The large banquet hall located on the 5th floor of the hotel, one of Tokyo's finest venues for evening entertainment, prepared its VIP guests for a night of fine dining and dancing. Attendants floated from table to table, placing appetizers onto the nation's most exquisite dinnerware and handing them out to anybody who requested them. A small chamber ensemble played on the podium at the center back of the room to entertain the affluent hotel guests as they snacked on hors d'oeuvres and chatted with one another. Everything was going well, everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the attendants were beginning to gather before the kitchen in preparation for the main course...

“TEST...TEST...”

Suddenly, a soft voice filled the room and the first set of double doors burst open. A blue-haired woman referring to herself as Kyan stepped into the banquet hall, adjusting a wireless headset microphone on the left side of her face. She wore a crisscross draped purple dress with an open back and matching dark tights. Heads turned as she carefully made her way across the deep red floral carpeting toward the small chamber ensemble at the center of the room.

“...So sorry to interrupt, but I couldn't help overhearing the lovely serenade from the hallway.”

Kyan smirked. The palm of the woman's left hand extended outward in admiration as she spoke to her audience about the sound quality of the music playing in the background.

“A classical melody—light-hearted, free, and in the key of C. With an unsteady 80 beats per minute, it is an absolutely charming composition for a small ensemble...But don't you think it would sound even better if it transitioned into the third movement sul ponticello?”

When the musicians stopped playing and gave her a look of confusion, her light laughter flooded the banquet hall.

“Allow me to demonstrate!” She stepped from the red floral carpet to the white vinyl surface of the dance floor at the center of the room. Almost on cue, a long wooden staff appeared before her and dropped into her hands. Kyan then took the staff and slammed its butt end against the ground. A continuous wave of pulsating energy swept across the room with Kyan at the epicenter. The glassware on the tables nearest to her began rattling violently until they burst into a spray of jagged dust under the pressure of the god-awful sound emitted by the glowing star on top of the curved wooden staff. Some of the attendees threw their hands over their ears while others ducked for cover under the tables. The audience's mixed reaction brought a slight frown to Kyan's lavender lips.

“Oh? I apologize. It seems like I am a little off pitch. Let me try that again.”

The crystal chandeliers began to vibrate violently in place, each branch emitting a high-pitched ring as the ornate pieces of glass fractured and rained down upon the frightened guests. In the midst of all the cacophony, the sole violist, a dark-haired woman in her early 20s with a bob cut, suddenly dropped her instrument to the ground and excused herself from her chair in the front row of the ensemble. Her body trembled violently as she staggered and stumbled about the dance floor with her hands clasped against her ears, wailing “Make it stop!” over and over again in increasing agony. Her screams were soon, however, silenced by the birth of a shadow-like beast, a quadrapedal daimon with the jagged legs of a crab and the general build of a worm a really spiky worm (think sea urchins), as it burst out the back of her contorted figure.

Kyan nearly squealed with delight as the otherworldly beast revealed itself and slammed its unconscious host into the side of a pillar with its whip-like tail and proceeded to bare its myriad of fang-like feeding appendages at the other unsuspecting guests, the two large slits on the sides of its furfuraceous face glowing a brilliant red in anticipation of its first meal. She turned to her newly acquainted daimon companion. “It's really a shame that your empty shell won't be needed for our little duet. I was actually growing quite fond of it!”

*Sul ponticello- “On the bridge”

If the concept of a dull day had ever existed within Jasper Franklin's lexicon, it was quickly demolished within hours of beginning his new occupation. He took up one of the most demanding roles in the hospitality industry, having found employment as a concierge of an extremely affluent hotel within Tokyo. It was an exciting and demanding challenge, as the hotel tended to attract wealthy guests from outside the country as well as those from within. For a man whose primary task involved interacting with significant volumes of people on a day to day basis, Jasper's bilingual talents more than compensated for his lack of experience.

The young man took a certain amount of personal pride in his duties, clearly evidenced through the meticulous care that he afforded to his uniform - black pants with matching dress shoes, a black suit jacket adorned with a modest amount of brass-colored trim, a crisp white collared shirt, and a burgundy necktie. 

On this particular day, Jasper kept himself busy through personally greeting a large number of visitors who were invited to the banquet. Most were able and willing to find their own way with naught but a few directions, while others were more receptive to a knowledgeable escort. After guiding his last party to the hall, Jasper prepared to return to the ground floor.

An unfamiliar voice caught his attention, and was soon followed by the appearance of a woman in a purple dress. She spoke in the manner of a music critic, but that wasn't a justification for interrupting a performance in such a bold fashion.

Who is this woman? What isn't she telling us? Jasper watched in silence, then immediately cringed as the woman called forth a wooden staff from.. nothing.

Thin air.

Ex nihilo.

