Somehow Kenzo and Rania had succeeded at their mission, and after being accepted as potential recruits of the Black Dragons, they were tasked with yet another quest to prove their worth. The mercenary had gambled half the day away at this point, and even though Rania was beginning to feel exhausted, she knew now wasn’t the time to rest. Yomu, the underboss of the Black Dragons and evidently the second in command of whoever was in charge, had asked them to stop by one of the hot springs that were under their protection. The task itself was simple and actually not as devious as Rania had initially suspected: said bathhouse was under the gang’s protection and because of this service they received money in return, money that Rania and Kenzo were supposed to collect.

The Paladin couldn’t wait to get out of the gambling den and wash off all those nasty looks she’d received over the course of a few hours, so the hot springs were actually a welcomed sight. Once they had been properly instructed by Yomu the couple was let back out and headed straight for the bathhouse. As they walked down the alleys of Hosenka, Rania made sure to wait until they were out of sight before she started speaking again. The young woman breathed a sigh of relief and looked up to her friend. “That was actually a lot of fun, you are really good at this whole gambling thing,” she complimented him and passed him a weak smile. “If the rest of the mission goes by like that, it’ll be a breeze,” she laughed and went on her merry way.

Weirdlock Jones had given them magic magnifying glasses, which were used to collect fingerprints, and in this case the fingerprints of the person of interest. Hopefully they would get a chance to actually do that. When they arrived at the bathhouse, Rania stepped forward to the check in and began speaking to the hostess. The instructions were simple: pretend to be a customer in order to not garner any unnecessary attention. “Yomu needs a bath,” she requested and the hostess looked both of them up before leading them inside to one of the hot springs while she disappeared into the back to collect the money.

”Heh. Well… that was easy” Kenzo straightened his clothes as he dusted his hands off. A couple of people laid unconscious at the floor of the gambling den. It truly had been an easy infiltration job. Thanks to Rania, the Blue Pegasus members were able to enter the place where the potential recruits for the Black Dragons reunited. After making a bit of a fuzz and beating the rest of the potential candidates, the two guildmates had become the only left for the position. As of that moment, they were under probation. Their next task came quickly. They needed to collect some money from one of the local bath houses. Once they were given the details the two of them made their way outside.

”Hehe~ I love this. Let’s do it again sometime.” Kenzo answered as Rania told him she had fun inside the place. A scary smile graced the face of the mercenary, who was now busy counting the amount of money he’d just obtained from the rest of the gangsters. Kenzo was serious about many things, but money took the number one spot after all. In fact, he was so absorbed in his current task, that he merely ignored the preoccupated comment of the paladin. ”Huh? Don’t worry. Guys like these must definitely have their stuff together. As long as they don’t find out we’re spying on them we should be alright.” Kenzo threw both hands behind his head, storing the pouch of jewels inside his ring. ”And even then… there’s few they can do against the two of us” The male extended his fist towards the girls with a confident smile. They made a good team after all. Not that they’d tried their combination yet, but it sounded like a dream team on paper.

Soon enough, they made their way to the hot springs. Pretending to be customers, Rania gave the secret password. Leading them to a secret area of the place. Shrugging, Kenzo motioned at Rania with his hand so that she entered first. ”Don’t worry, it’s safe over there” The male had scouted the area with his eye’s ability, so he was sure there was no one waiting to ambush them at the other side of the wall.

[376/1000]

Kenzo was too busy counting his money, and by being his usual unhelpful self, it was up to the Paladin to get them into the bathhouse so the mission could continue. Much to Rania’s surprise, it turned out to be rather easy and the Blue Pegasus members were brought into a private area whilst the host went to fetch the cash she owed to the Black Dragons. Rania noticed Kenzo counting money earlier, and she could not help but smirk at how simple-minded the mercenary was. If money was that important to him, surely there were more comfortable ways to earn it, so surely that could not be it.

The host failed to mention how long this ordeal would take, and considering that she’d let them into a private hot spring area, the Paladin took the chance to relax a bit. The bathhouse itself was quite nice and she liked the place; it seemed perfect for relaxation, regardless of its suspicious activity. Rania wanted to ask Kenzo why a normal bathhouse required protection from the Yakuza, but because they didn’t know who was listening she decided against it for now. Shortly after the mercenary motioned for her to enter the area first and she took his suggestion very literally.

“Are you sure? Okay.”

