"How do you think this outfit looks? Do I look like part of the cartel yet?" Zane asked, straightening the tie of his fancy red suit while looking at himself in the mirror. "I think you need to be less... non-subtle." Beelzebub said, embarrassed by how flashy and tacky Zane's choice in clothing was. A woman who worked at the store passed by Zane, giving him an extremely odd look. Zane looked over to the woman, noticing that he had gotten into the bad habit of talking to Beelzebub out loud rather than in his head like he usually would do. "Oh! Hey!" Zane said, a nervous smile on his face. It probably wasn't a good idea for her to think anything of what he said. "I'm crazy and talk to a voice that's inside my head. Don't mind me." He plainly said, the woman giving him another look, this time in a different way. Zane could tell she bought his story. He wouldn't have to worry about her telling anyone about the cartel thing in a serious manner. "She bought your excuse, luckily. Probably because you're telling the truth."

Zane took off the suit, going to grab another one. Was he really that crazy? He knew he was at least a little crazy, but not really enough to be noticeable, right? Sighing, Zane realized he didn't have enough time to be worrying about that. He tried on another suit in the meantime, thinking about his task. He needed to infiltrate the cartel for information. Why? He would receive quite a sum of money for ratting out on whatever details he shared with those looking to bust said crime rings. Beelzebub and him had recently spotted a nice painting the two were very fond of, but they lacked the funds to even dream of purchasing it. Zane had tried to steal it, but the protection on it was too great. He could probably break it open by transforming into Beelzebub and hitting it with a powerful wind blast, but that would most likely damage the actual painting as well. The only option was to buy it, and if Zane's mediocre mathematical skills were correct he would probably have enough to do so if he found a good amount of info today. "This one looks fitting, actually. I think you should go for it."

"Put it on my tab." Zane said to the woman at the counter, not wanting to pay for the suit right now. "Uh... do you even have a tab?" The woman asked. Zane didn't have a tab. Were there tabs in this store? Zane didn't want to have to pay for this too, but it seemed he had no choice. Deciding to buy the suit, Zane paid his share and made his way out of the shop still wearing it. It was time to actually see what he could learn now.

Through his investigations around town during the morning Zane had learned of a local gang who would help traffick goods for a drug lord somewhere in the city. They did it through some kind of restaurant in the crimson quarter. Zane just had to figure out which one it was. A hard task, really. There were a ton of restaurants in Hosenka, no matter which neighborhood of the city you were in. Still, if he went and visited each one he'd probably find something eventually. And what was he going to do when he visited all of these places? That was where buying the suit came in. You see, Zane had the plan to pretend to be one of the members of the cartel. A higher ranking one, that is. Zane thought his eye patch might actually help in this case, perhaps making him look like a seasoned, veteran gangster with an injury that was perhaps formed during the good old days. Beelzebub disagreed. Beelzebub just thought it made him look dumb. The two headed off towards the crimson quater, ready to visit just about every restaurant Zane could. They just had to make sure they weren't tempted by the food while they went. They'd definitely get what they could later though. For now, dining had to wait until after they bought that painting.

708/2000

Zane had been asking around at a few restaurants now with little success. Some just looked absolutely confused, others thought he was running some kind of scam (which he technically was) and others simply didn't answer him, presumably out of fear of the nameless organization that Zane claimed he was from. Over half of the restaurants had been visited by him at this point of the day, but still nothing. Zane sighed, taking a seat on a nearby curb. Just how was he going to figure out? He thought it would be simple, but he still didn't have a single lead. Should he just give up on the task and find an easier way to make money instead, even if it was a lesser amount in the long run? Or should he stick to this in hopes of the big payoff, even if his chances of finding anything were between slim and none? Zane decided he'd at least try at it for a little while longer. There was no harm in that, right? Zane felt determined, getting up off of the sidewalk he had been sitting on and finding another restaurant to go bother. He could do this. Throwing himself at that wall over and over again was sure to create a crack at some point, right?

Another dead end. Zane sighed, disappointed. Maybe this really was something worth giving up. Walking down the street with his hands in his pockets, Zane felt this was about the time give up. That was until a man called out to him from his back, his voice gruffy and tough sounding. "Hey, eyepatch!" Zane quickly turned around, extremely interested in whatever anyone could say about his eyepatch. It was his favorite piece of clothing ever, after all. "Yeah, what about my eyepatch? It's super duper cool, right?" Zane asked, his eyes looking the man up and down. He clearly seemed to be part of the yakuza in some shape or form. Zane could tell it by the way he dressed and the way he carried himself. His voice definitely sounded like it as well. The man approached Zane, trying to puff himself up a bit and look intimidating. Zane wasn't intimidated by the man. It wasn't because Zane was brave or strong, mind you. Zane was just an idiot. The man looked down to Zane, this yakuza member being about an inch and half taller than Zane, who was already quite tall himself mind you. Impressive. "You wanna explain why you've been asking around town about things you shouldn't, eyepatch?"