Jasper had escaped from this kind of weirdness in the near past. It wasn't a history that he was keen on remembering fondly, if at all. Furthermore, Jasper was not prepared to see a supernatural monstrosity burst forth from one of the orchestra members. Though he was disgusted with the woman's party crashing, Jasper failed to exhibit any signs commonly associated with panic or fear.

What was worse - the horrible sights and sounds erupting before Jasper's eyes, or the fact that he was viewing these sensations through a jade-colored lens?

Kyan was simply delighted by her audience's reaction to the daimon. A few of the bolder individuals on the outside perimeter of the room tried to run for the doors, but quickly found themselves mauled by the extraterrestrial beast.

“So sorry, dears, but there's no intermission during this performance!” Kyan laughed. She then shot a quick but sharp glance at her supernatural ally. “Make sure nobody else tries to escape!” Upon her command, the daimon eagerly made its way around the room. Although the creature looked like it could barely function on Earth, with its crab-like legs frantically scurrying to and fro as it dragged its body across the floor, it somehow managed to knock the souls out of several of its fleeing victims with surprisingly deadly accuracy.

Nevertheless, it was still quite slow and clumsy for a monster of its build, and was currently having a terrible time getting at two women, a young man, and a sobbing child huddled together in a corner of the room now barricaded by an overturned table and a statue. Kyan however, did not seem to mind her ally's weaknesses as she stood there laughing joyously at the chaotic scene unfolding before her.

“Now this is what I call a party!”

She clenched her staff in her right fist, this time raising its crooked end and pointing it forward. Although the new wave of pulsations emanating from the flashing star produced a frequency beyond the ordinary human auditory spectrum, its silent and devastating effect was well apparent. Row by row, the hotel guests slumped over their tables, and from each of their chests emerged a fuzzy white orb shielded behind a brilliant display of red acicular crystals. These crystals heart crystals, cast a faint pink hue on the banquet as they slowly drifted around the room like delicate little lanterns, never straying too far from bodies of their rightful owners.

Cackling like a madwoman, the blue-haired witch walked between the tables from one guest to the next, taking up each of their glowing red crystals into her hands and placing them individually against her ear. Occasionally she would allow herself a moment to stop and sample hors d'oeuvres off of people's plates, sometimes even taking a quick sip from the glasses of champagne that hadn't completely fractured under the strain of her ruthless onslaught. As she reached the opposite end of the room, her laughing ceased and her eyes narrowed. Kyan swatted the remaining heart crystals away from her head like a bunch of flies.

...None of these hearts are in the slightest bit pure! she thought to herself behind clenched teeth, slamming her staff against the ground in indignation.

How can this be!? I [know] that I heard a perfect pitch in here somewhere! Frustrated, Kyan carefully made her way toward the first set of double doors, snatching up a handful of the “better sounding” crystals into her arms along the way. Somehow she had to compensate for her loss! And what better than to take a few heart crystals for experimentation!

The patrons of Jasper's hotel were under attack, and so was the hotel's livelihood. If this scenario had been playing out elsewhere, it would have been prudent of Jasper to leave this kind of situation to the sailor senshi. But this was a private business that he worked to support, and leaving this kind of emergency unchecked was sure to inflict a mortal wound to the hospice's reputation - and his job security.

The supple cotton fabric of Jasper's dress gloves drew taut underneath his clenching fists as he strode into the ballroom, his voice carrying a cool authoritarian tone that was significantly different from the warm tenor that typically marked his interactions with hotel guests and staff. The targets of his ire were neither visitors nor employees, but vandals who showed no respect for their surroundings.

"Excuse me, madam; your noise is bothering the other guests."

Jasper didn't know what significance these crystals had to this woman, but he could make an educated guess. The precious crimson artifacts all shared a common trait; the hotel guests who had their crystals exposed were rendered unconscious. This was not unlike a certain phenomenon that the concierge witnessed before, where unsuspecting humans suffered theft of their vital essences.

The manager's eyes darted towards the cornered women, man, and child that were barely protected from the dame's monstrous cohort. "Get to safety while I distract them!" It was troubling to think of the possibility that he could have acted sooner to save more guests from the theft of their spined sanguinary spheres, even though the large gathering of people would have handicapped his ability to fight the invaders.

The tall young man stood before Kyan and her aberrant ally, his white-gloved hands resting at his sides. His gaze soon fell upon the interlopers, anticipating or even daring the trespassers to threaten his retreating guests with their aggression. If an individual's eyes were the gateway to their soul, then the party crashers were being accosted by six feet of well-dressed contempt.

This should do for now.

Right when Kyan went to pluck away a heart crystal from her remaining selection of unconscious bodies, she heard the brisk steps of a confident stride heading in her direction quickly followed by a voice of authority. The blue-haired woman immediately whipped around to face her unexpected visitor—a stylish young concierge who looked absolutely dapper in his black button-up uniform.

