint miasma of something else hanging over him, clinging stubbornly to his skin, trying to smother what few flames Koji had left. It was an ugly red and crimson color, like oil loosely mixed with dried blood.

Casmir's expression hardened- he knew exactly what that meant: Atol had taken hold of him.

“Tch,” the Hunter grunted, feeling an irrational spike of anger at the situation. He walked over, closer to the bed, which gave him a better look at Koji's wounds. 'Should have realized, earlier... The care not to inflict too much damage to one area, the almost uncanny amount of damage done... He's the only one I've ever seen with the skill to manage this kind of thing. When the hell did these two cross paths?'

The fresh cuts and bruises were at odds with the strange, large burn scars that Casmir could see underneath the Gensai's neck wrappings. There seemed to be some indication of other wounds, as well, but their patterns weren't natural- they weren't the marks of a clumsy Hunter tangling with claws and teeth and fire, they were made by someone's else's hands. He dismissed those as not being Atol's handiwork, however; they didn't have the same precision, the same care. Which meant this wasn't the first time the kid had been tortured. That little tidbit was harder to dismiss, but Casmir wasn't here to try and figure out everything that was wrong with the Gensai, physiology-wise.

Holding up the rune between his two fingers, Casmir showed it to Koji, eyeing him askance. “This is the Jera rune. Normally, it'd recover those wounds of yours, but with how long it looks like you've been in here, using it to its proper extent wouldn't be a good idea. Still, I can do something with it, so I've got two questions for you, Magpie: First, you gonna let me try and help you, or are you gonna call a bunch of people in here you think can capture me? And second, if you're not going to be stupid in regards to the first question, which of these scrapes do you want me to take a crack at?” He nodded to the other man's eye. “If it's just damaged, I can at least get that obnoxious thing out of your vision.” 

[Sharei]

"The eye is gone," Koji said flatly, his tone as unfriendly as he could make it. "And if you try anything with me, whatever your intentions, I'll roast you where you stand. I have enough power left for that."

It wasn't an idle threat. The air in the room seemed suddenly hotter than normal, as though a roaring fire had been started somewhere nearby. Tiny sparks popped between them and there was something in Koji's gaze, a weight that spoke of things regular people could not understand. Here was a man who had killed calmly, systematically, and who was perfectly capable of doing so again.

"You underestimate people, hunter," Koji said, his gaze like a lance into the soul, reading, assessing, observing. "Just like you did with Atol. Why do you hunt the Soundless? I know you've been chasing them."

[luscen]

If Casmir seemed at all bothered by the other man's threat, he didn't show it. “Well,” he said, grasping the rune in his hand again. “If you don't want help, then I'm not going to twist your arm. Doesn't look like it would take much, anyway.” His eye wandered to a stray bit of Atol's lingering corruption, bubbling away at a corner of the Gensai's magical aura. At this point, it didn't seem to be a danger, but he somehow doubted that the kid's fire was potent enough to have purged it. Which meant someone else did it.

“What's it to you why I go after them?” he asked, looking back at Koji. “And how'd a self-loathing little snot like you piece that together in the twenty seconds we met? You figure that out when you toss me into that brick wall? Or was it when you threw me into the vampire? Which 'your Agent' was probably real happy with, by the way; I could have gotten my neck torn out and then he'd have to have filed another mound of paperwork, with nothing to show for it.”

A bit provoking, admittedly, but Casmir couldn't fight the irrational feeling that Koji being in the hospital was his fault. Another victim of Atol's that he was too late to prevent. The Hunter started to run through the possible reasons why the Mage would have targeted Koji, but really, it didn't matter; he had, and the kid had almost died because of it. Would probably be lucky if he ever walked again, at any rate. He gripped the rune stone in his hand hard enough that his leather gloves groaned in protest, before putting it back in the bag with the others. 

“Tch. Who knows. Maybe Atol told you- that'd be like him, I'm sure. Polite conversation over tea and torture, that's the kind of guy he is...” He pulled out a toothpick, clamping it between his teeth in lieu of a cigarette. This whole situation was proving to have been a mistake.

“Well, Sherlock,” he continued, walking around the bed and sitting down in a nearby chair. “Since you already seem to have me pegged, you tell me what you think I'm hunting them for? Go on, tell me my own origin story. Make it fancy, while you're at it. Nice and Pulitzer-worthy.”