Case File 1 Part 1: The Face Thief [Ego]

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[attr="class","shianquote"]Looking into Yakuza death threats, master?

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Such a gloomy day was this, the nights where it rained and rained; Shian was already performing overtime for the small vintage styled diner. Such a place seemed really strange like it was almost from a century ago as jazz filled the air. Even stranger still, in true Japanese fashion, the place chose to have the waitresses dress like maids of all things. Shian didn't mind dressing in such ways; this was one of their many disguises after all. One patron remained in the diner at such a late hour as this, with Shian as the only waitress left. This singular patron was female, and seemed to hold an air of authority; a cop maybe? Standing behind the primary counter, Shian started counting how much cash was left in the register; maybe take a single twenty without them noticing? Keeping the last member within her eyes, she noticed them try to go for another swig of their coffee, only to return it to the table empty after receiving none left. Guess they needed more.[break][break]

A fresh pot had been recently brewed as this was common for Shian to have a mug before leaving. Something stopped him from pilfering some cash before leaving; choosing to not skim a little off the top and vanish like he normally did and instead, find out what this woman in her midst was up to. Smiling warmly, they stepped into the back of the diner, grabbed her own mug, and walked out into the main room. The pot was fresh, still very hot to the touch; even it was stylized much like the older days; internally it was still very modern, however. "Staying late, master?" Shian spoke, her voice far more upbeat than she naturally kept it. "More coffee?" She knew the answer before the woman could even respond, refilling the coffee mug before placing the tall pot on the far end of the table which was free of papers. With this simple motion, her eyes quickly scanned the documents strewn across the table.[break][break]

Investigation papers, but investigating what? Keeping the familiar smile that waitresses tend to have, Shian stood back from the table and bowed. She still needed to be in character despite seeing something so intriguing. "Ah, I see. Working late." The closest paper to Shian was about a burglary of a nearby jewelry store; It seemed several items of great value were stolen and never to be found. A heist from back in January; how strange, was this her own heist? Ah yes, so it would be. That was an interesting one as she was trying to send a message to the owner of the establishment. Some of her friends in the underground needed a hidden message delivered, and deliver she did. From what Shian could tell, the owner did not bring forth the message that was left; but it was noted that the most expensive jewel of theirs was not stolen. Of course not, that would have ruined the message.[break][break]

'Shi, Yakuza.' It was a simple message the owner knew, he had refused a Yakuza member a wedding ring when the price was too high; personally, it was a strange thing to do, threaten another's life over wealth. Shian couldn't figure out what would drive men to do such a thing. They did pay highly, however. Perhaps Shian could find out exactly what the police knew of her own works, but to do that, Shian would need to begin assisting them. They would certainly offer up information if she was seen as an ally, after all. The smile across the maid's face would darken as they spoke up about the specific investigation. "Looking into Yakuza death threats, master?" Still in character, yet Shian knew that none of the papers in front of her on the desk were about death threats, just various burglaries from what appeared to be random civilians. Such information obtained would allow them to play even more elaborate games.[break][break]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Notes}
Appearance: Shian's Appearance[break]
Shian's Dialogue: be00a0 [break]
Word Count: 661

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[attr="class","shianquote"]You didn't notice?

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The slight comment about being kicked out elicited a slight giggle from Shian; that wasn't going to happen anytime soon, but the fact the detective seemed to have not noticed how the Yakuza had their hands in a few of the heists had Shian rather surprised. Did she not leave behind enough hints? How long was it until this investigation was dropped? That was no fun. Just some robbery cases she said, that was just far too simple-minded.[break][break]

