Her feet barely made a noise as she approached. Watching. Waiting. The whites of her eyes the only part of her visible in the dark. They move right. Then left. Scanning the perimeter. Her sisters had done well. The place seemed protected.

A slender hand, white as the newly fallen snow, moves up to her blades holding one as she makes it to the property. The only noise a slight rustle of silk, no louder than the wind. No louder than breath. But her breath makes no noise— it is as if she isn't breathing at all. Just there. A statue that happens to move.

Akemi, sometimes called Izanami, just stands.

She doesn't call out, doesn't knock or get closer. Just stands on the edge. Tall. Strong. Silent.

This is her test. This is her mission. How long would it take before she's found" How long before she's engaged" And then.....welcomed home. Yes, yes, she would be silent about it. If they could sniff her out, then they were safe. If not— well, it was a good thing Lenai sent her. Because there was much work to be done.

Akemi heard Isulet leave the house, though she didn't know which sister it was—yet. The noise was moving fast enough, and she was surprised at how quickly she had been noticed. Good, good.

She swept back into the shadows and waited. Watching from her perch for any sign of movement. She could use a good fight, and this could be fun. Practice. Get the blood pumping,

If anything, she could snatch whatever sister was coming for her before she knew what hit her. Humility was always good to be reminded of. Mortality. It was like sparring, though only one of them knew it was a game.

Right foot braced against the tree she was standing in front of, back slightly arched, silk rustling oh so softly in the wind, Akemi waited. Her breathing almost still and silent. Her eyes the only part of her that moved.

There, this should work. Patience. That was what this Sister thrived on. She could wait all day for her kill. All night.

The tall Scathachian was just returning from her patrol. She was fixing to check in with Janet and then head straight to bed. Serena was exhausted. These senseless attacks on the city and on the Sisters had left her utterly drained as of late, both emotionally and physically. This eve, she had no breakthroughs in the case of the "WestEnd Butcher", as he or she was now being dubbed by the city dwellers. Mirage had managed to foil a violent rape, however. A small, but nonetheless important victory for the heroes.

Luckily she saw the young, attractive prostitute being beaten and dragged into an abandoned lot. A well concealed lot; it would've given them plenty of privacy.

Sick bastards. Two of them, not older than twenty-five themselves. They figured it would be fun to kick the living hell out of her before they violated her supple body. Poor thing's face was busted up pretty badly. Real tough guys; real men. It was time to pay the piper. One of the scumbags would never be around to discuss this event, while the other would stutter the tale from his infirmary within the city prison.

Mirage nearly lost her self discipline. She immediately let two arrows fly without signaling any kind of warning. Both were fired at the bigger of the thugs. The first missile struck the heavy man in his chest, while the second pierced straight through his protruding Adam's apple.

"Lights out fatass." she lowly hissed as his large body hit the ground.

The smaller coward turned to run. Mirage and her goddess Scathach were not in a giving vein this night. She easily pursued him farther onto the property and with precision she hamstringed him with a powerful stroke of her blessed blade. He fell to the ground hard, begging for his life. The more he pleaded for mercy, however, the angrier the vengeful Judge became. With a swipe of her bloodied sword, Mirage severed his right arm at the shoulder in a single, clean blow. Though she was tempted to kill him and rid the city of one more piece of trash, her conscience ruled out and she dumped him off at the City Garrison for medical care and prosecution. Let them deal with this piece of s**t.

Then, nothing else for the rest of her watch. Now she was finally at home. As she slowly approached the Sanctuary, Mirage saw quite a bit of suspicious activity on the hallowed grounds. A deathly shadow, barely visible but for an instant, quickly took cover behind some scattered trees and then seemingly disappeared. Then there were more. Two other well-spaced shadows seemed to be carefully stalking the first. Very interesting, Mirage thought.

"Did we finally catch a break, my goddess?" She whispered to herself as she quietly flanked towards the far end of the grounds, making sure to stay low and silent. She then drew both blades and steadied her breathing. If this was the WestEnd Butcher come calling, tonight the Daughters of Scathach would have their righteous vengeance.

With so many battles behind her, Isuelt certainly wasn't shy when it came to engaging the enemy. She hadn't yet drawn her blades, to do so would be to betray her experience. Her long legs and bare feet were closing in on where she had seen the shadow last, though she was smart enough to know that shadows never stayed still for long.

