Evening, the time dusk settled in and darkness started to blanket the streets of Oak. For most this either meant it was time to retreat into the comfort of one's home and enjoy the final hours of the day, for others it meant that it was time to party and celebrate that another day had gone by. For the less savory types, the night was when the day truly began for them. However, she was somewhat different from them. For Tsukiko day and night felt exactly the same, and perhaps it was for that reason that while most would be tired or exhausted the girl was happily skipping along the path leading into the woods surrounding Oak.
They had decided to accept yet another request from a past employer of them, Doctor Stephan Mabuz was in need of a rare mushroom. The mushroom itself looked quite normal, a tall and skinny one that was completely gray except for the glowing green dots that decorated it. If it was daytime one without the proper knowledge would never find them, but it was for that reason the girl had made a rather interesting suggestion: to collect the mushrooms at night.
Why exactly at night? While the mushrooms were toxic, a part of the reason why they were considered illegal, they also gave a green luminescence and as a result would be quite easy to find among the greenery.
Still, while one would likely be wondering about what purpose the doctor had for collecting she herself didn't care about such a trivial detail at all. Indeed, as she happily hummed and walked along the path leading into the wood all Tsukiko could think about was having fun on this little scavenger hunt.
She had brought along a basket full of ordinary mushrooms, a clever ploy to fool a potential guard should they find her when she went back into the town to deliver the goods. In the end, a young lady like her could make a simple mistake of collecting some poisonous mushrooms during her search for regular ones, right?
It didn't take long for Tsukiko to reach an area where several of the toxic mushrooms were growing and with a slight sway of her hand several black ribbons extended from the sleeves of her robe, coiling around the base of the mushrooms and pulling them out so that she could properly place them in the basket.
"Let's see~ Tsukiko collected ten mushrooms for the doctor, so Tsukiko believes that should be enough~" A soft hum of approval came from the girl as she turned toward the path leading back to town, and similar to a certain girl with a red hood she wandered along the forest path, blissfully oblivious of the dangers that could await her.
Indeed, for in a moonlight night, within a forest bordering a town were an infamous guild of dark mages lived one could easily say that danger lurked around every corner, or in this case, perhaps the term 'tree' could have worked better. But who would be the red riding hood of this story, and who would be the big bad wolf?
the abyss will also gaze into thee.