The hot springs smelled amazing, and the aroma in the air was quite mesmerizing. Rania took a seat on the edge of one of the tubs and pulled up her dress to sink her legs into the warm water. It was warm and cozy, and very comforting. “We should come back to this place later,” she spoke and turned around to look over her shoulder. “It’s really nice.” Closing her eyes and allowing herself to relax for a moment, the Paladin flinched when her ears suddenly caught a singular sound, not too far from her. It sounded like someone was gasping for air, and before she could find out where the sound was coming from, she could hear the dull sound of something falling to the ground.  

Steam made it difficult for Rania to see much, so she simply followed after the sound she had heard until she eventually stumbled over a bloody corpse. Visibly shocked and distraught by this, the Paladin let out a scream before stumbling backwards, where her body clashed into another person – a person that, much to her horror, wasn’t Kenzo. Her eyes caught a glimpse of a strange looking Ouroborous tattoo, before the person disappeared without a trace.

Once the man had taken his mind away from counting the money in his pouch, he was fully concentrated in the task at hand. Since he was absentmindedly focused in the more pressing manners of making sure that the money he’d won gambling was in perfect state, the blue haired man never noticed when they arrived the bath house. While part of his mind wondered how long it had been or for how long they had been walking, he trusted that Rania would take care of taking them to the correct location. All he had to do was look at her from the corner of his eye and walk next to her. True enough, she delivered as she’d always done. If he was being honest, there was a part of Kenzo that was starting to feel bad. Most of the times, the Bellan warrior had been nothing more than a spectator through their numerous questing. Always present, but never honestly super involving himself. The first time had been with the werewolves of Sieghart Mountain, then the Vampire of Dahlia… If things kept going that way, he’d soon found himself alone. His logic told him that Rania would soon enough come to the same conclusion as him and would prefer to quest by herself. Since that was something that he’d strangely dislike, he decided that from now on he’d show her what had garnered him such a reputation.

Once inside the hot springs, Kenzo couldn’t help but feel surprised. Contrary to what he remembered from his time at Joya, these hot springs actually smelled great. It was a relaxing and mesmerizing scent. He couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it smelled like, but it must have been the magical nature of the waters. Hosenka’s baths were known through Fiore due to their magical properties after all. Considering all of his experiences at hot springs had been at the sulfur-rich mountains of Joya, this was quite a pleasant surprise. Just as he was thinking to himself that it’d be a nice idea to come to the baths later in the future, it seemed Rania had the same one. ”That sounds just like what I need” Kenzo smiled at the girl as she walked in front of him. ”We’ve been working quite a lot… We should definitely try to relax and make some free time to rest.”

It had been a long time since Kenzo had last pumped out one quest after another. The first time he did was because he had just arrived to the country. Wanting to know more about the culture, get some local currency and start to become acquainted with people, he had gone in a job hunting tour all through the land. Now that he was very much established, there was no need for it really. However, it was still something that he enjoyed from time to time. Now that he did it with Rania, it became all the more easier.

Regardless, the bright mood and cheer wouldn’t last much longer. Once they had entered the waiting area, a sound could be heard in the distance. Unfortunately, the thick mist coming out of the steaming waters made it really hard to see around. Even if Rania was much closer to the sound, Kenzo was still barely able to hear something. It was as if someone was trying to breathe, gasping for air. Then, a thud signaled that something had fallen to the ground. The Paladin was the first one to get to the site. Lying dead in the ground, yet another body showed the two Blue Pegasus members that they were a bit too late. The victim was another member of a yakuza gang. Just like the two bodies that they found on their first day meeting with Weirdlock, the guy had the characteristic tattoo of the White Star gang. Furthermore, the marks on his body were an indication that the person had been killed in the same manner as the two before him. Coming closer to the body, Kenzo scratched his chin, confused by what this meant.

”Don’t you think it’s strange?” the male directed his eyes at Rania, next to him. ”According to Inspector Weirdlock, the scars on the mouth and the single stab at the nape are the trademark assassination of the Black Dragon gang… However, we were sent here by Yomu from the Black Dragon.” Kenzo folded both arms in front of him as he connected the inconsistencies. ”Why would they send us to collect money from this exact place if they were planning to kill someone too. Don’t you think they would have at least told us?” Yakuza gangs didn’t work this way. Considering the nature of their craft, they tried to be as careful as they could with their dealings. Any unnecessary attention was frowned upon. Certainly leaving behind a string of dead bodies was really bad for business.

Standing up, Kenzo noticed the girl looking a little restless. ”I’m sure you know this better than me… But this body is really fresh.” The trails of fresh blood ran through the ground. Kenzo had previously touched part of the puddle forming under the body just to find that the blood was still hot. ”Did you manage to see anything?”