“Oh? How adorable,” Kyan remarked, looking the man up and down. The heart crystals floating in her arms illuminated the growing smirk on her painted lips. “I don't remember seeing you on the guest list, hun. Are you sure you were even invited? You're awfully late.” Little did she know, Jasper's entrance had lured the daimon away from the barricaded corner, allowing her cowering victims a chance to scramble over the tables for the door.

In their frantic dash for freedom, the family had split up to decrease their chance of capture. The two women kept to the opposite perimeters of the room while the young man bolted toward the center of the dance floor, brushing past Kyan with the child dangling protectively in his arms. The frightened child did not pass down the opportunity to give the “big mean lady” an unpleasant kick to the rear end. Kyan stumbled forward, her deep blue eyes wide in shock and the delicate red crystals barely balanced between her extended arms as she clutched onto her staff with both hands to prevent her body from dipping any closer to the floor.

“—What!?” How were these humans still conscious!? Perhaps they were the ones with the highest resonance frequencies—the purest heart crystals! Kyan attempted to immobilize the retreating hotel guests with a shock wave, but just missed them as they slipped beyond her range and out the second set of doors. Snarling, the blue-haired woman clenched her fists around her wooden staff even tighter as she forced her body into an upright position. None of this was supposed to be happening! She went to take a forward step, hoping to pursue her fleeing victims down the hallway, but immediately froze in place when she realized that the man in the uniform hadn't budged since their eyes last met. As she stood there facing him and his challenging gaze, a glimmer of mischievousness disrupted the scorn in her otherwise deep blue eyes.

“...Are you actually threatening me?” Kyan brought her fingers to her mouth and laughed. A human standing up against her actions? She couldn't believe it. “Oh, hun, you're so precious! It's a shame I'll have to kill you now!” She motioned the distracted daimon over to them, and then thrusting her staff forward, shouted her command, “Destroy him!”

The spiny behemoth obediently lunged for Jasper, its whip-like tail thrashing about wildly as it struck at the ground in front of it several times in attempt to knock the man off balance so that it could more easily pierce him with the tips of its claws.

Jasper breathed in slowly, and then exhaled a sigh. Of course he could expect to be attacked by interfering with the woman's plot, but she was not taking him seriously at all. Even the threat of lethal force was being delegated to the spiked mongrel.

"Very well; I'll have to take off the gloves."

Jasper moved backwards from the daimon with precision, stopping just past the edge of its whipping tail. He carefully withdrew the gloves from his hands one a time, taking care not to tear the cotton while the beast thrashed and gnashed towards him in a menacing fashion. It was herding its lone victim towards the opposing wall, where there was no room for him to hide from its natural weapons.

Meanwhile, the hotel official had been thinking ahead. The strange woman's henchworm was rather slow, skittering forward with wasted motions that were heavily telegraphed. Once the beast raised its claws were raised to strike, Jasper suddenly lunged towards the daimon and thrust both of his palms into the creature's softer ventral body.

A screeching cry of protest erupted from the daimon as it staggered back from the forceful blow. What insolence! It would tear this insignificant human apart and feast on its broken bones-

At that moment, the hulking daimon suddenly went silent. It could not scream, shout, or project any other form of verbal utterance. Something had just pierced the essence of its being, and a destructive force was rapidly eroding its energy.

---

Jasper withdrew his right hand from the daimon's body, which was curiously shrouded in a gloomy haze. He had imbued the extremity with a deadly concentration of negative energy, and while the beast had recoiled from the initial strike, thrust it deep into the exposed ventral belly to set it ablaze with dark flames.

Stepping aside of the dispatched daimon, Jasper turned his eyes to Kyan. "You misunderstood me, madam. I don't threaten trespassers; I eject them."

Kyan's laughter quickly died down when Jasper proved himself to be a formidable foe.

“—What!?” was all the blue-haired witch managed to say between her gnashed teeth as she witnessed the daimon freeze in place and collapse to the floor from the concierge's fatal blow, its body soon engulfed by dark flames. As the extraterrestrial behemoth disintegrated into a gray pile of ash, the young woman whom it had possessed slowly began to regain consciousness from her position on the floor. And although she laid there in front of the white pillar clutching onto her left arm at the elbow and clenching her teeth in pain, a small smile manifested in the corner of her lips. “Th...ank...you,” she uttered weakly to Jasper, her savior, grateful to finally be free of that terrible monster.

Kyan's left eyebrow quivered slightly out of surprise. No! First the discovery of the useless heart crystals, then the death of the daimon, and now the revival of its human host!? This wasn't supposed to happen either! The glimmer of horror intensified in her deep blue eyes as her gaze fell upon the man whose right palm was now raised and emitting some sort of dark matter. Speechless, Kyan took two large steps backward. Her staff hit the ground with a single metallic clang before fading away. Who was this guy and what else was he capable of doing? She sure as heck did not want to stick around any longer to find out!