Laughing a bit, Shian responded. "You didn't notice?" As the words left her mouth she picked up the paper she had mentioned before; Shi, the Japanese word for death followed by various bits of information that pointed directly at the Yakuza. "Each of these items stolen match up; in order from most expensive, to least, and each ends with the number 4." Putting the paper back down on the table, it was revealed that she wore skintight black gloves that passed across the list of stolen items; they were arranged in alphabetical order in the report, but their wealth value had thankfully not been retracted. "Look at the types of gems in order of price." Tapping each spot on the colors in order, her hand tapped the yellow sapphire bracelets, amber necklace, quartz and diamond ring, several pounds of unakite, zircon, and then finally, a small amethyst. Shian took a bit of sick mathematical pride and getting the prices of the items in order to be stolen, while also making sure that each item had the recurring number '4' in their pricing.[break][break]

"Each one spells out Yaquza... there isn't a gem that starts with a K in it's name. But look, the number 4 appears way too often here; that's not a good number." Shian faked a grimace when mentioning the number. "4. The number of death. This is obviously a death threat." Shian pulled back her hand, and took a step away from the table, still wearing the creepy smile, before bowing. "We're closing up shop soon but you can stay. We just won't be taking any new visitors." Shian turned away from the table and began walking away, expecting the investigator to stop her. After all, she did just give a bunch of information that was hidden between the lines, on an investigation paper at first glance; that if anything, should yield a bit of an investigation.[break][break]

If she was not stopped to return to the back to change out of the maid uniform.[break][break]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Notes}
Appearance: Shian's Appearance[break]
Shian's Dialogue: be00a0 [break]
Word Count: 414

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[attr="class","shianquote"]You are a detective, right? Oh, I forgot. Nice to meet you, I'm Cyan.

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Shian couldn't help but think about the detective as she began changing outfits in the back. It was exhilarating, meeting someone who was investigating one of her own heists. She had to know just how much information they had, and the best way she could think of was simple; befriend the detective, and help solve a few of her own cases, or at least, prove the innocence of a few who were charged with her own crimes. After all, it was wrong that someone else was getting credit for her work! How rude of them. Perhaps even a few of these heists were copy cats, but Shian doubted that; most of Shian's 'performances' were restricted to tactics that she could only pull off due to her shape-changing nature. If another shapechanger was out there, certainly the two had to meet.[break][break]

Rolling the hoodie over her head, he donned an outfit that one would only see men, or tomboys wearing before stepping back out into the main room, before sitting down across from the Detective. "So, figure out anything new about these cases?" Shian's voice sounded genuinely curious and seemed to take a little bit more of a masculine tone now that he was no longer acting out his role as a maid. "I've always been curious as to how detectives work." [break][break]

Pouring himself a small cup of coffee, he took a quick sip of the bitter liquid. "You are a detective, right? Oh, I forgot. Nice to meet you, I'm Cyan." He purposely pronounced his own name in proper English with such a way that if the detective tried searching for his name anywhere, it would never yield his own face. Shian, of course, was his real name but the letters used to spell it were drastically different than the words used to spell Cyan, despite them having the exact same sound phonetically in Japanese. If the detective ever came across him again after this encounter, he would have an excuse as to why the detective never found his name; if he ever came across the detective again. Also, since the Japanese tend to go by their last name first, it would slow the detective down even further if he were to end up as a suspect; this was one of the benefits of having a first name that could be construed as a last name.[break][break]

"And your name?" Shian wouldn't offer his hand to shake, mostly due to the knowledge that every time he had ever tried it was impossible as the other had a quirk. It would be a bad idea to show the transformation part of his quirk at a time like this, especially to the detective. Taking a few more sips of his coffee he would make eye contact with the Detective, smile with that same slightly sinister smile from earlier.[break][break]

Now, instead of being in the maid outfit that he was in earlier, Shian wore a black and dark red hoodie, keeping his hands inside the sleeves even while holding his coffee mug. Underneath the hoodie was a black sweater, and below that it appeared Shian was wearing a form-fitting shirt below the hoodie itself, hiding most of his skin from sight. At his side, he had a small arm-bag that looked like it would be able to carry a small laptop.[break][break]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Notes}
Appearance: Shian's Appearance[break]
Shian's Voice: be00a0 [break]\
Word Count: 557

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[attr="class","shianquote"]Say, Inspector Zheng, if I offered to help you find out who is behind this...

