Scouting the City

**Scouting the City** is the twenty-sixth episode of Tales of Dikuda. It is also the second episode of the third season.

## Summary

Having settled in, Bayroff makes his first moves in trying to acquire information on the whereabouts of The Ink Butterfly, Falehi.

## Episode in Detail

As agreed on in the last episode, Loco Wish arrives at the door to Yuw's home. The woman, first, doesn't want to let her in, trying her hardest to change the other's mind, though Loco pushes her way in after all and has a curious look around the giant's home. While doing so, Loco notices an enormous photo-capture of Ryahno on the wall. The fact that her colleague found out about the picture sends Yuw into a state of embarrassment.

Meanwhile in the city, Bayroff searches for any clues on the whereabouts of Falehi. He moves from one district of the city to another, which all contrasts strongly with each other, as well as encountering various different groups of people, all with their own views on The Ink Butterfly or even her existence. Finally he takes a break in a park and sits down. While Bayroff didn't find any concrete information on where Falehi is, he still learned a lot about the city and its people, which he writes down in his notebook.

LingDang at the time is looking for Ryahno once again, disappointed and frustrated with the situation she is in and partly blaming the woman for it. She finds her in the park and engages her in an accusing manner. Ryahno, confused by what the girl might be talking about, evades the attacks LingDang throws at her. The attacks are unfocused and aimless, so they pose no real threat and she watches the girl trying to hit her in despair.

Though she does compliment her on the armor the girl received from Bayroff, stating how it protects her more and allows for less damage to the girl's body. LingDang, of course, is unhappy about the fact, since the armor was received from her forced master. When Ryahno then comments on the little jingling bell on the armor, she becomes angry at the woman, since it's also the name that Bayroff gave her - LingDang.

Ryahno is confused by the aggression, since she didn't use the term as a name, but as a comment on the armor. Before the enraged LingDang can throw and land a punch on Ryahno, a third party intervenes - YiFung. The appearance causes the girl to back off and flee the scene.

While assuring that Ryahno is okay, YiFung comments that she thinks the girl is under a spell and explains how she showed up at the police station the other day to look for Ryahno. YiFung tells her that the girl thinks that HowYu's killer is still after her. During the converation, Ryahno realizes what RuYi/LingDang had been talking about earlier, when she accused her of being at fault and not having taught her martial arts earlier.

At her guard post, Uuzoo has to deal with a temporary new guard partner, an Eurasian Lynx named Vegri. She is approached by a familiar face, a centipede who had previously bothered her with fortune telling, when she was still new in the city. Uncomfortable, the snake readies her weapon and asks him what he wants. His answer is cryptic, though he mentions the sky spider, Adato and states that he is looking for the snake. Uuzoo, of course, is confused, even more so when he calls her "Guardian Shuulka". Irritated she shoos the centipede off then and uses her phone for a quick search for information on Shuulka.

First, she thinks of the snake being The Protector, but then she remembers that the Protector is said to be a female tiger. Uuzoo reads up on her as well then, and in her distress of the situation with the centipede's return and the memories it brings, sends out signals to the Protector, hoping that it will be heard.

It is then that YiFung shows up at the gate and engages in a short conversation with the snake, asking if she's okay, as she looks troubled. The snake rambles on about the things that bother her, and the mention of Adato sends YiFung into a state of alert.

Later on in the city, Krrah is making her way through the streets, having to deal with people making comments towards her, following her and calling her a murderer. She meets up with Uuzoo and the snake scares the people off, though they call her names as well. The bird is happy to meet up with the other, so her mood isn't too dimmed despite the incident. She pulls out a pouch with powder, which she uses to cause the bullies to have a sneezing fit. The powder however does spread further, causing more people to start sneezing. Uuzoo and Krrah take off when police shows up to take care of the commotion it caused.

Towards the end of the day, in the rain that came up, LingDang heads home to HowYu's mansion, where she is now living with the Bwo and Bayroff. However, since the latter is not home she has no way of getting into the mansion, so she sits in the rain by the front gates and waits for him to return, doing nothing but listen to the rain.

After a while, Bayroff arrives at the mansion and opens the gates for them both to head inside. They head into the mansion to dry off, during which he talks about how hard it is to start over. While he dries off, LingDang watches him and notices that he is wearing an eye patch, something she hadn't noticed before. Bayroff notices her staring and in turn looks at her, finding the claw marks left on LingDang's armor by Ryahno earlier. The girl talks herself out of it by stating that she was merely sparring with a friend. Though Bayroff is suspicious, he doesn't ask further and leaves the room to change clothing.

While he changes clothing in the next room LingDang in turn asks him where he was the last hours, to which he replies with a vague "at work", leaving out all details. He also adds that he took care of something else and reveals that he had a room prepared for the girl, mostly decorated in a golden color scheme, as he has found out that she likes the color.

## Characters

The following characters appear in this episode (in order):

* Loco Wish
* Tenyu Eesh Yuw
* Kuraz Ryahno
* Bayroff
* *Falehi (mentioned)*
* *Su HowYu (mentioned)*
* Father Sheeki
* MuDan/LingDang
* Hwong YiFung
* Vegri (Lynx guard)
* Yin Uuzoo
* KaiRen (The Centipede)
* *Guardian Shuulka (mentioned)*
* *The Protector (mentioned)*
* Krrah

## Trivia

* The centipede first appeared in episode 5, but his name was never mentioned until this episode.

* In episode 25 the centipede was also revealed to be part of Bayroff's group, as shown in the last image.

* According to Zennore, the source of the giant Ryahno picture is a photographer which Yuw hired, to take images of the woman during her teaching sessions, with Yuw claiming that it was for educational records. She then had the image adjusted into the artwork shown and sent to be printed. Yuw does in fact have a lot of other pictures of Ryahno.

* YiFung showing up when Uuzoo sends out stress signals to The Protector is not a coincidence.