Saturday night, it was finally here. The Nephalem was more than excited for the occasion, he practically couldn’t sleep the night before as he was too busy thinking about how less dull his patrols would become very soon. Speaking of the night before, and the day as well, there was nothing much that occurred on Friday. For most of the previous day, Jamie was silent to the point where it became rather awkward to talk to him, as he would only respond in quick sentences or gestures with his head. To the Nephalem, he figured something must have happened on Thursday night that caused the Brit to leave without saying goodnight to the nephalem, as well as the reason for his strange attitude on Friday. Earlier today though, Jamie seemed to be perfectly fine, as he was acting like his normal self with Katorasu. While the hedgehog could’ve asked about Thursday night, he refrained from doing so. He figured it was a personal matter and that it wouldn’t be his place to ask about it, he was right about that first part.
Nevertheless, that wasn’t on the nephalem’s mind, as much as he cared about Jamie he placed this opportunity above the border collie himself. This was incredibly important, and while it *could wait, the nephalem himself wouldn’t dare wait any longer. Maybe he was hyping this up for more than it was, but there was only one way to find out for sure.
The Nephalem’s emerald ear perked up as the sound of a car broke up the silence of the night around him, he immediately backed off the eave and now peered over it. He watched as a rather sleek-looking car rolled down the cracked asphalt street, if cars could stroll along then this vehicle was doing it. His golden irises followed the vehicle, moving from his left to his right, as his heartbeat was steady. Eventually, the car stopped at the last building on the block.
Moving to the edge of the roof closest to the direction of the car, Katorasu continued to watch as five individuals stepped out of the vehicle. From afar, he could just make out the outfits they wore: clothing that resembled the stereotypical mafia ensemble. Aside from that, he watched as they entered the nearest building, while one or two of them looked around to ensure there were no witnesses. Luckily, they didn’t bother looking at the roof from far down the street.
The Nephalem, practically bouncing with energy, began his climb from rooftop to rooftop, even doing a backflip onto a building during his little run as a way to spend some of that energy. Eventually, he stopped on the building that he had seen the mafia-style men walk into. From there, after taking a glance around the roof, he quickly turned into a cloud of mist and slipped in through a ventilation shaft on the roof. It wasn’t that tight of a space, in fact within reason he could return to normal and just do a weird spider climb down the shaft but this was more fun for him. Upon the shaft becoming horizontal, the nephalem had turned back into his more corporeal form, now on his hands and knees as he continued onward. It was conveniently spacious enough for him to crawl through, not enough to be able to turn around though.
Slowing down as he approached a grate on the floor of the ventilation shaft, the nephalem peered through the slits and watched as the mafia men stepped into the room.
“This is it, boys; this old warehouse was picked out by the boss himself, he said that this is more than enough to suit our needs here in glorious Station Square. Let’s just hope that crazy chick back in Emerald City is the only vigilante we’ll have to deal with. The whole point of this operation is easy money. Heck, I even got a headstart on picking out some potential places in need of ‘protection’ and a few other things, it’s all in the next room.” One of the men spoke from below, as Katorasu watched him leave his line of sight.
Continuing onward, the nephalem still listened to the conversation as he traveled onward. “I know this is jinxin’ it and all, but I heard some rumors-“ A different voice began.
“Don’t you dare start.” Another piped up, as Katorasu almost snagged his coat on a piece of protruding metal.
“-that there’s this guy, a black and green hedgehog, that comes out the shadows at night as this thick black mist before turning into his normal self. He takes you down in a second, maybe have some fun with you, and then leaves just like that.” The previous voice finished.
During Katorasu’s crawl, the nephalem’s left knee accidentally dented a weak portion of the shaft’s floor, causing the vigilante to freeze up and not move until he was sure it was safe enough to continue onward. Just up ahead was another grate that would lead the hedgehog into a different room.
“It’s an abandoned building, you’re all grown men. What? That talk of another black hedgehog got you all worked up already? You think there’s someone up there?” How ironic that statement was. “Speaking of which, George?” The first voice spoke.
The voice that had alerted the others to the rumor of Katorasu’s existence responded, “Yeah?”
“Shut up.” The first voice was firm with that order.
Feeling that he could continue, the Nephalem slowly moved forward as to not make any more noise that would bring suspicion upon his whereabouts. Upon reaching the grate at the end of the shaft, he once again turned into mist and slipped on through the slits of the grate. After floating down to the floor of the room he had just entered, Katorasu turned back to his usual hedgehog form as he conveniently landed himself in the room that was mentioned only minutes ago, standing before a table with a variety of photos and an almost stereotypical-looking yellow document folder.
“Huh, I totally could’ve gone the other way and missed it. Sometimes I feel like my life is a video game, I probably missed an upgrade back in the other direction.” Katorasu quietly spoke, musing to himself as he casually leaned on the wall, metaphorically.
Reaching into his coat, the nephalem pulled out a small camera. It was lent to him, just in case, by Jamie earlier in the day, though only after the border collie had berated him lightly for not having a phone with him in the first place to use as a camera instead. As a form of practice earlier, he had taken a handful of test shots, one such being that of Jamie himself as he was checking his store’s inventory.
“Point and shoot, simple enough.” He said to himself, as one hand held and aimed the camera while the other sifted through the various photos and documents.
Being careful not to move each photo too much, the nephalem began to take pictures of each of the individual photos. Conveniently enough, the original photographer went ahead and wrote down the addresses associated with the buildings on the front of the photos. All of the buildings photographed were places of business, from retail stores to jewelers.
Going through each photo that he had taken with the digital camera, Katorasu went ahead and joked, “Nice, wonder if it’s not too late to do the whole alternate identity business. Photography does seem pretty nice.” With that, he placed the camera back into his coat before trying to set the photos back to how he found them originally.
From behind him, through the door that led to the room proper, he could hear their footsteps and voices grow louder as they began to approach the room he was in.
“Gotta move fast.” He urged himself, as he opened up the folders and began to quickly skim through the contents of each page that was typed in basic Helvetia. Katorasu quietly muttered out key bits and phrases to himself as he looked through each page, “‘... provide free samples of our firearms to the public… incite higher crime rate… introduce protection to businesses… sell the more high-end gear… charge more for services… bribe anyone who may prove to be a problem…’”
Before the nephalem could continue any further, the door behind him slowly began to open. Not wanting to stick around and get found, at least for tonight, Katorasu quickly turned into mist and squeezed on through the grate and back up into the ventilation shaft he had come through. Remaining in this form for just a little bit longer, he flew through the vents, moving in the opposite direction this time, before eventually stopping on the roof of the warehouse. The nephalem, without missing a beat, reached into his coat and checked the camera’s gallery.
Despite being new at operating a camera, he had taken clear enough photos of each of the physical photographs; he could clearly make out the addresses written on them, all of which he planned on visiting on later patrols throughout the next week. Feeling pretty happy with himself, the black hedgehog stuffed the digital camera back into his coat and proceeded to spend the rest of his night patrolling his usual area. Katorasu had a very good feeling that his vigilante career was going to change a whole lot sooner or later.
