Alright, then! He finally made it to the city and center of Fiore, the capital itself, Crocus! His eyes shone at the life that surrounded the buildings, from the bottom where he stood at to the tops of the skyscrapers. Now, what he would do was to find the nearest place for a little snack of his; either that or anywhere that contained edible stuff for the hungry Fire Mage. His belly yearned for something to eat, in which he suddenly jolted into the folk masses and searched around. Coda was the unlucky one, being pushed forth and back by the people’s shoulders as Daiko rushed, having his nose sticking up in the air. Waffles… ox… crepes… crepes… crepes…, his mind repeated in the end by the dominating smell of, yes, crepe! A rather too delicate snack for him, but he wasn’t picky and went for the source of the strong smell that any average human could track. It led him to the middle of a store, a rather small one, where people stood in long lines to receive their requests. I should hurry, though, he began to think, There’s still that quest… wait… let me check again. Out of nowhere, his mind reminded him of no details from the request paper that he received from his guild, in which he stuck his hand into his backpack. Ruffling it around to try and find it, he appeared to have no luck, until the line showed him at the front.

“So what’s your order, sir?” a very friendly voice greeted. Daiko was almost caught off guard and quickly looked up at the elder male. “Oh, hehe! I’m sorry about that, I was just searching for...-“ he was about to explain, in which he was interrupted: “It’s not that you lost your pouch, no..?” A small sweat drop trickled down Daiko’s face as it wasn’t really the case, but he had to find the request paper in a hurry. “Just- give me a second!” he replied and began to search for the request paper, “I do have coins here, though..!” There, five silver coins were thrown onto the desk before the owner of the shop, who never knew about that kind of currency. “What’s this, lad?” he asked in confusion, while Daiko began to sweat more. “It’s coins..?” he answered, while his hand suddenly grabbed onto the paper that he struggled to find for so long, “OH! I FOUND IT!” With a victorious laugh, he stuck the paper up in the air with all his pride; however, foolish pride was to disappear in the blink of an eye as a huge beast havocked the shop from the shadows…

It went so fast that Daiko had yet to react back. The shop was ruined, and crepes and crème was splashed all over the place. “Wh-What… just happened?” he spoke up in confusion, while his eyeballs widened up. People were less surprised, but yet astonished. He looked around them, realizing that their faces revealed their knowledge about the case. Taking another look at his- wait, where did his request paper go? He began crawling around to find it, which he did near a tumbled woman. Taking a last look, he remembered about the case and reason that he received this quest; if that beast was anything, then it would most likely be the giant rat. A result of some chemical disorder or accident that now reigned the shadows of this city. It was seemingly very hostile, which would just make things worse for the poor Crocus civils. … I should ask about it, he thought for a second, Alright, crepes can wait!

The one that sent this request was a lady named Luciel. Apparently, she would be the one to have the most information about the rat, in which he sought for her location. However, the city was large, and the combination of help from his raptor Coda and his own eyes lurking and searching only cut down a decimal of the difficulty. He even had to ask people about this famous ‘daughter’ of this famous Merlin’s residence to find her. It would’ve been easier if he knew more about Crocus than now, but reality was real. He just had to deal with it. In fact, he did find the house in the end, so there was nothing to worry about. Standing before the large house. In the corner of his eyes would stand a proper, blonde lady with a motherly atmosphere, yet a little lacking of something. When she spotted him with the request paper, then she realized about him and the case that he brought to her. “Hey! You must be… ehh, give me a moment-“ he was about to greet but looked down at the paper again to find her name, “Lu-Luciel! Yeah, that’s it… listen, you’ve got to help me.” Her face was lacking expression, but she nodded slowly in agreement. “I see that you brought my request on your shoulders, in which I can’t let you down…” she began to explain, while scouting after signs of havoc caused by the mistake, “If you want to find this rat, then you have to go and find out where its hideout is. I’ve tried myself, but…” Her sleeve slowly pulled up, she revealed the bandage on top of her injury. A moment passed with Daiko watching the result of following after that damn rat, but shook off the grains of fear that began to spread, replacing it with none other than a will to complete the quest and take this burden off their shoulders. It would be tough, but nonetheless felt he ready. “… Okay. You stay safe, and I’ll search for the rat-mutant-thing,” he replied with a smile. His teeth would reflect light and shine like hails, but… apparently, his friendly smile wouldn’t phase her the least. Was she always that cold?

Following the sounds and scent of rat, he began to speed up across the streets. That people acted so casually despite containing a large rat in their town showed him that it would be more than difficult to find its location. It could be anywhere; from the tall tops of the houses to below the ground, in the train tunnels, shops, parks… then the scent of crème came upon him. Sugar, waffle and other delicacies began forming images in his head, and it had been a while since his last meal. As Coda landed on his shoulder, he didn’t rock his head the least as he mumbled: “I-I’m too hungry to find it- *slap* Damn that, I have to stop that rat now! *moan* But… I could use some energy- *slap* Don’t fade away, Hyōen!” His feet would automatically make their way across, yet his torso was in its own world with the arms slapping his face and the watering mouth that thirsted for food. However, when he appeared before a shop on his own, a rather dry scream erupted from the shop next to him. Surprised, he hastened to help, worried that it might’ve been the rat creature again - to his luck, it was merely the reaction of an elder lady who found the currency change a cheap trick. “. . .” That scared a lot of him. At least she wasn’t in trouble, in which he returned to the source of the scent.

