After their long, and fairly boring and frustrating day of handing out fliers the neko woman was glad to finally be able to return to the river soon to investigate the strange phenomena that had been occurring. She was a little hesitant with the whole communicating directly into her brain thing, but anything was better than standing around bored out of her mind all day at this point.

Together with Yuurei and Renji alongside her, Haru had arrived at the tavern they were to meet the inspector they'd met previously. Upon spotting the trio he'd flag them down to his table, it seemed he'd been going over Dacol's notes from the night before as they lay before him. Asking them to sit, he'd kindly shoot the light mage and ranger a few questions in regards to what they had experienced last night, asking for a more in-depth explanation of the strange images and voice they had experienced twice now, as he had found the notes a little confusing and didn't completely understand.

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Dacol had given them the address where they were going to be meeting Nilan, the investigator. It led them to a tavern where they would see him motioning them to go to him. They would hear what they had to say, and it seemed like he wanted more information.

“All we know is that we need to stop the danger that was coming to Orchidia and that we have to find someone who’s lost to them. The spirit speaks through telepathy, and leaves whoever is caught with a headache and feeling groggy.” He explained to the Nilan.

The man figured there wasn’t much, but what he said to him figured that they should go meet up with the spirit at the river.

“I see, so we should just go see the spirit and see what’s going on. I mean they did want you to go to the river anyways. I guess I will have more of an idea of what’s going on by doing that.” He said as he would get the notes and stand up waiting for them to lead the way.

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Unfortunately, they couldn't really offer the inspector a better explanation than they had already given to Dacol when he'd taken the notes. There were many unknowns even to the two that had experienced the whole ordeal. The conversation with the strange entity had left them with more questions, rather than answers. As such, they were just as lost with what it all meant.

"Yea, let's get going." the silver maned feline answered with a nod before rising from her seat at the table. She was slightly regretting her choice to go into this sober, perhaps she should have ordered a round of drinks before setting off, but it was too late now. Taking the lead, she'd help escort the investigator through the town towards the riverside where they had last seen the strange child-like spirit.

As they rounded the corner, she'd glance down the riverside, her honey-hued eyes widening as what stood was no longer just a strange blue blob floating in the air, but a human child on their knees, as if they were crying. Their form was that of a regular person, although very young, perhaps ten or so years old if she had to guess, she had thought to call out to get the child to return home as it was getting late. However, as they noticed the presence of the group approaching, they turned around and Haru would note their glowing blue eyes, reminiscent of the spirit they had spoken to the day before.

"It's here!" The young boy called, pointing towards another entity floating on the river itself, around ten or fifteen meters away. Haru's eyes furrowed, what exactly did he mean, what was that thing? Seeing her confusion the spirit of the boy would speak up once more, "The tainted spirit, it's come to bring harm and chaos as I told you before." He clarified, as understanding sunk into the ranger. They had to deal with that spirit now or things would only get worse.

She wasn't entirely sure if they should just straight up trust the boy's word, but so far he hadn't done anything to show he was hostile, then again neither had this 'tainted spirit' so far. That was until it finally noticed them. A strange hostile sounding screech, somewhat reminiscent of someone going crazy emitted from its form as it began to charge directly toward them.

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Yuurei would start moving and it would seem like Haru would be ahead of the pact. He was glad that she would take the initiative as he would follow behind. This was good as he didn’t have to do much or at least he hoped he didn’t. Their travel wouldn’t be long, and when they got to the riverside, it would seem like the spirit had taken a different form. He wasn’t sure why this was happening, but he wasn’t going to question things. The Nephilim would find himself approaching the spirit and when he got close enough, he would come to a stop.

The spirit spoke to them and pointed in a specific direction. It would cause Yuurei to look at the new entity that was floating on the river. There was something ominous about it and it would gather his attention. He didn’t enjoy the aura that it had produced, which brought him to go on his guard even though he felt that it wasn’t that strong. It wouldn’t take long, but the tainted spirit would make a noise and would start charging toward them at full speed. Yuurei could see that it had speed as the spirit would take a humanoid form and it would start shooting a bunch of energy towards them.

Nilan would use spells to defend himself, and Yuurei would dodge the spirit’s attack. He would make his way towards the tainted spirit, and he would attempt to take it out with one of his powerful strikes. He would swing his fist straight into it, and he thought he had it. That was when he had gone straight through the spirit, and he would stumble a bit as he was surprised. He looked over to the tainted spirit as it would attack Yuurei, but the light mage would lunge to the side as he would roll a bit to dodge the attack.

