The Second Location (open)

The first address that her mother's notes had lead her to had taken Illiana straight to the doctor that she had intended to take her to from the start of this trip. The only issue was it hadn't shed any light on where the only family she had in the world had disappeared to, though what she'd learnt there that day did have some implications on the rest of her life that she was still trying to come to terms with. Still, her mother had to have gone to one of the two locations when she disappeared, this one had to be able to tell her something that might help her search

It was late afternoon by the time she arrived and the sun was starting to set as it seemed to do at this time of year on this side of the planet. A cold breeze made Illy pull her jacket closed as she dashed across the street to the building that fit the address. It was several stories tall but the floor that interested her was the 9th, though as she soon discovered getting in there was a little harder than expected. The outside doors hadn't been locked yet so that step was easy enough, the problems started when she got into one of the lifts to take her up to that 9th flood and she soon discovered that building management had locked it down so that those without a key card would be unable to get off on that floor.

Therein lied her next problem. After a rather powerful migraine earlier that day Illiana had taken one of her tablets, making her perfectly visible and out of place to the other humans around the city. This had helped her get where she was going when she finally set out this afternoon but had the unfortunate side effect of slowly wearing off in spits and bursts. Right now she was mostly invisible to the humans that were around but all it would take was a dip in her recovering powers for their awareness of her to come back in full and cause her problems. It came down to a decision to stay and deal, come what may, or go back to the place she was staying at and try again later.

Her decision was made a few moments later when a flare of adrenaline surged through her body at seeing what looked like a cleaner enter the building and head off down a side corridor she hadn't even noticed. Flickering ability or not, she had to see if whatever clearance he had would allow her the access she needed. She followed him for a few moments before he disappeared into a side room, a quick glance through the window telling her he was stocking up before getting on with the evening's work. When he did arrive he still didn't see the girl so she followed close behind as he mildly chatted at the 'associate' he recognised her as before the two got in the workers lift and he hit the button for the top floor.

"Top to bottom makes sense for his job but I really don't want to wait that long. Let's hope this works."

Not wanting to get stuck that high Illy pushed the 9th floor button as they passed the 7th, hoping to avoid causing disruption as long as possible in case that action weakened her power for a moment. The frown that creased the cleaner's face suggested it was a good idea and the ping of the door's opening had her dashing through as quickly as she could manage. A quick turn at the closing doors and the man's face told her it was a good decision, just as the finished closing a spark of realisation seemed to hit and he moved as though to take a step forward.

"Hay, you can't be here! This flo-"

The closing doors cut her off before he could finish and, not wanting him to suddenly try and come back to the floor and find her standing there like a stunned mullet, she turned and moved out of the access corridor and into the main floor. The bit she saw at first suggested this place was set up similar to the other, a doctor's office of some sort, but as she moved further within it soon became evident why the floor had been blocked off for regular access.

"Damn mum, what'd you do here?" Illiana whispered to herself, her gaze travelling across the mess that was the foyer of the level. Chairs had been tossed every which way, scorch marks littered the walls where powers had been thrown and other marks showed where less ordinary abilities had struck. These seemed to move along a path that soon became covered in glass as she approached what could only be described as a partially filled in hold where once a window had been. Something or someone had destroyed it as they moved and she could only guess if it had been her mother jumping out it or someone else.

That wasn't the strangest part however, as the parts of the room that were damaged had also been courted off by police tape. In her half dazed state at finding the place like this Illy had ducked under the yellow area and was crunching around on the glass as she tried to figure out just what it was that had happened here. Her mother had tried to teach her how to follow the flow of a battle after the fact, much like this, but there was a difference between analysing a staged setting and looking about a real battlefield while worrying about the condition of a loved one. Illiana was going to have to get her head in the game if she expected to be able to find some useful information out of all this.

To say that Aish was having a bad day was an understatement. Bad days meant death, pain, and rebirth. To Aish, even the time he had been frozen mid rebirth would be preferable to this. After all, he had been frickin summoned to some fancy ass hotel in the middle of who knows where by some old fling of his to tell him that she had his bloody child! Who was now a frackin teenager! And not summoned as in getting a message telling him to go to some place because someone had demanded it, but actually ripped through fuckin dimensions and arriving in an inferno of flames by someone with a hint of an ability to summon other beings!

