Bad Blood

[Oddric]

Kashou fastened the collar of his cloak, tightening it as he walked through the streets of Kumo. This wasn't something he usually did, ask someone else for help. Sure, his father and he would go on hunts together, but that was different. Kashou was actively seeking a companion out to take on his quest with him. He felt he was out of his league. Well, he usually felt he was out of his league, but this was different. He felt... bad about this. It wasn't something he could lay his finger on, but instinctively he knew.

A blood dried corpse had been found a few kilometers out from Kumo. Not a shinobi, but just a civilian. There were all sorts of explanations, some logical, some speaking of the work of rogue shinobi, feral animals, but no rumors spread of the wicked work that Kashou knew was brewing. A dried corpse, mysterious death, and no one knows what really happened. This was right up Kashou's alley, but it was chilling. The description of the young man's body was disturbing, not unlike anything Kashou had known before. He had some hunches, but some things just weren't adding up. Going in on this alone would be dangerous and stupid. With his father not here, he had to find help elsewhere.

Knock, knock

He considered turning back, just stopping before making it up the steps and going home. Figure it out on his own. There was no time for that, if he didn't even try asking for help, this whole ordeal would take so much longer. Kashou felt this was urgent.

"Jeiku?" Kashou called out, arm falling to his side as he glanced around the exterior of the older man's home. "Are you home?" He wasn't sure if he was, he had no idea what he was up to.

[Trucro]

Jeiku was walking home from the Academy after a half day of volunteering. He still spent a lot of time there; he enjoyed helping the children. He hadn’t been able to go much recently, with all of his missions and training. So mostly not he helped when the Academy had events, needed a speaker, or just an extra hand, rather than coming in regularly. For whatever reason, the students generally loved Jeiku, and while he couldn’t figure out why, he enjoyed their admiration.

It was a nice day for Jeiku. It was cloudy, which he generally preferred, and it had rained earlier in the day, but had stopped by now. As such, it was quite humid, which Jeiku also enjoyed. He hoped it would rain more later; there was nothing better, in his mind, than relaxing at home while there was a downpour outside.

He began climbing up the stairs towards his apartment. The building itself was not terribly well kept, and the hallways were open air, meaning bugs and twigs and the like dirtied the hallways. He lived on the second floor, which also happened to be the highest floor. He’d have preferred to be on the first floor because walking up the stairs was a pain. Particularly on days like today, when he had been training the day before. His legs were pretty sore, and he grunted as he made his way up the steps.

As he did, he heard someone call his name. He didn’t recognize the voice, however. When he came to the top of the stairs, he noticed someone standing outside his door. It was Kashou, wearing a cloak. Jeiku tilted his head as he spoke.

“Kashou? What’s going on?” He took a few steps closer, approaching the Genin.

[Oddric]

Hands on his hips, Kashou stared at the door for a while. He looked down to the base of the door, listening intently for noise from within Jeiku's home. He was hoping to hear... anything. Footsteps to the door or movement inside. Kashou knocked again, just to be sure. He wasn't entirely sure why he did it again, he knew Jeiku wasn't coming out. He was nervous to go off on his on, and this was just prolonging the inevitable.

The genin jumped a bit as he heard Jeiku's voice, he had been focusing so hard on the house he had completely ignored everything else going on. "Jeiku!" He raised his voice more than he had intended to, and let through more emotion than he meant to. "Uh... sorry. This probably looks suspicious." Kashou calmed himself, pointing to the door and then back to himself. "I was looking for you." Obviously.

He took a step back from the door, in case Jeiku wanted to go inside. Kashou would follow him into his home, if that's what he had in mind. "I need your help." His tone changed to one that was more grim. Jeiku probably knew what Kashou had in mind.

"There was a murder recently." He spoke a bit softer. "A man totally drained of blood a few kilometers from Kumo. Not a drop left, according to the chuunin patrolling the area who I was able to speak to." Kashou rubbed his hands together, contemplating how to ask his favor. "Of course, it was just the chuunin's word. I can speculate all day for what the thing was that drained that poor man of all his blood... but I don't know for sure. As a genin, I don't exactly have legal access to a lot of things. But you, you do. I need to get into the morgue so I can see the man's body."

[Trucro]

Jeiku slowly approached Kashou as he spoke. It was a bit odd for him to see Kashou here, but not necessarily unwelcome. He had grown to like Kashou, especially after their last encounter. He had been meaning to set up a time for them to meet, maybe for ramen or something. However, Kashou’s grim tone did worry him. The young Genin had proved himself to be beyond his years in fighting skills, and well as a relatively unshakeable shinobi. He had appeared to Jeiku to be almost fearless in their most recent meeting, and anything that forced the Kashou to speak like this must have been important, and dangerous.

Jeiku pushed his key into the doorknob before turning it and jerking the door at the same time; it was always a challenge to open the door to his apartment since the lock was very old, and Jeiku worried that he looked a bit foolish as he shook the door open. When it finally did open, Jeiku pushed the door inwards, revealing his mess of an apartment. The doorway lead into Jeiku’s living room/study/kitchen, basically the only other room besides his bedroom and bathroom. The room was, quite frankly, a mess, with books piled up on the single desk in the far corner, and only a small couch with a pair of old pants on them in front of the kitchen counter. His trident sat against the wall, leaning just beside Jeiku’s only window at the far end of the apartment. Jeiku stood by the door, motioning for Kashou to enter. The Genin entered, and Jeiku silently instructed him to sit on the couch as he picked up his pants and threw them aside.