The blue-haired witch gave Jasper one last offended look before turning around and thrusting herself into an awkward forward stumble, heart crystals still held securely with one arm against her chest. Kyan's first few steps seemed rather dis-coordinated, but the rest came more naturally to her as she picked up her pace into a brisk run. Without looking back at the banquet, she shoved her way through the double doors, into the hallway, where she then proceeded to dash toward the stairwell at the far end of the 5th floor.

One woman had been spared by the daimon's dark banishing, but it was possible several more lives were on the line. In any case, those little red treasures in Kyan's arms couldn't be permitted to leave the building.

I should have demanded those crystals first.. 

After a short moment of self-admonishment, Jasper threw himself forward after the fleeing sorceress. "Get back here, thief!"

These humans—beings possessing such affluent lifestyles and such good tastes in clothing and food...It's a pity that none of them had a pure heart! the blue-haired witch thought between clenched teeth as she neared the end of the hallway.

With Jasper trailing close behind, Kyan wasted no time busting through the heavy fire door leading into the stairwell. She dashed up flight after flight of stairs, barely grazing each step with the pointed tips of her lavender pumps. Surely the entire hotel staff and security had been alerted to her presence by now! And Kyan was so not in the mood for another confrontation after what had happened to her in the banquet hall. All she wanted at the moment was to make a silent getaway—to escape the building from its rooftop!

The pursuing hotel manager grit his teeth as his quarry sought egress through the one of the building's stairwells. He wasn't particularly looking forward to climbing multiple flights to pursue the woman-shaped devil, but the establishment would look better in the public's eyes if he could recover those crystals and spare the guests further injury.

Jasper took to the stairs running, filling the fire escape with the furious clatter of leather soles upon reinforced concrete and polished steel. With each stride he grasped the safety rails, as if to further pull himself up the passage after that blue-haired bandit.

Although Kyan could not see Jasper, she could hear the muddled echoes of his chaotic footsteps filling the stairwell. This only motivated her to move even faster. She stopped at the base of the staircase on the 15th floor and tensed the muscles in her legs. With a single push off the ground she lept into the air, skipping the entire flight of stairs. A small smirk of satisfaction played across her lavender lips as she continued her upward escape in a seemingly endless spiral, jumping from landing to landing with an unusual levity in each stride.

You're pretty fast, hun...But let's see if you can keep up with this!

Jasper made steady progress on catching up to his persona non grata, but soon a hint of fluttering purple trim above his head signalled a change in tactics. The woman must have been growing desperate, because she appeared to be jumping up entire flights of stairs. There was no point in questioning her enhanced movement; his eyes had borne witness to stranger things.

More importantly, how could Jasper possibly catch up to her? He'd have to think of something quickly. Just overhead, a pair of flourescent light bulbs blinked on. When Jasper took notice, they winked back out, casting a portion of the fire escape into a temporary state of dimmed light.

No.. I wasn't imagining that.

A deep grin crossed Jasper's face as he ran towards the darkened portion of stairs and its adjoining partition. If that crystal snatcher was going to fly away out of his reach, then he would simply have to take an unorthodox shortcut. The same dark powers that enabled the concierge to smite Kyan's monster would allow him to teleport from one dark place to another; were any other person present to witness the spectacle, Jasper would have appeared to sink into the overcast wall.

Moments later, Jasper rematerialized in a unlit utility closet on the 22nd floor. Wearing an expression of smug confidence, he opened the door from the inside and ran back towards the fire escape. With any luck, he'd be right on Kyan's tail!

Kyan couldn't help but resume her wicked laughter as the sound of the man's footsteps receded behind her. Had Jasper really given up already? A fleeting image of the uniformed man's determined eyes flashed across Kyan's memory and reminded her not to become too arrogant.

Highly unlikely.

Perhaps he just stopped a moment to catch his breath or stretch out his legs. Either way, Kyan knew it would be best for her to use any extra time to her advantage! She continued upward at an even pace, each enhanced stride bringing her closer and closer to her final destination. But as Kyan turned the corner to dash up the next flight of stairs, her feet suddenly slipped from underneath her. The blue-haired woman instinctively let go of the heart crystals. Her arms shot out in front of her and her fingers splayed apart to help her catch herself before she could crash face first into the floor, but these actions were quite superfluous, for Kyan automatically came to a halt when her nose was only inches away from the first step, courtesy of levitation—the same magical ability that allowed her to grace the steps with such nimbleness.

...What the?—

As Kyan looked upward from her awkward position, she noticed a slick shine trailing up the steps. At the top of the staircase stood a middle-aged woman in a black smock, stiff as a board next to a wheeled red bucket and a yellow wet floor sign, clutching defensively onto a mop with both hands. She stared down at Kyan wide-eyed in shock. “Good...evening?” the woman whispered timidly under her breath, having witnessed the blue-haired sorceress' supernatural ability.