What was that noise? Somehow, he heard this loud, pitchy call from below him, which led his mind back to the thought of the underground that this city had. THAT’S IT, he thought loudly, before looking for the nearest manhole cover. He had to hurry… he suddenly leapt on his left foot and travelled towards the cover, landing right on top of it. A moment after, force broke through as he was launched up by a black figure that launched off the sewer cover like a ninja, quickly aiming its razor-sharp rodent teeth at his leg. He hurried and lifted it up to avoid losing a leg, before smashing his heel onto its nose. It barely flinched, but the kick was enough distraction to give it a heavy landing as it didn't expect its own descent. After landing on the kerb with a heavy impact on his butt - the rat proved its immense strenght by now - Daiko spotted the animal's position a few meters from him, watching straight into its bloody eyes. It dashed into another store a few meters away from him, but as he made it to the entrance, it had already made a hole in the wall and got out of sight.

“Why did it run away, and I was so close to- GAH!” he complained as he found himself before some abandoned house that people stayed away from. The entire street was empty, in which he felt that it was waiting for him only. “Coda,” he warned to his bird companion, “Take off. I’ll be back soon.” The bird suddenly spread its crimson wings and flew off with the silhouette of an imaginary flame, and the picture of the street revealed that Daiko had entered the house already. It was very dusty, obviously, but Daiko felt like staying in the ideal world; everything here was capable of being burnt down… that reminded him of watching out with his magic. He wouldn’t risk burning the entire place down, even though that this building served nothing to the people of Crocus by now. “…” It was quiet. He simply froze his feet and looked around the hallway, feeling an urge to leap away at any moment… footsteps were heard… they were approaching him from behind… as he looked back, he spotted nothing. The sound stopped. “Really-“ he was about to let out, before feeling the gravitational force of someone’s claws pulling him down. He was too shocked to even scream at that quick second…

It had a good grab onto his leg. He had to shake it off, somehow; landing a heavy kick to the rat, it didn’t let go yet. The rat's physique was way beter than his, and mere kicks and punches wouldn't do. However, it contributed to start off a jet-like flame that would push it off his leg and levitate him as he watched it land onto the stony ground with a heavy cry. There must've been a few... no, perhaps 150 meters to the surface. He was lucky, or it would’ve hurt him as well. Wiping sweat off, he decided to descend using the jet feathers, while suddenly aiming a foot at its body. “We’re supposed to be friends, you and me! Aren't you an animal?!” he let out in pain. It really hurt his heart to know what kinds of troubles that the poor animal had been through, in which he would do his best not to shed any tears, but kill it with honor. However, as his leg was about to land, it rolled to the side and avoided the erupting fire from his harmless spell. He was about to move, but a long tail swung around his other leg and flipped him off his foothold, while the beast followed up with an assault from above. Daiko just barely rolled away to avoid its deadly attack, while it drilled its claws into the dark ground. It was too dark in here, anyway, but they both camouflaged quite well in shelter of the shadows that engulfed them. However, as Daiko bursted off to attack, while feathers erupted from his feet like long veils of blazes, the room lit up. Another flame formed on his right palm as he swung it towards its face, boosted by the speed increase that the jet gave him. The rat was about to swing its own tail towards him as well and appeared to tackle him down as his swung flame covered the air above it with heat. During the enlighting, the rat swung its claws towards his belly, in which a deep injury caused him to move away. The rat's claws were extremely sharp, and they could've cut out his organs if they reached deep enough.

Quickly rolling to the side, he barely saved his hair from its jaws as the creature buried them into the ground by missing his head, while the Fire Magi swooped it away with his heels. A small flame ignited from his fingertips, but a pain in his stomach caused him to stagger. "Ouch..!" he let out in pain, due to the claw mark inflicting pain to his skin. He should check that afterwards, if he got the chance, so that he could avoid any infections. I have to get some space, he thought. If he could stand at least a few 20 meters away, then he could rain with his Fire Magic and force it to its knees. Being close to it wasn't favored in this case...

The flames from earlier were still levitating, but were soon to fade into the air and leave the room in shadows. This was his chance! Rapidly, he stepped up and moved towards the nearest wall that he could run into (darkness didn't help him, either), before trying his best to climb up of it. However, the rocks on the wallside were smooth and caused him to lose his grab halfway; panicked, he lashed out a whip of red flames to grab the top of the wall. It saved him, but just barely; the rat's claws were catching up. As he made it to the top, he sprinted into the lighter hallway and found himself far enough, before turning around. There was the rat, a good amount of meters away; he waited not in igniting his fingertip with a small flame, before assaulting the creature with fire bullets, one by one, until he'd shot it at least sixteen times. It was quite the persistent creature, though, and made it all the way to his foothold, before collapsing with no life left on its white eyes. The Fire Mage sighed in relief, while wiping sweat off his forehead. The rotten meat from its belly was clearly apparent for him as he held his nose...

Outside, at the very outside of Crocus, a hole was dug. It was large enough to contain a tiger, but in this case, it had to contain the dead body of the rat from earlier. Daiko was holding it and pushed it down, while a sad feeling enveloped him during the burial. However, he had to do this; if anyone else happened to eat some of its meat, which he considered a few moments ago, then it would’ve most likely restarted all of this. He wanted to avoid that at all cost. “Peace with you,” he prayed for it, “… Damn.” He held a hand onto his heel, while his view was aimed at the skies that turned darker by the upcoming rain that approached the town…

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