"I wanna learn more about this distribution through a restaurant you guys have. You mind telling me? I tried asking a bunch of owners around here, but no luck so far. I think you'd really save me some time." Zane stared up at the man, finding the fact that he gave such a blunt and honest answer to him amusing. The man didn't seem to agree, his face growing angrier by the second. Zane could tell he was probably going to have a punch thrown at him. Lunging back, Zane's assumptions were proven right. The punch had just missed, actually. If Zane was even half a second later on the lunge his nose would probably be broken by now. "Aviritia." Zane muttered, taking off his eyepatch with his left hand. They didn't like it when the eyepatch was on.

"Damn, this is our first in character appearance in a while, isn't it?" Beelzanebub asked, their shark-like teeth forming a wide smile. People started clearing the street a bit, half because of the fact a fight between a yakuza and someone else was going on and half because someone had just grown a huge pair of fly wings. "What the hell?!" The yakuza asked, seeming very reluctant to fight Beelzanebub. He eventually did seem to regain the courage though. This was fiore after all, weird things happened every day. You eventually learned to get used to it. The thug pulled out a knife from his pocket, something which Beelzanebub noticed very quickly. He was probably going to take a stab at them, right? Beelzanebub prepared for the man's advance, thinking of two perfect spells to use in this instance. The man's foot stepped forward. Beelzanebub knew it was time. First, their wings flapped once, causing their entire body to rotate around entirely. Their back was now facing the man. Second, their wings flapped again, casting a spell. After the magic circle's appearance a large blast would drive itself into the man who had at that point gotten extremely close. The harsh gales of wind cut through him rather easily, his body having been left battered. It was very possible they wouldn't survive if they didn't get medical attention.

The part of Beelzanebub that was Zane wanted to transform back and help this man in some way. While Zane was part of an "evil" guild and definitely tried his best to appear evil, there was still a lot of good left in the guy's heart. The Beelzeebub part of Beelzanebub was the opposite. Beelzebub was a demon, after all. The idea of killing off earthlanders wasn't something that kept their kind up at night. Beelzebub would most likely only be upset if Zane was the one who died, and that was simply because the two knew each other so well. While Beelzanebub was a fusion of the two's personalities, this time the Beelzebub part of them won out. "Alright, here's our deal." Beelzanebub said, their feet approaching the dying and gasping man. He seemed to be fine to talk, judging on the way he was cursing about the situation in a rather vulgar manner. "You're probably going to die here without any kind of medical attention, ain't ya? Welllllll, we've got a solution for that. Say everything you know about this little distribution and we'll take you to a doctor that'll make sura ya live.

Beelzanebub looked the man in his eyes. It was clear to see that this Yakuza strived to live more than to be loyal. Many yakuza claimed how loyal they were, but only some were actually like that on death's door. The possibility of things ending permanently at any second changed things for a lot of people. Nobody was the same when that many things were at stake. A person's instincts could sometimes override any sort of loyalty they had. They were meant to want to survive, after all. Who wouldn't want to live? The man hesitantly opened his mouth, words coming out of his mouth. "The Sinese bar on 7th... we check in at 4 PM exact..." Beelzanebub took out the notebook that Zane kept in his pocket, their hands grabbing the pen and scribbling the info down. The notebook made a satisfying closing sound, Beelzanebub putting it back in their pocket, their toothy grin now directed back at the man.

"Alright, cool! Bye!"

The man called out to them a few times as they walked away, but Beelzanebub didn't answer. The greedy side of both Zane and Beelzebub's personalities were focused entirely on the reward now. They had the information they needed. All it would take was for a team led by the authorities to observe this situation going down. The word of greed was muttered once again once they were a decent length away, Beelzanebub transforming back into Zane.

Zane held the reward in his hand. The authorities had verified it the next day and had come to stop at his hotel room to get him his money for the extremely useful info. Zane held up the cash in his hand, staring it down. "You're not upset about that thug dying, are you?" Beelzebub asked. Zane shook his head. "Nah... we're evil, remember?" Beelzebub wasn't sure if Zane really meant that, but he supposed that the guy had to learn how to be a little bit heartless at some point. If saying that was a way of getting there, that was fine with the lord of the flies. The sin of greed was one that truly required no empathy if one were to succeed at it, after all.

EXIT

2068/2000

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