Kyan beckoned the straying heart crystals into her arms and then shot the woman a sharp glance as she brought her body into an upright position and gently lowered herself to her feet.

“Good evening,” she answered with a scornful smile upon her face. Then, grasping onto the nearby railing for additional support, she silently proceeded up the staircase toward the housekeeper on the landing of the 23rd floor. Kyan's sudden advancement sent the hotel maid scurrying backward until she had herself pressed up between the wall and a chair, with of course, the mop still held out in front of her to distance herself from the eerie woman in the purple dress. Kyan briefly acknowledged the mop (and the trembling hands of the woman holding onto it) with a slight smirk, but it was obvious that she was more concerned about the water pooling at the base of the next flight of stairs. Kyan snorted in disgust. Similar puddles seemed to continue up the fire escape for quite a while, each accompanied by a dreaded wet floor sign. How inconvenient!

It amazes me the useless things a human will do with her time. What kind of woman mops the stairs anyway? She shot the housekeeper one last glare before making her exit into the hallway. At least there is another stairwell on the opposite side of the hallway. Hopefully it won't be [flooded] like this one. Kyan thought to herself as she silently guided the door shut with her free hand. Last she was aware, Jasper was still several floors below her. He couldn't have possibly caught up to her by now, let alone heard a door open and then close from that far down, right? Kyan brought the tips of her fingers to her mouth.

“That poor man won't know what hit him when he gets to the top of that stairwell and realizes I'm nowhere in sight~” she laughed gleefully to herself, unaware of Jasper's proximity as she casually strolled down the hallway at a much more relaxed pace.

As Jasper hurried towards, and subsequently up the stairs, it became clear to the young manager that there was a snag in his otherwise perfect plan. The concierge's foot grazed a pool of water, forcing him to take a knee before he slipped and suffered a serious fall. He gritted his teeth in momentary pain, rather unhappy with having to test the structural integrity of the stairs with his shin. Though not life threatening, it was comparable to accidentally striking his ulnar nerve against a hard surface.

Drawing a deep breath through his teeth, Jasper grasped the bannister for support as he finished climbing up to the 23rd floor. Now that the water danger had been bypassed, it was time to get information out of the startled housekeeper! He faced the frightened woman, seeming unsure whether to scold her for a perceived lack of warning signs. Two seconds' worth of silent debate suggested that this hardworking employee should get the benefit of the doubt.

"Did you see a blue-haired girl in the last two minutes? She wore a ballerina's dress, had an arrogant attitude, and she was also levitating."

“They sure outdid themselves with the decorations,” Kyan remarked in admiration as she looked around at all of the carvings above the doors in the hallway. When she walked past the elevator lounge, she suddenly stopped in place, shuffled her feet across the floor a good five steps backward, and then slowly peered around the corner at the shining gold double doors. A devious smirk manifested in the corners of her lips. Without hesitation, the blue-haired sorceress cautiously lifted her right foot away from the carpeted hallway and planted it heel first onto the smooth white linoleum flooring. Then, bringing her left leg out in front of her, she took her first full step toward the elevators. She extended her free arm outward until her slender fingers eventually met with the arrow keys on the metal panel. When Kyan pressed the up arrow, the doors split open and a soft classical tune welcomed her aboard. As she entered the elevator, Kyan took care to keep a foot in the doorway to prevent herself from leaving the floor.

“Just in case he decides to take a little shortcut,” she laughed, her long black nails tapping vigorously against the all of buttons on the elevator control panel, including the emergency one...

----------------------------------

The wide-eyed expression on the housekeeper's face receded in the presence of another uniformed staff member. She slowly lowered her mop to the floor and raised a trembling index finger. “She...went that way—to the hallway,” the middle-aged woman replied to Jasper in a shaky voice, pointing toward the hallway as she removed herself from her position behind the chair. “Has...security been notified yet?”

Jasper waited for the startled maid to recompose herself, awaiting that critical piece of information that would set him back on the crystal thief's trail. His head listed forward in a brief motion, indicating that he understood her description. Before the dapper concierge could follow the new lead, the housekeeper's following question forced him to look back at her with an affirmative nod.

"Yes. If you're not feeling well, go downstairs and take a break."

Now that he had an inkling of the attacker's whereabouts, Jasper dashed off into the hallway. There was no sign of that azure sorceress to the fore, and none of the doors appeared to be open. He briefly considered the notion that an intruder could have ducked into one of the guest rooms, then dismissed it and turned towards the elevators.

She wouldn't necessarily know which room the keys are coded for, and with her mobility, she wouldn't need to hide in a room at all.

Did one of the bells chime just now? Perhaps he could catch the elevator and override its current instructions to chase the thief. Spotting a pair of doors that was beginning to close, the well-dressed hotel manager made a mad dash for the lift. He had just enough time to raise his arms to buffer the noisy impact of his body against the elevator back wall. Before he could make visual contact with the occupants, Jasper had already begun to speak, even while he was busy straightening out his suit and tie.