Feeling the need to relieve some pent of frustration, the tall red head stomped down the stairs to the ninth floor of the building. Luckily enough he had learned that the ninth floor was cordoned off for some reason, and should therefore make for a good place to blow off some steam. After all, who would honestly care if he messed some stuff up in Shadow Fall territory? Not anyone who mattered to him, and it's not likely for anything to get back to those stuffy windbags up in Iramasha territory. Not bothering to check if the door was locked, a swift kick forced it to open whether it was or not. Stalking inwards, a deep breath in brought a savage smile to her lips as flames surged around her body. Peeling the eye patch off her right eye, it was then that Aish noticed something that she hadn't before. Where her left eye seemed to gloss over one spot in the room, her right eye showed a human there, female, and a groan escaped the devil iramasha's lips. As if the realization was all that was needed to see the other being in the room, her left eye immediately focused down on the girl as he spoke in a quiet voice.

"What are you doing here?"

Being far from a forensics expert made the investigation sickeningly slow, Illiana had found a smear of blood on the wall and buttons by the main elevator doors suggesting someone who was injured had gone that way, but she couldn't tell if that was her mother or someone else who was trying to get down a safer way for reasons unknown. That meant she had to check the window for clues too, and was halfway out and picking careful footing through the glass covered floor when a loud bang made her turn towards the fire escape. A quick glance around made it clear there was nothing to duck behind without risking cutting herself on the glass so she closed her eyes and desperately tried to will whoever it was into seeing exactly what they expected. A police officer surveying the scene? A random chair? Anything was better than getting caught out doing something weird like this.

The girl couldn't help but crack an eye curiously after a moment as there was a feeling of heat and the flair of light, but when she did all she could do was stare. The person standing there was tall, but not too tall, and the flair of fire around them gave the distinct impression that they were somewhat spiritual. Nothing else would explain the flames, though she couldn't help but feel that until he took that eye patch off he was looking right through her, the way most humans did. Seeing those flames she couldn't help but shudder at the thought of what might have happened had he not.

"U-um..." Illy froze for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts and not just stand there stuck liked an idiot, "I'm investigating the crime scene, c-clearly."

She stated with the most serious voice she could muster, straightening up in an effort to reach her full height and look a lot more confident than she actually felt. People had never been her strong point, what being mostly invisible to most regular humans in the world, so if her voice shook or she stuttered while trying to appear in control she hoped the person would put it down to the shock at seeing them come through the door like that. And the flames, as long as they were about Illy couldn't help but stare at them in a curious confusion.

"T-this is a restricted area you know, what are you doing here?"

"Bull-fucking-shit. If you're a detective, then I'm the fucking Abrahamic God."

Following that response to her claim of investigation, a soft snort left Aish. Reaching in to her jacket's pocket, she brought out a small package of cigarettes, popping one out of the container and placing it in her mouth before replacing the remainder of the pack in her pocket. Lifting her finger to the cigarette, she let a flickering flame light atop it, using it to light one of her favorite pastimes. A deep draw upon her cigarette was followed by a sigh as she slowly let her aura die down, the flames surrounding her snapping out of existence.

"Damn... a shitty ass human just had to be here. If I break one of them, I'll never hear the end of it, even if it is in that demon bitch's territory. Ah, nothing to do about it, what the elders don't know about can't come back to bite me in the ass."

Finally turning his attention back to the female who was stopping him from having some fun, a soft growl left his lips.

"Obviously I was here to fuck up some shit a blow off some steam, ya got a problem with that, brat? Cause if you do I would love a new punching bag... maybe you'd eve-ARGH!"

A hand flew up to his right eye as Aish fell to his knees, gasping for breath as he bent over, the free hand going to the ground to keep the red head from falling flat on the floor. Flames leaped forth from his body as his aura slipped from his control. Glaring at the spot he knew something had just been in, growled words escaped his lips.

"Would you mind lowering whatever gods forsaken sort of shielding you've got up? I'd rather not have to use my eye for a while, thank you very much!"

(OOC: Sorry it took me so long to get this out, work has been a real bitch lately. Hopefully I'll get things out more consistently now.)

