An Insidious Call [Vanyel, Kurai]

This situation felt familiar, and he hated it. Immediately, he was being blamed for what had happened, despite everything else that occurred in the meantime. His fingers tightened around the sword, before he quickly turned it around, pointing the pommel at the bartender.

"Hold it. The fuck? I went nuts? The bar emptied out! There's still a guy huddled in the corner! You're one to talk, given you're immediately blamin' me, jackass!"

He gestured to said corner, the only occupant being a young man, barely in his thirties, huddled in the fetal position, rocking quietly. His eyes were wide with fear, yet seemed focused on something else entirely, even though whatever had caused the illusion had vanished. Growling in irritation, the sword vanished back into his Chasm Point, as if it had never been in his hand in the first place.

He thought back to everything that had led up to the pandemonium. She came in, lit up a cig, offered to pay for a double of his drink, and then she started talking to him. Whatever power was used had to have some kind of condition to start messing with him. Did she do something to his drink? No, she wouldn't have had time for that, unless the bar staff was in on it, and that was just as unlikely.

Was it a word she needed to say? A particular subject? That didn't seem likely either, especially since that would probably have caused the effects to be more personal to her, rather than him. It had to be something more...abstract, something more subtle. Entrance. Cig. Drink. Chaos. The only thing that made sense was...

The cigarette! That was the condition and trigger! Something involving it, anyway! He didn't have the time to start going full detective mode on it, but for now, it was something to go off of. Without a sound or notice, he left. It was some back-alley bar in Kyoto -- this place was barely a blip on the radar. He wouldn't have been surprised if they didn't have any cameras.

It was a shame, he really did like this place. Oh well.