"Ahem..! Excuse me, but I need to take this elevator to the top floor. It's an emergency."

The sudden rattling reverberations in the confined space sent Kyan stumbling backward -with her hand pressed against her right ear in slight irritation- straight into Jasper's back. The brief physical contact sent a shudder down her spine.

...That voice!  

If the woman had a proper heart it would have been pounding madly in her chest. Kyan immediately pushed herself away from the concierge, whipped around, and threw her back against the button panel to distance herself as far away as possible from him. The elevator, although somewhat cramped, provided them with enough space to keep out of touching range, but even this distance wasn't enough to please the blue-haired sorceress. Kyan emitted a low-pitched disgusted snarl, but no actual words left her mouth. Her deep blue eyes narrowed into an icy death glare as they silently met with those of the young man when he turned around. In the background, the staticy voice of an attendant from the nearest fire department spared the duo a moment of awkward silence as he tried to assess the assumed emergency without much avail.

“...”

The blue-haired crystal thief eventually lifted her left hand away from the wall and clenched it out of frustration. A strong sound wave attack could easily kill the man at this close of a range but it would be suicide. Without the ability to teleport, Kyan knew she had no way of escaping the elevator if an attack were to rattle it off the cable, so she just stood there in silence, hating him, fearing him, wishing that she could take her claw-like nails to his face. She tucked the stolen red heart crystals closer to her chest and continued to stare down the concierge as the elevator slowly moved upward, stopping at every floor along the way. At least she still had them.

The low rasping of Kyan's snarl signaled to Jasper that something was not quite right within the elevator. Having finished sorting out the business of keeping his suit and tie at least somewhat straight, the concierge turned to face the thieving witch with his full attention. Fighting in this uncomfortably tight space was only going to damage the elevator, and its bright lights would make escaping a catastrophic accident an unpleasantly difficult ordeal. He had cornered this rat, but knew better than to press his "advantage" here; after all, he knew better than anyone what kind of things were possible when desperation and adrenaline joined forces to impose their will upon the world.

Jasper regarded Kyan with a shrewd and unblinking gaze, not at all seeming to let her appparent disgust and contempt get to him. He had closed the gap between the pair, and very soon would be in a position to force the valuables out of the violet woman's clutches. After a few precious floors' worth of silence, the manager spoke with a meticulously composed voice to his captive audience of one. Though his eyes were impassive and neutral, his voice was laden with a thick and heavy tone of foreboding.

"If you turn those crystals over to me, I will allow you to leave. I will not make this offer a second time."

Kyan returned the man's offer with a derisive smirk. Give up the crystals?...As if! She raised her chin and continued to look Jasper straight in the eyes.

“...And if you stay out of my business, dear, I will let you live,” she replied nonchalantly. After a brief and thoughtful pause, the woman raised her left hand and gestured elegantly toward the cluster of brilliant ruby crystals shielded behind her other arm. “...So tell me, hun, what do you value more: these precious little crystals or your own life?” As she asked this, her deep blue eyes gleamed in wicked amusement.

“What would you do, hun, if I suddenly crushed one of them? Would you just stand there and let me, or would you kill yourself trying to stop me?” Despite her calm demeanor and her outright brazen display of arrogance, the cornered sorceress had no interest in fighting him. In fact, Kyan feared she might lose against Jasper in a fight, but she had to maintain a confident facade if she were to convince him otherwise.

Jasper met Kyan's gaze as she made her defiant reply, choosing to hold his silence for the immediate moment. The thinly veiled threat against himself was amusing, but Kyan's following statement immediately spoiled whatever mirth Jasper had felt a few seconds ago.

This haughty hellion of a woman wanted to taunt him with the vital crystals that had been ripped out of their owners' bodies. Though cold logic suggested that the witch was solely responsible for endangering the hotel guests, losing any of them would bring a terrible emotional burden. Destroying her wouldn't bring back any lost lives; it would only prevent the svelte siren from further perpetrating such tragedies.

Jasper would have to proceed carefully, but he needed to handle one loose end first. He crouched near the elevator control panel, speaking with a composed and orderly tone of voice. "My apologies; a child was frightened by a thief and stumbled into the control panel. There's no fire here, but we will need to ride out the elevator for the moment." Before the emergency operator could protest or even acknowledge the concierge's remark, Jasper pressed another button to terminate the call. The next words to be spoken were meant only for the crystal-snatching witch in the purple dress.

Jasper glanced sideways towards Kyan, slowly and deliberately rising from his crouched position to a full stand. "Are you sure you want to know? I don't think you would like the answer."