Illiana couldn't help but flinch at the person's hash words. The young woman hadn't actually expected to be believed, not one bit, but the anger in the retort caught her by surprise, making whatever response she had ready die on her lips. Even as she grasped for words it seemed like the fire drained out of the interloper, both figuratively and literally, as they lit a cigarette with only their finger. It was sort of an odd event to watch, fire just appearing and disappearing like that, and Illy sort of stared on in quiet amazement for a few moments before his words roused her out of the stupor she'd found herself in.

"What? No you can't do that! Even if I didn't need to see this myself the police still need it for their... wait are you okay?" Illiana moved quickly, this time not worried about the glass much to the determent of her shoes, drawing closer to the stranger only to back up just as quickly as the fires flared back up. "W-what?" she asked in disbelief, "I don't even know how I do it in the first place! It's just something I've done naturally for years now."

Still backing up just in case the fire got any worse, Illy felt panic rising in her chest as she realised she had no idea what she could even do in this situation. "I don't get it, this ability has only ever really worked on humans and those hollows and demons that are really stupid. It shouldn't even be affecting you, let alone giving you any trouble! Why can't you just see me the way others like you do?"

Even as she asked this question Illiana was trying to figure out how to get off this floor if she had to, she had the unnerving feeling that this man... woman... person, whatever, was unbalanced in some way. If they decided to just do something she worried what it would mean in the end for her safety. Unfortunately the main elevator was out, as was the stairwell behind the man, leaving her with the service elevator again and the off chance of running into the same cleaner again. She wasn't even sure if he'd see her now that he'd realised the random person on the lift with him was random or not, but with how her luck had been going so far this evening she wouldn't be surprised if he did.

"Don't ask idiotic questions kid, I ain't like the others you speak of. Don't expect me to not have some weird fucked up shit going on, that's kinda like my life story. Oh, and if you think I can't wreck this place, then think again! After all, who is going to fucking stop me, a scrawny wannabe cop?"

With that he lifted his hand away from the pain inducing eye, panting as he lifted himself back up even as he dug his fingers in to the palms of his hands to hold back the pain.

"Well, at least your power only holds sway over the present kid, not the future. Otherwise I might not have noticed you. Now, I suggest you high tail it out of here so I can work out all the frustration I have coursing through me after being told I have a fucking teenage child! Go ahead, call your precious police, I'm sure they'll make good punching bags."

With that he brought his hand up, forming it in to a fist as flames began to churn around the panting form of the red headed man.

Illiana was taken aback by the person's hostile words, she really wasn't all that familiar with much of the spiritual side of things so she'd just assumed this person, like every other spiritual entity she'd ever met, would see right through her ability. As it was Illy had the impression that whoever this was, was just hot headed, so hopefully she'd be fine as long as she was careful and didn't get on their bad side. That being said she really needed to talk him out of destroying the place if she wanted even a slight chance to find out what there was to find out, though she wasn't exactly the best detective as they'd pointed out.

"Listen, I'm sorry." she said, talking fast, "I really don't know about any of this stuff, I hardly even know about my own abilities as is. Normally it's just humans who can't see me so I'm sorry if I was rude about that."

Illiana couldn't help but eep loudly as the flames started up again, backing up further and curling her form inwards defensively. It didn't seem like this guy was the talking type and even if he was, it seemed like whatever her ability was doing to his head was making him even less inclined to listen. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place, or maybe a flame and a hot place? Illy shook that weird thought out of her head and stood up as if to go, but thought again and stretched out in front of the stranger and closed her eyes.

"Please no don't!" she screamed, hoping that whatever it was that had stopped him from burning her the last time still held sway now, "I know I'm not a police officer, I know I'm really nothing special to you, but I need this place right now! It's the last clue I've got to find my moth-"

Illy choked so hard on the last word she flew into a coughing fit, her careful nature taking over again and not wanting to reveal any more information that she already had. In reality it was probably too late to correct herself but Illy hoped that the stranger wouldn't pick up on what exactly she had almost said. Sure they weren't a demon, so trusting them with that information wouldn't be as dangerous, but her careful habits had to be kept, if only for her own sanity.