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Bai Zheng, huh? It must really suck to be given the 'scraps.' Oh, what kind of mystery you accidentally fell upon. Having scanned a few, Shian began to notice that each of these was performed by himself until his eyes caught something that he absolutely did not like. A copycat. Someone was stealing in the same fashion as him; that wasn't right. This was his game, not some minors. Whoever it was, it seemed that nobody had been apprehended for this robbery, but there was a single picture from a nondescript figure. [break][break]

Shian's gaze would linger on this, and the smile would flicker for a moment with a glare before black silk covered hand swooped out from underneath the hoodie, swiping about four pages from the pile it was on. Lowering his hood with one sleeved hand before putting holding it to his face his smile wavered once more as he took a more studious look. This was strange, eight items were stolen, each with the same MO as him, in fact, he remembered doing a heist like this but it wasn't this location. With extreme finger dexterity, he thumbed through each page using only a single hand; this might have accidentally revealed to the detective a strange past about Shian himself. There were very few jobs on the planet one would obtain such dexterity from, and being a waitress was not one of them.[break][break]

"Hmm... what do you know about this one?" Shian spoke aloud. "Looks like eight items stolen, but it seems you have no suspect." Placing two of the four pages back onto the table, Shian stared at a few lines of text, trying to filter through his own brain to the hidden dark forums that he frequented at home. There was one user there that he was constantly watching the actions of, but this was only because the said user had become interested in his own actions as of late. Perhaps that user was smarter than he looked, but he made one critical mistake. Shian knew their screen-name in the deep web; of course, it had to be them! A pen. They need a pen quick! Ego was someone who posed as others, not the other way around. Pausing, Shian coughed lightly before putting down the other two papers.[break][break]

Calm down, calm down. You aren't normally so easily flustered, Ego. The sinister smile came back, their mind locking the thought process in the side of their mind for later. He had an offer for this Bai Zheng, perhaps this was the into seeing behind the scenes of this detective that he just found was hunting him. "Say, Inspector Zheng, if I offered to help you find out who is behind this..." His voice trailed off. Normally, one might have a twinkle in their eye but Shian's expression remained the smile he was known for while his voice took a more deadpan tone.[break][break]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Notes}
Appearance: Shian's Appearance[break]
Shian's Voice: be00a0 [break]\
Word Count: 487

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[attr="class","shianquote"]"Yeah yeah I know the process."

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Pity, that meant Shian might have to do most of the groundwork to prevent this copycat from hurting his own reputation in the underworld more than it would ever be for being a shapeshifting burglar. No matter how badly he wanted in on this investigation, Shian knew that a lot of the work needed to be done as Ego himself, after all the copycat would certainly come out if the one behind their own work was asking for them specifically. Unfortunately for Shian, that quickly became his only way in as the investigator completely blew off his mention of assistance. Damn, there goes that chance; perhaps he could befriend this Bai instead.[break][break]

"Yeah yeah I know the process." An exasperated sigh came from Shian as he relaxed his body in his seat, resting the coffee mug directly in front of him. "I've already tried. They ran a quick background check and one stupid thing I did back in middle school has me pretty much condemned from any proper police work." Lifting the mug and moving it side to side he lightly stirred the coffee, before taking a quick sip of it. "Wish I could get that off my record but oh well." This time he took a much larger drink than before, before sliding the mug to the side of the table and standing up slightly in the booth, performing an obviously acted stretch, something that one would do when they know they were about to do something they didn't want to do and had to calm down before-hand. This was an act however, Shian didn't need to calm down for what was about to happen, or at least in his mind, he didn't.[break][break]

A few years ago, when Shian was still in school, he had been charged with breaking an entering; it was just a student pranking the school, but they certainly did not take it that way. A mark was placed on Shian's record, something that had been nearly erased through hard work but enough to keep him completely out of law enforcement jobs without hard proof that he was fit for the job. Whether or not the detective there knew about it, was a different story. Who knew that the school would get so upset about someone removing the door handles of every single door in the school. Every single one. This wasn't the only reason he would be denied anything from the police as he knew it was extremely hard to trust someone who you literally could not touch, especially when they had a background of pick-pocketing.[break][break]