“Hmmm…” Jeiku said audibly as Kashou finished speaking. “I could get you into the morgue to see the man’s body I suppose, but don’t you think this might be over your head? After all, whoever did this killed a Chunin! It's not necessarily your job to investigate... ”Jeiku looked away for a moment thinking before turning back to Kashou. “...unless... unless you think another one of those creatures did that? I don’t remember the beast we defeated to be capable of draining the blood of a human. It seemed to be a more biting, knowing creature, no?”

[Oddric]

Kashou walked in behind Jeiku, eyeing the trident as he came in. All the genin had was a sword, he had been considering getting a better looking weapon. It was quite... regal.

He sat on the couch, briefly looking over the rest of the apartment. It looked similar to Kashou's. Messy, books everywhere, loose clothing. The only difference was Kashou had more fuuinjutsu plastered on the walls. Documents and obituaries cluttering his tables. Kashou's place was a bit more grim.

"Hah." Kashou snickered, giving a weak smile. "It definitely might be over my head. A chuunin wasn't killed though, just a civilian. At least, that's what the shinobi patrolling the area had said. All I have to go off of is his word. I'm not even sure where exactly the man had been killed." He rubbed his forearm, his dark cloak rustling. "Even if... whatever this creature is, can kill me easily, I still have to do something. No one else is going to. Even if there is a detective on the job, they won't know what to look for. Not really. They'll miss important clues, misinterpret things, and if they find the monster, they won't know how to handle it. So, I have to do it." Surely Jeiku understood.

Leaning forward, Kashou tapped his fingers on the scratched up coffee table. "It's not another black dog. They don't consume only blood. It would've nearly completely devoured the man. Leaving some bones and unfavorable bits of flesh." A gruesome thought, but Kashou had seen the damage firsthand. "Have you heard of vampires, Jeiku? You know, fangs and... stuff." Kashou rubbed his finger against his canine teeth. "That was my initial guess when I heard about what had happened. Something doesn't quite add up though. Apparently the body was totally dry. Not a drop left at all. Totally clean. Not even the most efficient vampire can get every bit of blood, there will always be something left. More than that though, there was no bite wound. Not on the exterior, anyway. There's no way a vampire can drink without making an exit point. So, I'm a bit perplexed. I need to look at the body."

Not many things loved blood as much as a vampire. Kashou considered other possibilities, a ghoul perhaps. Some parasite. With so little information, he couldn't come with any reasonable theory. He had to examine it himself. "If you can get me in, I'd just need to look at it for a minute." Kashou said, staring at Jeiku now. "Just a quick minute. So if you can't get me in through the front door, you're gonna have to help me to sneak in." He realized what he was asking. Jeiku was his only hope, and he knew what was at stake. He knew the evil that was out there. "I need to know."

[Trucro]

Jeiku’s ears perked at the mention of vampires. Vampires? The blood sucking fiends of fairy tales? Jeiku found it very hard to believe. But the death of this person was definitely an interesting occurrence. Because it was missing all of its blood, it certainly could appear to have been the work of a vampire. Jeiku had a different theory, however. He had known of missing ninja conducting medical experiments in the region for at least the past few months; it would not have surprised him to learn that they were responsible. Jeiku’s interest was piqued as well; perhaps he could finally find these missing ninja, and end them. Jeiku sat down in a small wooden chair just in front of his desk as he began to speak.

“Do you really believe it’s vampires?” Jeiku asked. He hadn’t believed in demon dogs before he and Kashou had seen one, but vampires were another level. He’d need more proof to believe in anything like that. “Isn’t it more likely that it’s some sort of medical testing that’s going on, perhaps by some rebelling ninja? I’ve heard of things like this, but not creatures of the night.” Jeiku chuckled. “Either way, I’ll take you to the morgue. I’d like to figure out what’s going on as well.”

Jeiku rose from his chair and looked over at a small clock that stood just to the right of his door. “We should have enough time to get there before they close. But we should go soon if you want to check it out today. We shouldn’t need to sneak in; I am a fully licensed ninja and all. Besides, we don’t want to open that can of worms.” Jeiku tilted his head and motioned towards the door, telling Kashou to get up.

[Oddric]

Kashou shrugged, hands folded in his lap. He had considered a lot of possibilities, but right now vampires seemed like the best option. Jeiku had a point though, it didn't have to be something supernatural. "You might be right. It might be a shinobi who knows their human anatomy. I did consider that." The genin itched his neck. "However, if a regular human decides to drain a man dry... well... I don't quite consider them a 'regular' human. To me, they're a monster all the same. Shinobi from different villages fight each other, I get it, it's their job. People die. It's a messy and brutal world. But what happened to that guy, so close to his home, it wasn't human." Kashou nodded. He felt good about his response. "I still feel obligated to kill the thing. The upside is that they'll be simpler to kill." He gave the older boy a smirk.

Standing up from the couch, Kashou gave another glance at Jeiku's apartment. "Okay, yeah. Today would be good." Kashou wasn't a 'front door' kind of guy. He had spent so much of his life sneaking in places, spying, lying. It was an odd feeling getting to just... walk in and get the information without having to work around something.

Kashou tugged on the collar of his cloak, letting his arms fall underneath the fabric. "The body should be pretty fresh, too. Any anomalies should be pretty apparent. I'm hoping there will be some sort of clue on the body. Flesh discoloration, weird markings, something." No clues meant no leads, and that meant a cold trail. There were times that Kashou had to give up on a case because there was no where left to turn. "Hopefully we can talk to the chuunin on patrol. I'd like to know where exactly they found the body. There could be something there that they glanced over." He looked over to Jeiku, seeing if he understood. It was a funny feeling, having a partner. He had gone about a year without having a companion. Having to explain what he was thinking to someone else was odd.