The blazing summer sun shone upon the magnificent architecture of the Desert Crown, illuminating the buildings and streets with gilded radiance. One such building--a church dedicated to some religious figure--stood out as particularly spectacular and the rays of light caused the stained glass images to glow in a splendid array of colors as a soft, arid breeze brushed the cultivated and cultured blades of grass surrounding the house of worship.
As Hiroshi stood on the roof of another building across the street in awe of the glorious display, a loud bell resounded from within the church's walls, summoning wealthy parishioners inside for a mass. One such person was none other than the shinobi's mark--Lady Shimizu, a noblewoman suspected of some conspiracy against Sunagakure itself. Although she had kept her affairs a private matter for the most part, Hiroshi had a hunch that she had at least confidant within the walls of the church itself.
Before the sermon began, Hiroshi quickly cycled through the necessary hand gestures to transform himself into a foreign visitor to the church. Based on his lighter skin tone and blonde, wispy hair, most would assume he came from Rai no Kuni or perhaps even a refugee of Mizu no Kuni--any place with cooler climate than Kaze no Kuni. Satisfied with his disguised he quickly descended the outside of the building into one of the back alleys before entering the church and taking a seat in one of the back rows.
The interior was just as impressive as the exterior, perhaps even more so given that the rays of sunlight shining through the stained glass windows cast their vivid colors over altar itself. Behind that stood the priest about to deliver the sermon, and behind him was the confessional booth. Hiroshi noted that there was no lock on the booth itself; apparently the priests had enough faith in each other to merely ensure the church itself was secure from outsiders during the night.
"Good people of the Desert Crown!" the priest started the sermon, motioning for the murmuring crowd to be silent for the moment. "Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge a most generous contribution courtesy of Lady Shimizu." He gestured towards the woman sitting in the very front row as the rest of the parishioners clapped. "Thanks to your donation, we will be able to expand our missionary program in the fall this year.
"Now then," he motioned once more for the group to be still. "Today's sermon will be about the sins of pride, lust, and envy." The man looked over them all as he spoke, seeming to take special care not to let his stare linger too long upon any of them, especially not on Lady Shimizu herself.
"Who here is familiar with the story of Ichika?"
The crowd remained silent as the priest elaborated on the tale of a young maiden so obsessed with her own outer beauty that she made a pact with Jashin that allowed her to remain ever young as long as she bathed in the blood of other women. Such a horrific tale, yet somehow Hiroshi could tell that there was more to this particular subject than a simple moral pertaining to inner beauty. Even as the mass ended and the parishioners dispersed, the man tasked with bringing Lady Shimizu to justice couldn't shake that ominous feeling of dread.
Later that night, Hiroshi disguised himself as a low-life thug and silently weaved in and out of the graves behind the church, seemingly only armed with a crowbar. In truth, he didn't even need the crowbar to break into the church; he was a shinobi after all. But as he didn't want any civilians tracing the shinobi community itself to his staged crime, he had to adopt the habits of a common criminal as he pried the courtyard door open and rushed for the box where the tithes were stored. As expected, the commotion alerted the clergy within to his presence, causing them to hastily bumble about as he grabbed the box and departed from the crime scene, tossing the box behind him as he left.
As much as he wanted that to be the end of his misconduct as far as this mission went, the entity within him had other plans as she quickly took over Hiroshi's body.
"To hell with your god, you spoiled bastards!" Unmei taunted those after him as he ran off into the darkness, discarding his disguise once the coast was clear. For once, the Dread Wolf was enjoying herself, much to Hiroshi's dismay.
"Was that necessary?" he chided as he regained control from the beast within.
"Absolutely; humanity should know its rightful place within this world."
To the priests returning to their desecrated place of worship, it seemed as though he had failed; on the contrary, Hiroshi had succeeded in setting up the next phase of his mission.
The next day Hiroshi returned yet again to the church. The building was now surrounded by military police barricades and a few Genin within conducting their investigation. The man approached the one who appeared to be their senior--a Chuunin it seemed--and greeted him with a nod.
"Miyamoto Hiroshi, Genin," he introduced himself to the older yet shorter man, opting to mention his Main Branch rank. "I've been sent here to help with the investigation."
Despite the facade of professional sincerity, Hiroshi knew very well that any shinobi involved with this investigation would have had knowledge of his own involvement and the reason behind such actions. In fact, he was counting on this man having enough forethought to keep such behavior under wraps until he had the evidence he needed.
"Edogawa Shin, Chuunin," the man in charge replied in kind. "Seems like some punk decided to break into this Church and pilfer a bit of the offerings. Probably made off like a bandit too; the Desert Crown isn't known to be particularly stingy when it comes to reputations."
Hiroshi couldn't help but raise an eyebrow before nodding, shocked that even holy men would be so greedy as to steal from a supposed theif. "What still needs to be done?" he asked, already expecting the answer.
"In all honesty we got most of it covered, but we still need to check the confessional booth for any evidence," Shin turned towards his temporary subordinate and flashed a slight grin. "Think you can handle that?"
Hiroshi feigned a sigh. "I suppose so," he accepted the task as he trudged inside the building. As he maneuvered through the mess 'the punk' had left the night before, he could hear more shinobi within conducting on-site interviews with the clergy in their own living quarters. The only ones within the main auditorium were still more shinobi--a perfect setup for Hiroshi to start uncovering Lady Shimizu's plot.
The towering man strode towards the booth as the other shinobi in the room positioned themselves to better ensure discretion for the actual mission at stake. After he entered the portion where the priest sat on a bench and listened to the sins of his parishioners, Hiroshi retrieved the tape recorder from his pocket and planted on the underside of the bench's seat, weaving a web of wires to keep the device suspended out of sight before pressing the record button.
"Now we wait for the confession to happen later today," he thought with a nod as he left the booth and then the church, stopping only to address Shin.
"My investigation is complete, Edogawa-sama," he declared, implying that he only had to wait for Lady Shimizu to unwittingly confess to her own crimes.
Shin nodded. "Took you long enough," he teased before he reached for his headset. "We're done here," he announced to the rest of his team. "Wrap up whatever you're doing and head out." He returned his attention to Hiroshi. "We may need your assistance if any further evidence shows itself."
A few days later, a courier approached Hiroshi as he meditated within the Toraono Dojo.
"Miyamoto-sama?" the messenger inquired before reaching for a parcel and handing it to the man. "Edogawa-sama sent you this package."
A smile crept upon Hiroshi's face as he accepted the package and dismissed the courier with a nod. After the messenger left, Hiroshi opened the package, revealing the tape recorder as well as an annotated transcript courtesy of Edogawa Shin himself.
As Hiroshi read the letter and annotations, his face paled with horror as Lady Shimizu's true intentions came to light. Apparently she had been abducting and murdering young, beautiful women and, over time, replacing her own body parts with those from her victims in an effort to stay forever young. Fortunately, the priest was being detained for as long as possible after the evidence had been collected, but Lady Shimizu was still out there committing vile deeds.
"This is not good at all," he thought as he stood up and attached a primed explosive note to the package. "I guess I'm lucky she has some kind of morality; otherwise we would be in the dark until it was too late."
"She even puts Zansatsu to shame, but I can't say I expect anything less from someone like her," Unmei silently growled.
Hiroshi sighed before detonating the charge and walking away, all too eager to confront the fiend and put an end her schemes, despite the warning Shin had left him.
"'Don't do this alone,'" he repeated mentally as he clenched his fists, . "Little do you know, Shin, that I am never alone."<i></i>
((Ooc: In and Out))