...Was he ignoring her? Kyan furrowed her brow and kept a close eye on Jasper as he crouched silently before the elevator control panel and calmly offered an explanation to the confused emergency operator on the other end of the call. She, a frightened child? The woman's nose scrunched up in disgust. How dare he compare her to such an abomination! Kyan was quick to retort when the concierge finally returned to his initial upright standing position and acknowledged her inquiry.

“...Oh? Was that supposed to be a threat?” She asked in cloying tone, a smirk tugging at the corner of her painted lips. Jasper had avoided directly answering her question. How cute was that? “Your voice is just so pleasing to the ears, hun, I couldn't even tell the difference if I wanted to.”

The young man raised his left hand, snapping his fingers to draw the attention of the elevator's other occupant before pointing towards his left ear. "Listen closely, or you might just miss it." He dared to make eye contact with Kyan, unamused by the moral dliemma that she chose to invoke as a test of his character.

What character did he have, anyway? Jasper had a mostly solitary lifestyle within Tokyo, preferring to interact with the rest of the world on his own terms. He very much enjoyed the peace and quiet that was free of bothersome people like this crystal-pilfering crook. He wanted to get away from that kind of trouble; it had stripped away his mentors and nearly destroyed the virtuous man whom Jasper revered as a role model.

This woman threatened to drag him back into that weird world, filled with monsters and sailor-suited guardians who wielded divine powers to keep the darkness in check.

"Neither one is more important. I wouldn't die for these people, nor would I expect them to risk their lives for me."

Jasper drew closer to the sorceress without warning, stopping within one half of a meter to loom over her like a well-dressed psychopomp. There were no tatty robes, deathly visage, or rusty scythe in the concierge's possession, however; only a hand-picked designer business suit satisfied Jasper's exacting preferences for this type of work. If not for his earlier efforts in the banquet hall, Kyan might have assumed that his only weapon was a stern glare. He continued speaking as though to dare the supercilious wench into attacking him at close range.

"I would, however, be quite saddened by their loss. You should show more consideration for those lives in your hands."

Kyan listened to the man speak without much care for his words. His voice on the other hand had her almost mesmerized.

“...…Consideration? For one of these?” she finally asked in amusement as she cupped her hands around one of the heart crystals and brought it closer to Jasper until his face was illuminated a soft red from its brilliant luster. “I'm doing them all a favor,” she remarked before pulling the precious crystal away from him and taunting him with another one of her subtle sneers. “Humans cannot appreciate their beautiful resonance the way I do. In fa—”

Ding! The elevator bell startled the woman silent. She cast a swift side glance at the elevator doors as they began to open. The sliding doors revealed the luxury hotel's topmost floor, which boasted a spacious banquet room with front row seats to a marvelous evening view of the glimmering Tokyo skyline. To add to the soft ambiance, the each table held an bouquet of bright red roses atop a white table cloth, and was set with some of the nation's the finest tableware. However, unlike the previous venue, the room appeared quite lonely without any guests present to revel in its grandeur.

Kyan's deep blue eyes reunited with the concierge's cold stare once more. “...It was so nice getting to know you and all, hun, but I've got better places to be right now.” With a swift side step, the blue-haired sorceress slipped past the concierge and vaulted herself elegantly backward out of the elevator. Her right arm shot out in front of her and her fingertips pointed at the space before the entryway. For a split second, the air around the elevator seemed to distort, and a screech comparable to the sound of metal grating upon metal filled the tiny enclosure. Whatever spell it was that the sorceress cast had left a rough impression on the tiled floor.

As her toes gently came in contact with the floor, Kyan's slender fingertips found themselves against her chin. Tilting her head, she gave Jasper one last curious glance before she turned away from the elevator and took off running between the tables with the shimmering red heart crystals trailing closely behind her, her eyes set on the door leading out to the rooftop at the other end of the room.

The rising elevator had finally brought the witch and the concierge to the top floor's banquet hall, a spacious and opulent enclosure that looked its best when it was occupied with the important task of entertaining wealthy visitors both foreign and domestic. Today it was empty and forlorn, a sort of bittersweet blessing; while looking rather gloomy and lonely in the absence of living guests, the strange woman would be unable to claim more of those odd red crystals from the vacated venue.

Jasper was a few moments too slow to raise a significant defense, having focused a bit too heavily on her body language to notice their arrival at the top floor. With little wasted movement, the sorceress leapt backwards into the spacious banquet with a hand suspiciously thrust in her pursuer's direction. At that moment, a horrible screeching and scraping cacophony swept through the elevator's space.

He tried to cover his ears, but to no avail. Come to think of it, that wouldn't have protected him from the deleterious effects of such exposure to such a sadistic magical attack. Judging from the sharp pain that now flowed at a slow and steady rate from his left ear, Jasper had been attacked with some form of sonic energy.

The concierge took a brief look at his hand, then snarled. Pain wasn't the only thing to flow out of his left ear; a small but conspicuous trickle of crimson was now visible from the injured organ. When the sadistic woman made her bid to escape, Jasper bolted after her. He would have to resolve this matter quickly before other side effects of his ear injury started to manifest, such as vertigo or nausea.