Rania told Kenzo about the figure that had ran away. It all started to make more and more sense. ”I think we should go back at the gambling den and tell Yomu about this. That way we can find out if it was really a job done by the gang or by a person acting by himself. However, something tells me this has nothing to do with the Black Dragons. That Ouroboros person must be working alone as you say.”

Soon enough, they received the protection money from the owner of the hot springs. To Kenzo’s surprise, the old woman was rather unfazed by the sight of the dead man littering his property. She dealt with yakuza after all, so it was more than likely that she knew about this kind of stuff happening. Still, the warrior was surprised to see how unimportant it seemed to her. There were definitely some interesting stories that she must have kept secret.

Not wasting any more time, the two Blue Pegasus members made their way back at the gambling den. Little was spoken between the two on the way, considering that they spent time thinking about the events so far. At least Kenzo was. Once they arrived, they presented Yomu with the sack of cash. Telling them the story the underboss of the gang seemed to confirm Rania’s and Kenzo’s suspicions even more. Once they were free from their temporary yakuza responsibilities, they finally made their way back to Weirdlock’s office, making sure no one was following them.

”Inspector… We think the Ouroboros might not refer to the Black Dragons.” Kenzo made a dramatic pause before finishing. ”It’s definitely a person”

-EXIT-

[1529/1500]

Rania’s mind had drifted off while in the hot springs; there were so many things happening lately, it was difficult to fathom all of it at once. Rania never expected to pose as a gang member in order to infiltrate it, and while the woman had done many different things for a living already, this type of job was most definitely something new, even for her. The healer was used to a quiet, casual environment. A place where nothing much changed, even when new people came in. She thought about how much she had enjoyed her previous lifestyle, and after finally obtaining freedom and leaving Desierto, it was probably exactly what Rania needed to find herself and find her magic.

But time had gone into the land, things were different now. Just after joining a guild, the usually meek girl had gone on one wild quest after another, always being kept company by the blue-haired mercenary. He was good company and good people, but she couldn’t help but wonder when their spree of missions and quests together would stop. Rania was someone who grew used to habits rather quickly and just like that, she had grown used to being in Kenzo’s presence and doing things with him together as opposed to alone. But those thoughts were probably for another day, considering that they weren’t done here yet.

When Rania stumbled across the corpse, she sucked in a breath and suddenly felt dizzy. The smell of iron and blood hung in the air, depriving the area of the beautiful scent of the hot springs. This place was sullied, that was for sure. Rania kneeled down and gave the body a proper look while Kenzo approached as well. The heat suddenly made her feel unwell, and she quickly pinched the bridge of her nose and sent a pulse of healing light magic through her own body in order to cure herself of whatever fatigue she was experiencing. Clearly it wasn’t time for them to rest yet. Rania didn’t know what was more terrifying: that they had come so close to the murder, or that they hadn’t been able to prevent this from happening even though both Rania and Kenzo were present the entire time.

“Of course it’s strange,” Rania replied to Kenzo and stood up, moving away from the body. Her head was beginning to hurt, and she shook it off before moving closer to Kenzo, nudging him away from the body. “I’m less worried about why they did this, it could be a way to scare us off after all. I’m more concerned about the fact that neither of us noticed anything before it was too late.” The Paladin glanced around the area and clenched her fist, before rising her hand up into the air to create an orb of light to brighten up the scenery. It wasn’t like this was a spot that was easy to hide in – shoes and feet made sound on the wet, slippery ground and the steam made it difficult to see for everyone and not just them.

When Kenzo asked whether she’d seen anything or not, Rania quickly nodded. “Oh, I did. I bumped into another person while I stumbled away from the body. I thought it was you, but when I turned around I only saw parts of their body. A man with an Ouroboros tattoo on his right pectoral,” she explained and shivered at the thought. She had come so close to that person, and whoever he was most certainly bad news. Her partner suggested that the true enemy wasn’t the Black Dragons person, but someone who was acting on his own agenda. “Do you really think one person could do all of this, and even get the law confused?” She had to admit, using the numerous gangs available in Hosenka City was a pretty good idea.

The hostess of the bathhouse returned shortly after, and much to Rania’s shock she was completely unfazed by the dead body. “Ugh, I’ll clean that before it starts rotting. Here’s your money,” she passed the cash to Kenzo and the two Blue Pegasus members were quickly on their way. They stopped by the gambling den first, handing Yomu the stack of cash he was owed, before returning to Weirdlock Jones (after making sure that no one was following them!!!) to explain what had happened there. As of now, there was no end in sight to his mission.