The four of them froze.
Arashi twisted his head over his shoulder in a slow, uncertain motion that suggested his brain had not quite committed to believing his eyes. Keahi's hand stopped mid-air, a piece of chili-coated something halfway to her mouth. Hikari's grip tightened on her staff - not visibly, but the small adjustment of weight in her hand – Raizen saw it, sitting beside her and feeling the shift in her posture against his shoulder.
Raizen himself did not move.
The woman behind them was lying on the rooftop with a casualness that did not match anything else about her appearance. Her cloak was torn. Her bandages were fresh. A black mask covered the lower half of her face. The dark hair falling brushing against her shoulder was damp at the ends, looking more like sweat rather than rain, and her boots - both visible from this angle - bore the deep scuff marks of recent climbing. None of it suggested a person who had wandered up here looking for somewhere quiet to sit.