"You're not getting out of here that easily!"

"You're not getting out of here that easily!"

“Oh, but I already have, hun!” the blue-haired witch cackled as she disappeared into the stairwell. As soon as she reached the roof, the chase would be over. She'd leap across to the next building and continue on her way. Kyan smirked. And there would be nothing that man in the black uniform could do about it! The blue-haired sorceress took no time busting down the final door with another one of her grating sonic blasts. The muggy Tokyo air rushed into the stairwell. Its draft was suffocating in comparison to the hotel's regulated air conditioning, but that did not deter Kyan as she rushed out onto the rooftop balcony laughing like a madwoman. She was free! Finally free!

Wait a minute...

The sorceress came to a sudden stop, catching herself against the black railing. None of the surrounding buildings were the same height! In fact, they were all several stories taller than the hotel! Kyan grunted. How had she overlooked this? The frustrated witch gazed down at the busy street below. There was still the option of jumping off the building using levitation to lessen her fall, but that would leave her vulnerable to any long-ranged attacks executed from a higher vantage point. And after witnessing that man defeat the daimon with a single fistful of dark energy, it was just too risky of a plan. She'd be better off fighting him on level ground.

Jasper staggered briefly as he rushed through the ballroom in pursuit of that accursed witch. The sonic attack must have injured his inner ear, which among other things was chiefly responsible for regulating a human being's sense of balance. He leaned against the wall of the stairwell leading to the roof, allowing himself a few moments to recompose.

She can't run forever.. not from me.

Once his current episode of vertigo had passed, Jasper emerged onto the rooftop mere meters behind Kyan's position. Though he would be standing outdoors in the sunlight, he was confident enough to take on the violet party crasher and, if need be, send her crashing to the ground below. The concierge's voice dripped with malice upon making visual contact with his quarry.

"What's it going to be, witch? I have a large workload today, yet you insist on wasting my valuable time."

The cornered sorceress shifted her gaze over her shoulder moments before the diligent hotel employee emerged from the stairwell. Took him long enough.

“...Pleasant evening, isn't it?” she commented with a calm sigh as she leaned her elbows against the railing. Jasper however, did not seem to feel the same way. Kyan could hear the man's patience fading with each of his advancing footsteps. Instead of joining her at the railing, the concierge kept his distance, stopping a few meters behind her. A vile smirk spread across the woman's lavender lips. His previous encounter with her sound waves must have cautioned him not to get too close to her. Wise choice. Kyan turned around to to face her pursuer as he addressed her. The lingering red heart crystals brought out a faint purple glow in the woman's deep blue eyes.

"What's it going to be, witch? I have a large workload today, yet you insist on wasting my valuable time."

Kyan tilted her head to the side, intrigued by Jasper's bold statement. Her, a waste of his time?

“You hold onto something much more valuable than time, dear,” the blue-haired witch replied, suddenly stepping over to him with her arm extending toward his face. She took a hold of his chin and gently guided it upward with her slender fingertips. “...Hasn't anybody ever told you that your voice is quite pleasant?”

Was she stalling for time? The woman in blue was starting to wear on Jasper's patience, and though she put forth an alluring demeanor, the witch was a dangerous individual who was not to be taken lightly. His inner ear injury was still throbbing, though it would pass in time.

The concierge had Kyan trapped with nowhere to go, but her next move was not entirely expected. She reached for his face, grasping his chin as if to admire his face.. or something else. Now it seemed less of a case where the hotel manager had trapped a thief, and more like something resembling a Mexican standoff. For either of them to retreat now would surely invite an attack from the other, and yet to press an attack would invite swift retaliation.

Jasper considered the offered question, then briefly shook his head. "You did, but I've heard enough distractions. You know what I want from you, and what I'm going to do if I don't get it."

"You did, but I've heard enough distractions. You know [what] I want from you, and [what] I'm going to do if I don't get it."

The malice in the man's voice reminded the blue-haired witch that his patience with her was growing thin. Kyan thought about attacking him and ending their stand-off once and for all. But she knew that if he survived her sonic dissonance, his retaliation could be fatal. After all, his ungloved hand was not a force to mess with. Her daimon ally had learned that the hard way.

Kyan let out a soft sigh through her nostrils. Her fingertips trailed away from his face until they rested against her hip. She was admittedly cornered. If she wished to slip away unharmed, she knew she would need to give up the impure hearts. The witch briefly glanced down at the precious red crystals hovering beside her, and then after a thoughtful pause, looked back up at Jasper. Stalling him only prolonged the inevitable.

“Why yes, I think I do,” she finally replied in a calm voice, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly as a sneer formed on her lips. “...But what is the magic word, hun?” she asked, studying the man's unyielding expression with her deep blue eyes.