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Having no way to scale the mostly glass-surfaced building such a huge building or anyway to sneak through the front, she opted for an unconventional entrance. She submerged her body into her own shadow and hid in the shadow of a car entering the parking gar
age in the basement. Now it was only a matter of getting to her target's location.
It would take a few minutes of waiting before Shiroi had her chance as a black car rolled around the corner of the building and entered the parking garage, descending down until it reached an empty spot across from the delivery van. A flustered sandy-blonde security guard in his late twenties quickly hopped out and power-walked for one of the two doors in the wall - a private entrance - while scratching at the stubble around his jawline. “Fuck, I wish Jim would have traded with me” he muttered. Lost in thought, the guard pulled open the door - and was nearly bowled over by an anxious-looking portly woman as she rushed past him, beelining for the delivery truck. The guard mutters a curse… but holds the door open regardless, apparently soft-hearted enough not to leave her carrying boxes alone. Shiori seized at the opportunity as she slithers along the ground in her shadowy form to merge with the shadow of the woman, which sent a chill up her spine and caused her to stumble. The woman’s head darts about in surprise at the chill and near-trip, but she brushes it off as nerves. She opens the back of the truck to reveal assortments of boxed meat, bags of vegetables and crates full of produce - a grocer’s work, it seemed. With surprising strength, she deftly hauls up three boxes of tomatoes in a stack makes for the door, earning an impressive look from the guard as she moves past him - and like with his car, he fails to note the denser shadow as he closes the door.
Now that Shiori was inside, she realized she had no idea what her target looked like. She was ashamed of the promise of the bountiful reward caused her to forget about retrieving such information beforehand. At least she knows their name, so maybe she'll do some investigation of her own.
The woman enters the kitchen area which was lightly staffed for its size - just six people, minus the delivery woman - though it seems to be busy preparing a meal under the orders of a narrow slip of a man with slicked-black hair; the head-chef, it seemed. “How’s that roast beef comin’ along?!”
“Five more minutes for this side!” the female sous-chef called back, alternating between the stove and mixing the gravy. “What about the garnishes?”
“Ready and waiting,” the lead called back… and then pursed his lips in thought. “How’s Miss Marie’s special order?”
“… already prepared and waiting” the sous-chef responded, though there was a noticeable pause - not just from her but the rest of the kitchen as well, eyes momentarily drawn to a large rolling tray with a cover atop it, large enough to fit a person. “Just waiting for Mac to get the sides before we send off.” She gestured to a rather tense-looking young man desperately trying to gather up items to put beside the tray, which was being loaded onto an industrial dumb-waiter elevator at the back wall - likely meant to deliver private meals to the higher floor.
The kitchen indeed had many industrial-sized air vents, meant to keep down steam and smoke. Any one would prove more than large enough to hold Shiori's full size, and the tubes form a loop around the room that leads off into the rest of the vent system. Shiori slithered in her shadowy form out of the delivery girl’s shadow, causing her to stumble again, to the vent system to hide and hear more of the conversation. The grocer however was a bit more perturbed at nearly tripping again - but sadly not so much as the head-chef, who gives her a wary look. Returning a glare, the woman snorts and departs as the lead calls out to the sous-chef. "Amy! Quit stalling and bring me those tenderloin strips!"
The sous-chef scowls but brings them over - and slams them on the table a bit too hard, rattling the nearby garnish-tray and earning an angry tirade from the head-chef that she quickly returns. Amid all this is poor Mac, who quickly hurries out to the nearby storage room to escape - only to nearly bump into a maid.
"O-Oh! S-sorry, Lisa - I-I didn't see you-"
"It's fine! It's..." the maid, Lisa, trails off with a sigh. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell, I just... I can't wait for tonight to end. Brett's been riding my ass harder the boss rides his horses." She glances back into the kitchen at the head-chef - Brett, it seems, based on her glare.
"I think he's been like that with everyone, though" Mac whispers back. "Probably 'cause it's the boss' family-friends tonight."
"Even worse, then" the maid scoffs, crossing her arms. "Nothing he does is gonna please *that* woman - hell, she'll probably send it back just to fuck with him. And the older kid's just as bad - I've never even *heard* of mixing caviar with grated white chocolate, but damned if that's not what she wants."
"Yeah" Mac mutters, glancing anxiously back at the dumb-waiter - likely meaning the odd dish was one of the items under the covered tray. "Still, the younger one's not that bad. I actually feel kinda sorry for... what was her name? Sandra?"
"Sarah" the maid corrects, counting off names on one hand. "Emma's the mother - step-mother, to be exact - and Marie's the older one. Both of which are only here to loaf on the boss' hospitality - which he just sits back and lets happen because his kid's friends with the one decent girl they have."
