Oguchi (C)

[zizi]

Kai stared grimly around him. He had spoken less and less the further they got into the country, instead retreating into memories of mass graves and terror.

When Shari mentioned Orochi cultists, he flinched.

"If you can do it so easily Yuan, why don't you?" he asked tiredly. "Can we just get on with it?"

[Kodos]

Yuanjun still didn't open her eyes. "Because if I do everything then you lot will never improve. Ryo will still be losing sword fights to unarmed blind women, Shari will still confuse muscles for strength, and you and Haru will never get any better either." She said with a sort of serene and calm arrogance.

"Now we can have me or Shari kick down the door - you can manage that right? - or I suppose you could try sneaking on in ahead and scouting the place out, Kai." She got up with a shrug. "I don't like this place and I would rather be indoors when night falls."

[zizi]

Kai just stared at her, "Right," he said, "because out of all of us, you were the one who faced a Mindflayer. You were there when we were attacked by Hitomi, were you?" He waved a hand, dismissing her reply before she'd even made it. "We get it, Yuanjun. You are oh so fucking powerful, and we are as mere children before your mighty thighs. Now do us all a favour, and shut the fuck up. We don't need to hear your unending masturbation at the simple idea of how perfect you are. It is, frankly, dull."

He drew his kukri's and turned to gaze at the Lord's house. "We're surrounded by death and worse. Just... shut up and do your job." He glanced at the group. "The last time I tried to scout for the group and we encountered a powerful woman named Hitomi, we all nearly died. On the other hand, this place is likely less full of gullible guards. I vote I scout ahead, but that we under no circumstances split up."

[Kodos]

"I am sorry that you had to fight the abomination without me. Or at all." Yuanjun sounded sincere. "I should have been there, but circumstances prevented it." She shrugged. "Sounds like a plan though."

[Regantor]

"Yes. Tag-team. The way we did with that burnt house in Yagyu." Shari piped up to agree with Kai, not quite intent on antagonizing Yuan any further, but unwilling to let her to simply walk back in and take control of the operation just the same. Personal vendettas aside, she had always acted the least professional out of the group anyway. "Kai can lead the way, and the rest of us can lend immediate support."

[zizi]

"Alright," he said. "I'd rather wait until night, but I don't think any of us want to be outside when darkness falls. "

[Kodos]

It was a small town, so the local lord's estate was also relatively small - it was only two, maybe three (it was hard to tell from the distance) floors. It still stood out above the smaller buildings around it.

Unsurprisingly, it was walled with an inner courtyard separating it from the rest of the town. Unfortunately, there seemed to be only one gate leading in. Worse still, it was guarded by a pair of large (well, not by their standards, but by human ones.) red Oni. Thankfully the group saw the Oni before they could see them.

Kai alone could probably easily climb the wall on another part and sneak in. Could the group do the same before the Oni or someone, or something, else saw them? Or maybe they could fight their way in? Two Oni were scary, but Yuan and Shari, possibly even one of them, could handle a pair of Oni. Or maybe there was another way in?

[zizi]

Kai motioned for his companions to stay where they were, and became incorporeal. He moved through the wall and stood behind the Oni, quickly scanning around him and in any windows for people.

[Kodos]

All the windows on the mansion proper had been obscured by curtains/blinds and Kai could see nothing inside. Curiously, though, other than the two Oni at the gate there seemed to be no guards at all. Just two Oni, 40 feet of courtyard, and the front doors.

Kai could hear what sounded like faint, feminine, sobbing coming from inside. It sounded... off, somehow. Like the sobbing equivalent of a speech impediment.

[zizi]

Kai gritted his teeth and, though he remembered very clearly what he'd found last time he'd scouted a building following something that was "off", went through the doors.