The night sky shadowed over the streets of Oak, as a full moon hung high. The streets were bare not a soul could be seen, but one. The soul was an old woman wearing a traditional kimono, sash, waraji, tabi socks all of it, she wore. Her hair tied in a double bun-bound thanks to a long jade needle, pearls dangling from the end. Hanging from her ears golden chains each with four large round green pears. The old woman had a permanent scowl on her face, eyes narrowed to the point they appeared shut, lips pointed slightly down, brow creased and nose wrinkled as she walked through the town of Oak. Hovering a meter above ground following behind was her familiar Venom, a creature whose body was covered by a black robe, wearing a skull-like mask for a face with a single red orb for an eye.

The old woman was heading towards the location of a quest she had accepted, while at the same time having sent Venom off prior to the Swineherd Pub to offer a letter to Odin, aka Lucifer a member of the same guild as Yumi. The letter was simply addressed asking Odin to accompany her on this quest and to meet her at the location listed, along with the details of the quest, if he felt so inclined to join. The quest was rather simple, to aid Remy Martello in the clean up of bodies from a small gang war that had broken out. The location of the quest was a building undergoing construction in Oak's western district

Yumi moved through the night, hands folded over her chest as she made her way to the construction sight, spotting the requester of the job up ahead, one Remy Martello. Remy was a young man dressed in a snappy black suit with wavy browny blond hair. Yumi approached drawing his attention, she tipped her head, "I wait for a potential partner to join me, should he not show within the next half hour I shall do as the job asks of me." Stated the old woman in a professional tone getting a nod of acceptance from Remy.

WC: 365 | 1000

It had been a quiet day at the Swineherd Pub that night, with only a few people coming and going, having drinks and heading to their rooms. Odin enjoyed days like this, because it meant he wouldn't have to spend that long acting happy in front of many people, even if he still had to wear the white shirt with the black waistcoat, bow-tie, trousers and shoes. It could be much worse, and he knew he looked good, but he'd always prefer his own combat gear: it was a lot easier to wear and move around in, compared to the tight bartender outfit he had been forced to wear as uniform.

The lack of people was also a bonus when a familiar looking... familiar walked into the establishment, holding a letter addressed to Lucifer, addressed to Odin. Thanking Venom before the creature left, Lucifer read the letter which asked him to meet his guild mate Carnage at a specified location to undergo a mission. Shaking his head as he read it, the young mage was slightly disappointed. This was the second letter he had ever received from Carnage, the oldest member of the guild, and the first had used two different forms of coding to hide the true nature of the message. This was a lot less impressive: it just asked Lucifer to go to a location specified to aid in a quest involving the removal of some deceased. If it hadn't been delivered by Venom, Odin would've just doubted its truthfulness and would've disposed of it without hesitation. But, if it was brought by the creature that was always seen with Carnage, then it had to be from her. Finishing up his duties in the Pub and leaving Mac to close down, Odin journeyed to the location in the Western-most part of Oak town, still dressed in his fancy attire.

It took around twenty minutes for the olive haired mage to find where he had to be, but soon enough he saw Carnage, Venom, and a young looking, blond haired man dressed in a suit, a man who was no doubt the client: Remy Martello of one of the gangs in Oak, and a man known for giving out Quests to the less reputable members of Oak's society, although Odin himself had yet to come into contact with him personally. As he approached, the young mage said nothing, instead waiting for Remy to initiate the mission proper.

416/1000

Yumi waited patiently, arms folded over her chest as she stood straight, not a single slouch in her posture. The old woman wasn't waiting too long, twenty minutes at most, which for her was a short amount of time, considering her age. The old woman's eyes caught sight of her compatriot approaching in the distance, dressed in his bar attire. It seemed he had not long got off work, coming straight over without having a chance or not wanting to change. Didn't matter it would be better to do this sort of work in clothing that was already dirty from the day.

Once Lucifer, Odin, had approached he said not a word waiting for Remy to speak. The Martello bowed to Lucifer, "Thank you for arriving so promptly. Now I believe we don't have much time to conduct business as I fear it won't be long until the local law enforcement is notified of what happened here." Said the Martello where he would then lead both Lucifer and Carnage through the construction site towards an area where a war had broken out, there were ten bodies strewn all over the place. "We recently got into a conflict with a small crime family and suffered casualties. Three of them are ours the other seven there's." Remy would move to a bag he had placed earlier pulling out an axe and a bunch of black garbage bags.

"If you'd help me by dragging over the seven bodies that do not belong to my family so I may dispose of them I would greatly appreciate it. Once those seven have been brought over, the three Martello, identified by the black suits with red collars, need to be dragged out the back for collection. We wish to bury them properly in respect to their families." Explained Remy as he hefted the large axe onto his right shoulder, his left hand holding a bag.