At last, Shiori found her lead. It seemed the maid, Lisa was her name, knew her target’s identity. The problem was how she was going to isolate and question her without causing a commotion, however she didn't have time to wait. She couldn't let the maid leave the kitchen or it'll be much harder to tail her since the halls are so brightly lit and security is tight. There aren't many people in the kitchen so this was her chance. She noticed the circuit breaker on the wall, carelessly left exposed and seemed a bit worn and old. Before the maid could leave the room, Shiori quickly threw a small needle at the box causing it to spark and cutting the power in the room. Soon after, security would arrive and the emergency power would turn on, however Lisa was nowhere to be seen.
Everything in the room grinds to a halt as it suddenly plunges into darkness with the sound of a rupturing fuse, like someone had just snapped their fingers and blown out a candle. Then the silence was suddenly broken by a clamor of falling cutlery - and then by a chorus of loud shouting.
“Sunova-!!”
“Huh?! W-what’s-?!”
“What the-?!”
“What happened to the lights?!”
“Was that the power?!”
“Oh, shit - someone check the icebox!”
“How the hell did-?!”
“We can’t even *see* the thing, so how can we-?!”
“Do the intercoms still work-?!”
*BAM-BAM-BAM!*
“*QUIET!!!!*”
The back-and-forth arguments quickly cease as Brett grabs a meat tenderizer and slams it like a gavel on the table, his angry shout drawing attention to him even though the darkness. “Mac, you’re closest to the door; go call for security.” A rustling in the dark was Brett’s answer as he awkwardly fumbled for the doorway and pulled it open, calling down the hall for the guards - though he really needn’t have bothered as a pair were already on the way.
Soon enough, a narrow beam of light shone through the door as a guard made his way over to the fuse box while his partner reported the event on his radio. Moments afterward, the overhead lights flickered once before finally turning back on, the startled kitchen-staff already gossiping over what happened.
And all throughout, only Mac takes any real notice of Lisa’s sudden absence - he could have sworn he heard her speak, but in all the chaos it was hard to tell. That being said, he didn’t think much of it - she’d likely just taken off in the chaos, standoffish as she tended to be....or at least that’s what he believed. As it turned out, where Lisa ended up was probably the last place he’d have expected at that time.

Art by
Story and characters belong to me

Description

Having no way to scale the mostly glass-surfaced building such a huge building or anyway to sneak through the front, she opted for an unconventional entrance. She submerged her body into her own shadow and hid in the shadow of a car entering the parking gar
age in the basement. Now it was only a matter of getting to her target's location.
It would take a few minutes of waiting before Shiroi had her chance as a black car rolled around the corner of the building and entered the parking garage, descending down until it reached an empty spot across from the delivery van. A flustered sandy-blonde security guard in his late twenties quickly hopped out and power-walked for one of the two doors in the wall - a private entrance - while scratching at the stubble around his jawline. “Fuck, I wish Jim would have traded with me” he muttered. Lost in thought, the guard pulled open the door - and was nearly bowled over by an anxious-looking portly woman as she rushed past him, beelining for the delivery truck. The guard mutters a curse… but holds the door open regardless, apparently soft-hearted enough not to leave her carrying boxes alone. Shiori seized at the opportunity as she slithers along the ground in her shadowy form to merge with the shadow of the woman, which sent a chill up her spine and caused her to stumble. The woman’s head darts about in surprise at the chill and near-trip, but she brushes it off as nerves. She opens the back of the truck to reveal assortments of boxed meat, bags of vegetables and crates full of produce - a grocer’s work, it seemed. With surprising strength, she deftly hauls up three boxes of tomatoes in a stack makes for the door, earning an impressive look from the guard as she moves past him - and like with his car, he fails to note the denser shadow as he closes the door.
Now that Shiori was inside, she realized she had no idea what her target looked like. She was ashamed of the promise of the bountiful reward caused her to forget about retrieving such information beforehand. At least she knows their name, so maybe she'll do some investigation of her own.
The woman enters the kitchen area which was lightly staffed for its size - just six people, minus the delivery woman - though it seems to be busy preparing a meal under the orders of a narrow slip of a man with slicked-black hair; the head-chef, it seemed. “How’s that roast beef comin’ along?!”
“Five more minutes for this side!” the female sous-chef called back, alternating between the stove and mixing the gravy. “What about the garnishes?”
“Ready and waiting,” the lead called back… and then pursed his lips in thought. “How’s Miss Marie’s special order?”