Isuelt's nostrils flared, the night smelled like salt and eucalyptus. She could almost taste the copper at the back of her throat, her heart started to pound in rhythm with her silent steps. Since she was young, there was little more Isuelt loved than the heat of battle, unless it was the adrenaline that coursed through her veins in the moments before a battle.

She hoped that this criminal was stupid enough to be coming to the Sanctuary for another hit, another delivery, another gloating. She prayed that this murderer was that stupid, that pompous, that cocky. For if they were, the last thought that would trip through their mind would be how they pulled yet another one over on the Scathachians.

Their last thought...before their insides were spilled all over the Temple grounds.

"Damn it." Mirage thought, as the skulking shadow which she was tracking seemingly vanished into thin air.

From her present position, she could make out that at least one of the other stalking figures was her Sister, Janet. The second, just in front of Janet, she could not entirely identify. It could go either way. If it were a foe, however, her Sister Mari would have dealt him or her a swift punishment by now.

'So...', she pondered as she tried her best to keep her head down while moving closer to the proverbial hotspot, 'The best case scenario is that there are three of us here. Three Judges after one mysterious intruder. Goddess have mercy on that poor bastard.'

The tall Scathachian gripped her swords tightly and flanked around to the last place where she spied the "enemy shadow" loitering. Nothing there. It was as though this sinister invader had used witchcraft to blend into the very night air.

The wind was blowing slightly eastward, yet she could pick up no odd scents. She crept closer to the large cluster of trees bordering the Sanctuary. Mirage still saw the other two shapes getting closer to her own position. Her strong heart accelerated its speed and its rhythm. She could taste a real fight. Soon all of this sneaking about and silent observation would explode into full-scale combat. As she steadied her gaze, Mirage's mind was fixed only on two prime thoughts: "Goddess, guide my blades." and "Where in the Nine Hells did this infernal prowler go??

Taptaptap. Then nothing.

Before she knew it, Mirage was flat on her back and pinned under the athletic surprise attack of her Sister. She cursed herself for allowing her guard to be off for even an instant. An instant was all that a ready and waiting Scathachian like Akemi needed to successfully strike.

As soon as Mirage had glared upwards and seen the other's tattoos as well as the distinctly Asian face, she knew that she had been tagged by Izanami. This Judge was absolutely infamous for taking down fellow Scathachians as a reminder to them about always being prepared.

"Mmmmppphh...mmmpphh." was all she could utter as Akemi's large bare foot slipped into her mouth and effectively gagged her. Those long toes easily filled Mirage's oral cavity and it was "light's out" for her speaking ability!

"Mmmmmmmppphh...mmmph!" Her eyes narrowed. She was so embarrassed that her Sister had gotten the better of her, and by using the time honored kidnapping tactic too. Even after her kickass patrol tonight where she managed to quickly package up a couple of real scumbags, her second of delay here resulted in her virtual abduction by Izanami's lethal acrobatic skills. Mirage's hand gripped that iron ankle which positioned and steadied the deadly foot inside of her mouth.

Mirage could taste the overbearing, bittersweet chloroform coating Akemi's strong toes, which certainly made her a bit woozy. Still, however, she fervently squirmed under Akemi's powerful grip, being determined to at least try and put up a fight.

Being unable to pull the lengthy toes from her mouth, and knowing that to bite them would be a total act of cowardice which would result in a painful kick to the face, Serena finally pounded her fists on the ground as a show of 'Damn it, you got me. I'm pissed, but you got me.'

Her striking, dark eyes blinked up at her proud Sister Akemi as the latter toggled that cocky wave. It was then that Mirage happened to notice a couple of other shadows creeping quite close to them.

Izanami was lucky that her shoes fell first and not herself, as with the first sound she already notched her bow and let an arrow fly, hitting the mark of.....one slipper. She blinked as the familiar voice caught her ears. Izanami. She replaced her bow to her back, and watched as the teasing action was played out to her beloved but fierce Sister Mirage.

She was just glad that she was the farthest away and out of reach.

She felt for Mirage, really, but this was just much more entertaining. She did her best to hide her snicker at Issy's words. Behave girl.

Yeah, right. A snort escaped her lips. So ladylike as she choked down more laughter.

"Izanami, love! So glad you could drop by."

Oh, and she did not get much farther than that. A hand went to cover her lips as she started to laugh. And then harder, oh, what a fabulous way to start her patrol