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In keeping with the original plan, Haimushi hadn't strayed very far from the site of the ambush. It didn't take long for Megitsune to find him... or rather for him to find her. With their respective Kyōki signatures masked, it was all but impossible to discern his presence. There was a good chance she'd have moved on, unaware, had he not called down to her as she'd passed by beneath him.
"Rough day, Ito-chan?"
Megitsune looked up sharply in the direction of that disembodied voice. There was a faint shimmer and a ripple in her vision as she slowly made out an outline in the trees... and then sure enough, there he was crouched on a high overhanging bough, his feet curled over the branch for purchase and his hands tucked into his sleeves.
Haimushi sprung noiselessly down from the branch. The seamlessness of the motion, paired with his relaxed grin and stance, suggested that the antics he'd pulled earlier with all those surrogates had barely caused him to break a sweat.
Megitsune felt a small prick of worry.
"Has Mukade gotten back with you?" she demanded.
Haimushi's face darkened.
"He's... around."
The yōkai felt her skin crawl again as her mind raced with possibilities. Around... as in here physically? Or just that Haimushi had managed to get a hold of him? Though clearly unintentional, the vagueness of the answer was infuriating in a way she didn't dare to articulate aloud.
Thankfully, Haimushi remained oblivious to her true state of mind. He seemed to be strangely agitated about something. Maintaining her nonchalant air, Megitsune shot him a sideways glance.
"It'll take him longer than he said, thanks to those pirates," she muttered.
Of course, as 'Ito' she hadn't had the opportunity to warn either of her accomplices when news of the Heart Pirates' unauthorized departure broke. She could easily envision Mukade's reaction, however. It was even likely that he had found out before anybody else when he'd woken at Takanotsume that morning to find the submarine – along with all his prospective victims – missing.
"Tch, that's old news! I heard the whole story from the imbecile himself. He was hopping mad, I'll tell you."
And judging from Haimushi's tone, hopping mad really seemed to be an understatement. Megitsune was glad she'd been spared the hysterics. She already had one babysitting job under her belt and was in no hurry to add another.
"What did he say?"
"Well I suggested that we go back to the Sea King plan...." – No surprise that you did, you coward, Megitsune thought, inwardly rolling her eyes – "...but of course that dumbass has convinced himself he can still make this all work!"