“… already prepared and waiting” the sous-chef responded, though there was a noticeable pause - not just from her but the rest of the kitchen as well, eyes momentarily drawn to a large rolling tray with a cover atop it, large enough to fit a person. “Just waiting for Mac to get the sides before we send off.” She gestured to a rather tense-looking young man desperately trying to gather up items to put beside the tray, which was being loaded onto an industrial dumb-waiter elevator at the back wall - likely meant to deliver private meals to the higher floor.
The kitchen indeed had many industrial-sized air vents, meant to keep down steam and smoke. Any one would prove more than large enough to hold Shiori's full size, and the tubes form a loop around the room that leads off into the rest of the vent system. Shiori slithered in her shadowy form out of the delivery girl’s shadow, causing her to stumble again, to the vent system to hide and hear more of the conversation. The grocer however was a bit more perturbed at nearly tripping again - but sadly not so much as the head-chef, who gives her a wary look. Returning a glare, the woman snorts and departs as the lead calls out to the sous-chef. "Amy! Quit stalling and bring me those tenderloin strips!"
The sous-chef scowls but brings them over - and slams them on the table a bit too hard, rattling the nearby garnish-tray and earning an angry tirade from the head-chef that she quickly returns. Amid all this is poor Mac, who quickly hurries out to the nearby storage room to escape - only to nearly bump into a maid.
"O-Oh! S-sorry, Lisa - I-I didn't see you-"
"It's fine! It's..." the maid, Lisa, trails off with a sigh. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell, I just... I can't wait for tonight to end. Brett's been riding my ass harder the boss rides his horses." She glances back into the kitchen at the head-chef - Brett, it seems, based on her glare.
"I think he's been like that with everyone, though" Mac whispers back. "Probably 'cause it's the boss' family-friends tonight."
"Even worse, then" the maid scoffs, crossing her arms. "Nothing he does is gonna please *that* woman - hell, she'll probably send it back just to fuck with him. And the older kid's just as bad - I've never even *heard* of mixing caviar with grated white chocolate, but damned if that's not what she wants."
"Yeah" Mac mutters, glancing anxiously back at the dumb-waiter - likely meaning the odd dish was one of the items under the covered tray. "Still, the younger one's not that bad. I actually feel kinda sorry for... what was her name? Sandra?"
"Sarah" the maid corrects, counting off names on one hand. "Emma's the mother - step-mother, to be exact - and Marie's the older one. Both of which are only here to loaf on the boss' hospitality - which he just sits back and lets happen because his kid's friends with the one decent girl they have."
At last, Shiori found her lead. It seemed the maid, Lisa was her name, knew her target’s identity. The problem was how she was going to isolate and question her without causing a commotion, however she didn't have time to wait. She couldn't let the maid leave the kitchen or it'll be much harder to tail her since the halls are so brightly lit and security is tight. There aren't many people in the kitchen so this was her chance. She noticed the circuit breaker on the wall, carelessly left exposed and seemed a bit worn and old. Before the maid could leave the room, Shiori quickly threw a small needle at the box causing it to spark and cutting the power in the room. Soon after, security would arrive and the emergency power would turn on, however Lisa was nowhere to be seen.
Everything in the room grinds to a halt as it suddenly plunges into darkness with the sound of a rupturing fuse, like someone had just snapped their fingers and blown out a candle. Then the silence was suddenly broken by a clamor of falling cutlery - and then by a chorus of loud shouting.
“Sunova-!!”
“Huh?! W-what’s-?!”
“What the-?!”
“What happened to the lights?!”
“Was that the power?!”
“Oh, shit - someone check the icebox!”
“How the hell did-?!”
“We can’t even *see* the thing, so how can we-?!”
“Do the intercoms still work-?!”
*BAM-BAM-BAM!*
“*QUIET!!!!*”
The back-and-forth arguments quickly cease as Brett grabs a meat tenderizer and slams it like a gavel on the table, his angry shout drawing attention to him even though the darkness. “Mac, you’re closest to the door; go call for security.” A rustling in the dark was Brett’s answer as he awkwardly fumbled for the doorway and pulled it open, calling down the hall for the guards - though he really needn’t have bothered as a pair were already on the way.
Soon enough, a narrow beam of light shone through the door as a guard made his way over to the fuse box while his partner reported the event on his radio. Moments afterward, the overhead lights flickered once before finally turning back on, the startled kitchen-staff already gossiping over what happened.
And all throughout, only Mac takes any real notice of Lisa’s sudden absence - he could have sworn he heard her speak, but in all the chaos it was hard to tell. That being said, he didn’t think much of it - she’d likely just taken off in the chaos, standoffish as she tended to be....or at least that’s what he believed. As it turned out, where Lisa ended up was probably the last place he’d have expected at that time.

Art by
Story and characters belong to me