He would get up on his feet and he would laugh a bit as he couldn’t believe that just happened.

“Physical attacks don’t seem to work. Haru do you think you can take it out?” He said to her, hoping she could.

He wanted to use his spells, but he figured that if he did it would do a lot more damage than he should. Haru’s magic shots were precise and they packed a punch.

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Ducking behind Nilan's defense magic, Haru would avoid the incoming spiritual projectiles. Who knew what kind of effect that sort of energy would have on their living bodies. The last thing she wanted was to experience more psychological disturbances. She was going to let the light mage handle the situation, however, as he went to strike, his body went straight through the creature, completely nullifying his physical attack. If that didn't work then that only left magic as an option, and if that failed too, well, they were out of their depth.

"I'll give it a shot... or two..." Haru smirked at her own joke as she pulled out both of her pistols from their holsters, aiming them toward the angry entity as she filled them with mana, forming magical bullets inside the chamber, pulling back the hammers and firing away at the spirit with both shots. As the bullets hit, she thought it had failed at first, a small wave of magical energy surging out from the spirit. However, upon closer inspection, it was as if it were faltering. Upon the second bullet striking, the spirit faltered once more, clearly, it was having some sort of effect, although she had no idea what was occurring exactly.

Its attention turned towards its attacker, firing off more energy projectiles toward the demi-human. Thankfully Nilan was quick to cast a shield-like wall between them and the ghostly entity, blocking the attacks and giving Haru another opportunity to shoot a couple more powerful bullets. This time as they hit their mark, the entity cried out as if in pain, only for the energy surrounding it to dissipate, revealing another child similar to the one kneeling at the riverside. This one with blonde hair, and glowing green eyes, as they fell to its hands and knees, on the river's surface before finally collapsing altogether.

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Yuurei would watch as Haru had gone to work with her guns. He was glad that she was there because he didn’t want to use his magic. He probably would have destroyed the river, and that’s not what he wanted. Still, the tainted spirit changed to a humanoid spirit, but this one was pure as it was no longer tainted. It would seem like things was going well as the river spirit that brought them here would speak to them.

“Thank you for helping my friend, I’m happy nobody got hurt. Please come closer I would like to reward you for what you did for me.” He said to all of them.

Nilan would be the first and it would seem like he would relive his memories. Yuurei would move forward to him next, and he would move his hand to his spirit. The light mage would go through the years that he was a baby. He was able to live through it this time and recollect his time with his parents. It was a beautiful memory, and he was able to see how much they loved him. He was glad to go through this because he didn’t have any memories of them. His eyes started to water down, and he would find himself crying for no reason.

It wasn’t something he could control as he just allowed it all to go down his face. He was smiling though because of what he had been shown. It also gave him a firm grip on what he wanted to do. He was going to make sure that he would rescue his parents this time. He wasn’t going to lose to Ansem again. Once the spirit was done it would disperse from where it was as they had helped him and his friend.

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The ranger was taken aback a little at how the two grown adults were both left weeping tears of joy from simply touching the spirit. Haru was a little hesitant, to say the least, most of her memories were not necessarily pleasant. However, there was one thing she wished to see. Slowly she'd approach after hearing Nilan speak about how happy he was to have seen his beloved late wife again, even if she were no longer beside him.

The young boyish spirit smiled sweetly in Haru's direction as he gingerly reached out to gift her with visions as well, those of her mother and the few joyous times they had spent together, her mother teaching her of the customs of her homeland, Joya, the stories she would tell the demi-human as a young child before tucking her in bed and sending her off with a kiss to sleep. A gift indeed. A far greater reward than the jewels Nilan bestowed upon the two Dawn members before taking his leave.

[EXIT]
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Yuurei would look at Nilan as it seemed like he was happy with the result of this job. That was good to hear, and he would just see the reward that was given to him. He would grab his portion and he would put it away as it was good money. Once he had left, Yuurei would look over to Haru as he wondered what kind of memories she was allowed to see. It would be nice to hear but he would ask her about it another time. As for right now, they were going to leave this place and head back to the guildhall.

It was nighttime and they could enjoy a few drinks before falling onto their bed. They would have work to do the next day, but a good rest was worth it. Renji was on Yuurei’s shoulder as he would fall asleep, the moment he saw that Yuurei wouldn’t be fighting the tainted spirit.

[exit]

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