"Besides, I bet it's hard for a cop to trust someone they can't touch." A slight chuckle would come from their core before tensing his hand. "Go ahead, see what I mean." Shian fully expected the detective to shake his hand not knowing the person he was seated with was utterly quirkless. If, and when, the detective shakes Shian's hand, all composure from the man would vanish as shock filled their expression, resulting in pulling back their hand the moment they felt full contact with skin; this was something that had not happened to Shian so far in his life except for one time with a childhood friend.[break][break]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Notes}
Appearance: Shian's Appearance[break]
Shian's Voice: be00a0 [break]\
Word Count: 537

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[attr="class","shianquote"]"Do you think that might be the owner's address?"

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"N-no. No, it wasn't." Involuntary stammering, how odd. Coughing lightly, and clearing his throat, Shian cleared his mind. "So... that means you're..." Shian didn't want to finish that line. They had only met one other quirkless person in their life, and that was an old, old friend of theirs back in the orphanage. From what he knew, his quirk just didn't work on those who had no quirks but the fact this detective was quirkless scared him. If he screwed up a single time, and this detective began to expect him and he was to be placed under arrest there would have been nothing he could do. Ego was not a fighter, he was a trickster, a planner... a mastermind. As he thought he stepped back towards the counter appearing almost in a daze before turning around with a smile that seemed far more sincere than the ones he provided before.[break][break]

"Sorry, I didn't mean to act so strangely. It's just..." His voice trailed off as his eyes drifted outside. "It's my quirk." Shian felt like he was trying to put on an act, but it felt so real at the same time. "They are like gifts, you know? Except mine is that I can't touch the gifted." He almost wanted to add 'from up above' to the gifts line, but knew that sounded far too religious. Perhaps he should take a break from the chapel for a few days or so, the religion was starting to have adverse effects on him. He'd look back over to Bai, leaning back on the counter. It was as if he could tell just why the woman would have become a detective; it certainly beats being a waitress at some small antique diner that forced maid outfits onto everyone.[break][break]

The world outside had started to get quite dark by this time, becoming tinted with an eerie blue-ish like color from the moon and the rain. "So... Detective Zheng." The man sighed heavily with what he was about to do. It was on a whim, of course, but sometimes it had to be done. "I might frequent a few forums here and there... and there's this guy online that keeps calling himself 'Ego.' At first, he would just reference random places at random hours of the day but... one post stuck out to me." As he spoke, he flicked his wrist and with it, his phone appeared in his hand. Quickly swiping and tapping away, he pulled up a small forum post.[break][break]

This post on the forum was placed online from another location, certainly not from this device, but the user was named Ego. He had posted this himself the day of the robbery. Murder didn't sit too well with the man despite being of criminal intent himself; the man was in the game for the thrill of being chased, for fun. Normally, he didn't give away his riddles, but at least in this 'secret' identity of his he could. On the screen, one could see many 4's randomly posted across the thread, and in the centre an address, and a date; today's date, April 22nd. The post was uploaded the day of the robbery Shian had pointed out earlier as the death threat, but they had only a few minutes left before the timestamp was accurate.[break][break]

"This was the one that stood out the most. When he started dropping addresses to businesses I thought it was some bot, but then they started getting all weird and... this one isn't to a business, it's to a house." Shian grimaced. "I couldn't find any information about the tenants online, but the dates..." He'd step forward and place the phone in front of Bai so she could get a better look before tapping on the date of the burglary with the death threat. "Do you think that might be the owner's address?"[break][break]

