High above the Diamond District, or what remained of it, a Pied Crow flew. It landed on the crest of a particularly lavish home, once breath taking in its beauty, now ransacked and left a hollow shell. The creature fluffed its wings and cocked its head from left to right as it looked down at the streets below, remaining oddly silent for such a boisterous species of fowl.
Down below a person stood crouched in the houses yard, rifling through what was left of the houses goods that had been left strewn on the lawn. Of course, so long after the initial attack (on the house and the village itself) there wasnt anything good to be found . . . but then, the person wasnt really looking for anything of value. She was looking for another person, if you could call him that, one who'd been oddly absent in the events following the villages sudden capture and the subsequent upheaval of chaos that came afterwards. Although a person could not be found in the wreckage of a home, she had to at least make it look like she was part of the 'crowd' - that being looters and pillagers and other ne'er-do-wells.
The hood of the large jacket she'd found covered the tacky mass of her brown hair well enough, now stripped of his beads and baubles and her signature skull mask. Her skin was scrubbed clean of the body paint she usually wore, and tactfully repainted with common dirt and some ash to help her fit in with the street-rats. She'd shucked her animals skins in favor of baggier clothes that hid her feminine form, and she even wore - augh - shoes on her feet. Such confining things.
All of this she'd found while searching for a certain shadow-man, while at the same time sticking to the shadows herself. There were a few too many criminals running rampant in the streets for her tastes nowadays. Considering she wasnt the most physically gifted girl in the world, being cornered by a posse of slavering men fresh from the prison would not bode well for her. She was no ninja, but she knew how to stay hidden at least, while at the same time keeping an ear and eye open for any sign of the Stewards shadowy right hand.
The only problem was . . . she hadnt a clue where to start looking for him. The last time she'd seen him was at the Takahashi household, a few weeks before Sousuke had left for his mission. She had no idea where he'd been since or where he made himself home. She'd considered checking at what remained of the tower after it came down, and even at the prison but both places were much too high profile right now. She had to stay out of the enemies eyes - she wasnt sure how well that endeavor was going to work out, considering just who it was she was looking for. Eventually she'd found herself in the ritzier side of town, where things were so chaotic that blending in proved fairly simple. All she had to do was make it look like she was sifting through left over loot. While she didnt know where Mikaboshi lived, she did know that he was high-strung and snobby (which she completely understood - he had every right to be), so it only made sense that he might make house on the upside of town, where the rest of the blue bloods and the nobles lived.
Standing up straight, Hakumei glanced up at the roof of the house and spotted her crow. She sighed softly when she saw his claws were empty. He'd found no clues to the ancients whereabouts either. 'Like a needle in a blasted hay stack.' She thought to herself as she picked up a small end table and started walking down the street.