Yumi looked at the bodies, true to his words out of the ten three wore black suits with red collars, the others lacked any sort of uniform all dressed in any attire they had desired distinguishing them from the Martello family. "Very well." Replied the woman, not needing to say another word to Remy. She looked to Odin, "Would you be so kind as to first move the dead Martello? Once done please return to assist me in dragging the remaining dead." Said the old woman as she petitioned her request. By dividing the work this way, Yumi was intending to save time. BY having him drag three bodies away she could deal with remaining seven, hopefully having dragged five or six over by time Odin returned, if she carried two at a time.

Yumi would part from Odin, making her way over to the first of the bodies, farthest from Remy picking it up with one hand. The body was quite hefty so to help Yumi flicked her left wrist and flexed her muscles, allowing black mana in the shape of flames to flood through her body empowering her physical strength. Yumi lifted the body with ease under her right arm before grabbing a second with her left. Yumi dragged both bodies over to Remy dropping them at his feet. The Martello immediately went to work, allowing Yumi to go grab another two. Yumi would repeat this process dragging six bodies over, hopefully by this time Lucifer had returned to drag over the seventh

WC: 581
TWC: 946 | 1000

Spoiler:

It didn't take long for the Martello boy, Remy his name was, to take the two Grimoire Heart mages through the details of their mission, as he led them round to a nearby construction site, one that looked like it was currently being worked on but hadn't seen work for a few days, probably due to financial problems as was the norm in this line of work.

As they walked through the construction site, the first thing Odin noticed was the smell, long before he caught sight of the bodies. Death was not an uncommon smell in Odin's own line of work, that being a dark mage and not as a bartender, although it did happen there too. The smell was very strong, which meant two things: firstly, they were likely very close to the location of their mission, where the bodies were located; and secondly, there were no doubt going to be quite a few bodies. Ten, it seemed, as Odin and Yumi finally reached their destination. Three of the ten wore matching uniforms, suits with red collars, which Remy revealed showed their allegiance to the Martello family. The other seven corpses belonged to a much smaller gang that the Martello Family fought earlier that week, and they seemed to have no such uniform, instead looking more like a bunch of thugs and less like a proper gang. But Odin said nothing as Remy told them both what he needed from them, and then Carnage told Odin what she required of him. They were to drag the seven other bodies to Remy, who was wielding a large axe, so that he could dispose of them, while taking the three dead Martello's round the back so they could be buried. And it seemed time was of the essence, as Remy mentioned the local law enforcement could be arriving any moment now, a group that no doubt knew of Odin's little escapades in the Oakland Church. Luckily, Carnage had a plan for completing the Quest in good time. She wished for Odin to remove the Martello bodies, taking them round to the back for their burial while Yumi brought Remy the other seven. On pure physical strength, Odin felt that there were both at a similar level, but it was likely Yumi knew what she was doing, so the younger dark mage made no protest and got to work, hoisting the first of the Martello's onto his back before walking to the back of the building to place them where Remy requested.

As he did so, Odin couldn't help but think to himself. He wasn't a very passionate man, nor did he care much for the lives of human beings, but he had to admit that it was strange holding a dead body that he had no part in killing, it made him think. Each of these three Martello's, in fact even beyond that, each of the ten deceased littering the construction site floor had been living, breathing, complex human beings. They may have even had family's of their own, outside of the gangs. They may have had children, dogs, cats, they may have had the potential to be fearsome warriors, had this one incident not occurred. It was a strange thought, but it helped pass the time, and soon enough Odin was dragging the last non-Martello over to Remy, having moved the three family members where they were intended.

Nodding at both Carnage and Remy Martello, Odin decided to speak for the first time since arriving, "It is done, the Martello's are waiting out back and the seven others are now with you." Receiving thanks from Remy Martello, as well as his pay, Odin decided not to hang around, instead heading back to the Swineherd Pub to get a good night's sleep.

-Exit-

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Venom hovered beside Yumi, watching as its master dropped two of the corpses off to the other human, the one named Remy. As Yumi dropped the two off, the other one, Lucifer, returned to deliver the seventh. With the final body brought up, Remy could hack it to pieces and place the parts inside the large bag, before tying it off. Remy would turn to look over both mages who had been hired to undergo his quest, "I thank you both, your payment." Remy would hand payment of jewels over to both. Once Lucifer had his jewels he would be the first to leave, no doubt returning to his pub.

Yumi would pocket the jewels received after Lucifer had left. The old woman would bow politely to her employer before leaving, deciding to return to her hotel room to rest for the evening. She was feeling rather tired, and for some reason a voice was echoing in her head, once she was familiar with.

WC: 164
TWC: 1110| 1000

[EXIT]