Such an elaborate act, Shian. What were you doing? Sure this was saving someone's life, but the Yakuza paid well, and wouldn't this ruin your relationship with them? Of course, it would if the cops showed up to stop the murder, but it felt easier for Shian to just forget it happened, and live without a guilty conscience. Now, however, being reminded of the heist... was that remorse? Was that why he was doing this? Maybe. All he could do is hope that the detective followed the trail he showed her to at least get someone to show up at that man's house, to save his family from death. If what the Yakuza had told him was true, the man himself would be out on a business trip to Sapporo, far north of here, but his family would still be at home. There were just a few more things he had to do to make his actions seem more genuine, and it would entirely be based on how the detective responded to this new information.[break][break]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Notes}
Appearance: Shian's Appearance
Shian's Voice: be00a0 [break]
Word Count: 828

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[attr="class","shianquote"]I hope everything turns out alright.

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Just as soon as Shian had pointed out the correlation of events, the inspector had moved to act. Six, seven, four, eight, two; the badge numbers of the quirkless policewoman. Such numbers had to be committed to memory, especially if this woman was the one who was selected to be chasing Ego. Thoughts raced through Shian's mind as to how he would utilize these numbers to make the 'game' that much more fun, but had to pause such thoughts for fear of changing their own demeanour. Sighing in relief, Shian picked their phone back up and with a swift motion, it locked, and vanished from sight as if a magician was in their midst.

"I hope everything turns out alright." Shian's voice took a melancholic tone. She knew the family was probably captured, being recorded as they were about to end their lives to finalize the threat to the store owner. Why did Shian care? It wasn't as if they were his own family after all. Maybe it was just his bleeding heart, if he actually had one, he didn't know. After all, he was Ego, he was everywhere. We are everywhere. Clearing his throat, emotion came back to the man's voice as he sat back down; moving around so often was typically a sign of restlessness but this was something Shian just did. Sitting still was boring. "Guess it was a good thing we met today, huh? That is if everything turns out alright." Shian had the same smile across his face as he had before, the one that seemed as though it was scheming; perhaps it was just his natural smile?[break][break]

Leaning forward and resting his hand on his arm, he looked the inspector straight in the eyes, just staring, waiting to see how they would react in a situation like this. Would they stay? Keep investigating the papers for further pieces of information? Which ones did they keep going back to? Perhaps Shian would need to add some more to this tale. "Think there might be more to this Ego person? I mean, from what it looks like they might be working with the Yakuza." His smile stayed, but his voice returned to deadpan. "I'm kind of curious now how this Ego character found the forum..."[break][break]

The forum Shian spoke about was a rather niche part of the net, part of the deep web. To get there, one had to practically be invited, or at least given the direct URL or to have memorized it. Shian himself had already memorized this board, and was one of the earliest users but had never posted; just watched from the sidelines. Ego, on the other hand, was a more recent user over the past few years if one viewed the profile information. It was very minimalist, the forum itself, and stored little to no information about its users; the perfect site for someone such as Ego. To create a user profile on the forum one must request a unique character code from another member, and must be given a code by that member that was randomly generated; Shian gained his own from his long lost quirkless friend and received another from a random user. Unfortunately, these codes could not be backtracked; it was just another downside to the amount of anonymity on the board itself.[break][break]

"Someone on the forum must know who Ego is in person. If you'd like I could perhaps ask around, see if I can track them down." Ego's phone would appear in his hand once more; this small trick of his was simply sleight of hand, something he picked up as an orphan long ago and had been perfecting over the years. What was possibly the most impressive part about this feat, was that the hands that produced the phone were always hidden far down in the sleeve; most would believe the phone hidden in the sleeve itself but in reality, his hands were just that quick and dextrous that he could turn his hand over with a few swift movements to procure the device with ease.[break][break]

As Ego spoke, his eyes would be locked onto Bai's eyes, watching for subtle movements and changes in her facial expression. If inspecting Shian's own eyes it would be near impossible to find hidden emotions in his own eyes as they were simply two white orbs with a single featureless black dot in the centre of each; subtle changes were impossible to detect.[break][break]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Notes}
Appearance: Shian's Appearance
Shian's Voice: be00a0 [break]
Word Count: 744