Captain Maddock considered himself a patient creature; when half the mythen you deal with on the daily practically needed alcohol to function properly, you learn to put up with a few quirks and have a wellspring of patience. On a day like today when everything seems to be going wrong, however, that patience was running thin.
“As I told you, sirs, I cannot just hand out information on everyone who comes into the docks willy-nilly.”
“This is a federal investigation, so I disagree.” The F.B.I. agent raised a brow and Maddock raised a dark hand to his forehead, trying to abate a growing headache as he looked to the hunter.
“All complaints and warrants are usually filed through H.A., what is this?”
“It is as Agent Woodbanks said: our jurisdiction has been...”
“Superseded.” Woodbanks offered.
“By the government for this, and the Administration has declined to resist.”
“And I am declining to hand over the personal information of Gods knows how many clients. This isn’t some random shop: the mythen here trust me to run one of the biggest sections of Yokaitown, and I trust and respect them in turn. These aren’t some drunken... hoodlums...?” Maddock trailed off and leaned to the side to look past the two humans and out the window of the office. Surely, that blur he saw wasn’t-
A tall kappa stumbled past the window, looking gobsmacked before a human suddenly launched into them, tackling them out of sight. Another human in a red hood came into view, running with two kappa chasing after them, disappearing out of view for just a moment before the kappa came running back, chased by a swarm of paper dolls. The two humans followed Maddock out the front door and they saw a scene of chaos; several kappa were wrapped up in shikigami, one of the yokai was being spun rapidly by the dolls on its back, and one of the human boys had another kappa in a headlock. Whatever patience Maddock had evaporated and he took a deep breath, and the water of the port lurched-
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Ray heard a yelp behind him and turned just in time to see a wave come crashing over the street, slamming into both humans and kappa gathered there, sending them all sprawling to the floor. The wind was knocked out of him for a moment and he shakily stood up, only to see a tall, dark figure looming over the group. “WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?”
“...They started it!” Zanzibar pointed to the kappa, the leader of whom looked at him in shock.
“What!? We didn’t do anything, you-”
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A sound like the crashing of the ocean silenced all of them, and the umibozu pointed at Ray. “You. Explain. And tell me the truth.”
“We spotted the captain we were looking for and instead of waiting to go get our chaperones, Mr. Boothe went to question him about our mission.”
“And how, perchance, did that turn into an all-out brawl on my docks?”
“...The conversation turned heated and there was some shoving involved-” The man raised his hand and Ray silenced himself. The man shut his eyes and took a few deep breaths, slowly shrinking in size until he was down to the height of a regular human being. With one last breath the man opened his eyes.
“Who started it?”
“Mr. Boothe pointed at one of the kappa and they slapped his hand away, which turned into him slapping their hand back, and it devolved from there.” The man studied Ray for a long moment before huffing through his nose.
“Right: all the humans off my dock, you-” He pointed to the kappa, “-are confined to your ship until further notice.”
“But, but-” The kappa shot back at the stern look leveled at him. “Yessir.”
Agent Woodbanks looked like he wanted to argue but Araki held out a hand in front of him, quickly shaking his head. The four retreated to the van, and the moment they were all inside the agent whipped around to look at the two young Hunters. “Do you two have any idea how badly you screwed up? You-”
“Sir, I put two of my shikigami on them.” Normally Ray would never interrupt someone who was technically a superior, but he had to do damage control now. “In the fight, I sent off two of my shikigami to hide so we can track them and listen in.”
Agent Woodbanks didn’t seem particularly happy, but at least he seemed mollified as he processed the words. Araki reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a pad of paper and a pencil, wordlessly handing it to Ray and he immediately understood; Ray pulled another pair of paper dolls out, and he could feel the rush of energy that normally came with his magic turn into a torrent as he ordered the two shikigami. “Share your sight, share your voices.”
The dolls floated into the air, one wrapping its arms around the pencil while the other folded itself into an origami mouth, opening and closing with a scratchy voice. “Boss, are you sure we’ll be alright?”
The shikigami with the pencil quickly sketched out an image of a cargo hold stuffed with odds and ends, one kappa facing a group with a hand raised. “Of course... once we get out of here.”
The voices became distorted before one voice rang out, “Quit your blubbering! That umi-bozo was already suspicious of us, we can’t stay here much longer. We already had those humans pay us for bringing their beasts abroad, we just need to head to sea until Maddock calms down.”
“But captain, what do we do with the fox then?”
“Eh, dump it overboard, I-”
“Shit, they still have a kitsune?” Zanzibar reached for the doors of the van.
“We can’t-”
“Listen fed-boy, we can either sit around and wait for them to bail, or we go in now and deal with the paperwork later.” Ray felt one of his eyes twitch at Zanzibar’s words, realizing the other boy really did learn nothing from Ray doing his work. He waited for Mr. Araki to say something, but wasn’t expecting the Hunter to nod.
“The Administration can handle the paperwork, we need to move now.”
Only Agent Woodbanks seemed hesitant but after a second he drove the van forward, and Ray mentally sighed.
At least he was putting his talisman to good use today.