Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

After examining my hand once more I gave Kyan a gentle pat on his head.

"Sssss."

He seemed to enjoy it, then he retreated back into my sleeve.

"Thank you for protecting her, Kyan." Helena said.

"It'ssss my duty and my pleasure." He replied.

"How are we going to find the people responsible for this?" I asked. "Also, the sewage is still flowing but not as fast as it should, I guess there are enough enchantments to compensate for the sabotaged one but we have to report the problem."

"Screw the sewage, we need to find those bastards!" Helena said.

Rose studied the runes, which were now inert. Then she sniffed them. "Hatsumi, is this blood on those runes?"

Hatsumi leaned closer and sniffed them as well. "Yes, it's faint but there seem to be some traces of blood on them."

"Do you think they used blood to manipulate them? The electricity would point towards an air affinity." I said.

"Do you know rituals? I think there are blood rituals." Rose replied.

"You were created with some form of ritual involving blood but I had thought that was mainly because you are a vampire." I replied.

"None of us knows anything about rituals, nor do we know much about enchantments, so we might need to ask an expert. However, we have the blood, can you follow it?" Helena asked.

Rose shook her head. "No."

"Me neither." Hatsumi said. "The sewer stench covers any possible trail, I can only smell the blood really close to the runes. Besides, if it was a ritual tool they would have brought it in a sealed container. Then again, someone could have been careless and simply hurt themselves during the sabotage. Hopefully that's the case since we could identify that person if we can smell their blood."

"Maybe those adventurers were involved?" Rose wondered. "I didn't smell anything blood-related though."

I frowned. "They didn't come from the sewers and none of them struck me as a mage. Not that there is an obvious way to identify one but they seemed to rely on weapons." I said.

"Perhaps they were working with the saboteur? They could have stabbed you while the rune shocked you." Hatsumi said.

"But then you would have killed them, even if I died." I pointed out.

Stolen novel; please report.

"They didn't seem smart enough to understand that." Hatsumi replied.

"They could have seen someone else enter the sewers, asking them might be a good start." Helena suggested.

"We do need to report this though. Maybe an enchanter can find some evidence?" I said.

"Eh, does anyone know where Brian's office is?" Helena asked.

"Huh, he has always met us so far, I don't even know his official job title, only that he works for the city. We could just go to the nearest guard station and report this." I suggested.

"If we leave through the nearest exit there could be an ambush." Hatsumi warned.

"Good thinking, so we could use a less obvious one…"

"Or we could try to hunt anyone lying in wait." Rose interrupted.

"Hm, we could leave through another exit and then approach this one from above." Helena suggested.

"We could split up and come from both sides." I said.

"We aren't going to leave you vulnerable." Hatsumi insisted.

"I am not suggesting that but there are quite a few of us." I pointed out.

"We would have a hard time coordinating if we split up." Helena said.

"I could send a command through the link once we are in place." I suggested.

"You would have to remain in the sewers, as the target you are too noticeable. There aren't a lot of dark foxkin, or any kind of foxkin, around. I can take Rose and Yoru with me, the three of us are relatively normal." Helena suggested. "We get into position above and then Yoru tells Hatsumi to meow, or something like that."

"How are we preventing them from waiting until they see Koyuki? We can't be sure that we can identify every assassin." Rose asked.

Helena looked at me, then at Hatsumi. "Koyuki, how do you feel about wearing a maid uniform?"

"What?" The question caught me by surprise and I needed a moment to process it.

"Hatsumi doesn't look that different from you at a distance, she can leave the sewers wearing your clothes." Helena clarified.

My eyes widened, that was actually a good idea! Then I looked at the uniform itself, it did bring back a lot of memories. "Ok." I said after a moment. Then I looked directly at Helena. "It's ok, you can get in position while I change. It will take you a moment to find another exit and move above ground anyway."

Helena looked into my eyes, then she gave me a brief kiss. "You've got this."

After she left I started undressing and Hatsumi helped me put on her clothes. It was strange, wearing that kind of uniform again. My hand instinctively went to my neck and only found flesh. Then I felt a small tongue.

"Sssss." Kyan had moved upwards and was gently licking my fingers. I smiled at the small snake. "Thank you."

There was no guarantee that there was someone lying in wait for us, all of this might be pointless, however it did make some sense. Finishing me off while I was wounded would be easier than trying again at a later time.

"Meow." Hatsumi said, then she smiled, it seemed that Yoru had sent the signal.

We were one bend away from the exit and Nyx had been scouting the area to ensure there wasn't an ambush inside the sewers. With the immediate area secured Hatsumi carefully opened the lid and started climbing out of the sewer…

"MEOOOOW!" I heard Yoru shout and Hatsumi disappeared above with a burst of speed. I readied my shield, just in case, and waited. A shadow emerged above and… Oh, it was Rose jumping down.

As she landed Nyx jumped on her head, then launched herself from her head out of the sewer.

I blinked. "What was that?"

"They have it under control but Nyx can help up there while I keep you safe. You have Kyan but you need more protection than that." Rose replied.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"It's a small backstreet up there and there was a suspicious couple but they had someone with a crossbow on a nearby roof as well. Nyx and Yoru are decent climbers so they are going after the assassin. Hatsumi and Helena are subduing the couple." Rose reported.

It was hard to just wait and not get involved but it didn't take long until Helena shouted: "All good!"

I left the sewers and found two people lying on the ground with Hatsumi standing next to them. "I have paralyzed them and made sure not to drink anything, in case their blood is drugged."

Meanwhile Nyx appeared on the roof to our left, she had grown to her full size and a mauled body was on her back. She jumped down next to us. Yoru was sitting on the corpse, licking his bloody paw.

"Uh, this one seems rather dead." I said.

"Meow." Nyx agreed.

At least we had two captives and our plan had worked, now we just needed to get them to a guard station and find out if they had further help. Somehow they knew which runes I would check and it wasn't clear if any of those three was capable of sabotaging one. It was going to be a long day.