After wandering Rook for all of ten minutes, I realize just what kind of town this is. Raksha is red in the face, refusing to look anywhere around us, as there's a half-naked woman in front of every single building, asking us to come inside.
"You look inexperienced, boy," one of them says to me. "Wanna hop in? I'll make it worth your while." The wink she gives me is the cherry on top. I roll my eyes at her and keep moving.
"Ridiculous," Raksha mutters. "You dare bring me to such a place?"
Patrick laughs at that. "What's the matter? Never seen a naked woman before?"
"Of course not!" the djinn replies, insulted beyond belief. "I have no yet wed! It would be improper!"
"Dude, you need to relax," Dennis adds. "It's just sex. What're you so worked up about?"
"J-Just? It's just... You say it is just s-se- so shameless!" Raksha's programming has ceased all functions. Obi laughs at him, while Yukiji seems oddly frustrated.
"So, where do we start?" Patrick asks his brother, who seems to be just as much in the dark.
"Beats me, bro. It's not like there's one specific place that keeps getting targeted."
"Then what do we do, dude? Walk around everywhere, looking for big monsters?"
"Dudes," I speak up, already feeling the start of a headache, "maybe we can ask around?"
The twins turn to me, then at each other, and smirk. "Ah, I think our young friend here wants to talk to one of these fine women."
"Yeah, he has some questions for them."
"Should we let him do it, Pat?"
"I don't know, Dex. This job seems pretty important."
"Please don't procreate," I tell them, then turn toward a hesitant looking girl next to me. "Excuse me, Miss, but I've got a few questions for you."
She blushes, then looks away. "I don't know nothin'." This is exactly how some of the girls around my neighbourhood would ask. Telling on one another after a crime was a death sentence. She must be scared of one of the pimps in here.
"Please, Miss. We're magic knights. The two blond idiots are Apostles. We're here to look into the matter of the disappearing women."
Her eyes widen, and she runs inside. I follow her. Yukiji starts to follow, but I gesture for her to stay still. "Not on your life, kid." No way am I letting her see what's inside. "Raksha, keep her there."
"Of course," he replies, thankful that he doesn't have to see boobies. I'm never gonna figure him out. "I won't let her out of my sight."
I look at the twins, then notice Obi talking to a completely different girl across the street. Well, the less I see of him, the better. I'm not about to intervene.
Instead of waiting for permission from the Apostles, I walk up to the girl who was just outside, now talking to another worked in here. It's about the same warmth inside as it was outside. I guess wooden walls aren't that great. Is it part of their culture? So far, every girl here is just like Yukiji. How did so many of them end up in our kingdom? Did a war break out? Something must've gone down. Is it related to whatever it is that the Child has to stop?
"Don't make this any harder," I say upon approaching the two. "We have the authority to make you talk, Miss. Please cooperate."
The girl looks up at me, terrified, but is then shoed away by the one next to her, who's much older. "You go on, dear. I'll deal with them." You might not want to phrase it like that in front of magic knights. "You're here about the missing girls, then? You won't find many people willing to talk to you in Rook. No good thing happens to us when magic knights get involved."
I'm not about to argue with that. My life would be much easier if it hadn't been for Medea and Ryan, and whoever their third accomplice is.
"Do you know anything about it, ma'am?" Patrick asks, hands on the back of his head. "We can't really look for the culprit if no one tells us about it."
The woman scrunches up her nose, unimpressed. "Are all of you so young? They should've sent someone more experienced to help. Can't count on Polaris to assist the smaller towns of Valhalla. We don't matter to you self-important lot, do we?" She shakes her head, then continues. "Ask your questions, then leave. I'll not have you scaring off any customers."
Off to the side, I see a disgusting old men pressing himself up against a scared-looking girl. "We could do a whole lot more than just scare them off."
Dexter reaches out and touches my shoulder. "Woah there, tiger. Don't go around makin' a scene. We're here for this job, and nothing else." Figures he'd be corrupt.
"But these girls-"
"Are doing legal work," the Apostle finishes. "Rook is a city where prostitution is legal."
"But we can't just let them keep doing that." I walk over to the man, holding up a flame in my palm. "Excuse me, sir. I'm gonna need you to get the hell away from her."
He turns to me, ready to start cursing me out, then notices the fire I'm holding. He pales, and runs away without saying a word. I turn to the girl, expecting her to be happy, but she's going green in the face, as if she might puke. "Is everything okay?"
Eyes wide, she turns toward the older woman, shaking like a cold kitten. The woman must've given her some sort of signal, because the girl runs into another room. Weird.
"Don't do that again," Patrick says sternly. I'm taken aback by the amount of authority I hear in his voice. I wouldn't have thought him capable of such a thing. "What you did was incredibly stupid. They can file complaints against us for this. Do not interfere with their business, Jonah. We're here to help them with the disappearances, and nothing more."
Dexter pulls him back a bit, looking more relaxed. "Look, we're not saying what's happening here is right, but right or wrong just don't matter sometimes. Their jobs are legal. That old man had every legal right to be doing that, and you had no legal right to stop it. You may not like it, but that's the law, and that's what we're here to enforce, not our own moral viewpoints. If you're gonna be that emotional every time you see something you don't like, we'll take back our votes to let you stay. Magic knights have to be more mature than that."
I don't reply to that. What can I say? He's correct, but he's not right. Nobody in their right mind would stand against two Apostles. They could shut these businesses down with ease, if only they took the time. I guess the lives of strangers don't matter enough to them.
"Enough," the old woman interrupts. "Ask your questions and get out. You have a minute."
"Where did the last girl disappear?" Patrick asks. "Also, what were the general ages of the victims. Were they all girls? Are there any suspects? Any connections between the girls?"
"A girl disappears every single night," the woman replies. "I don't know who the last one was, but one of my girls was taken three nights ago. She was fifteen, but I don't know the ages of the others. No girl here has strong ties to any girl not working in the same establishment as her. Almost all of them were girls. There was a man who went looking for his daughter, but wound up missing, same as her. People are throwing accusations around left and right. Even I've gotten the occasional finger pointed my way. It means nothing. No one knows a thing. Get out, and don't come back." She nods toward two men who are standing close to the entrance. They start coming closer, and Patrick looks about ready to fight them. Dexter restrains him, however.
"We'll get out of your hair, ma'am. Tell us who the man who went missing was, however. We really need that bit." Guess he's sharper than I thought. I was about to suggest that.
"Go check out Dame Tamayo's for that. It's the biggest house on this street, with green lights shining outside. Can't miss it. Now get out."
As we turn to leave, I give one of the worker girl's a glance, then whisper quietly enough to avoid being heard. "If there's any trouble, tell us. We'll come to fix it."
After that, we get back out, where Raksha is holding his hands over Yukiji's eyes, while a girl dances around them, half-naked. I take off my shoe and throw it at her. "Have some decency, for the love of God."
She turns to look at me, scowls, then goes on her merry way. Weirdo.
"Thank you," Raksha tells me. "I do not like this town, Jonah. We should leave at once."
I smile at him. "Raksha, there's people dying."
"People die all the time. I say we let nature take its course."
Obi chooses that moment to get out of the house he followed that girl into. "Guys, I think I've got a lead."
"Do tell," replies Patrick, while Dex eyes the area around us. Come to think of it, they both seem on edge. Something's wrong, and they're trying to keep us in the dark. If Raksha noticed, he's not clueing me in. Obi probably has, though.
"Well, it's been happening for a hundred and nineteen days. One person went missing each night. The girls in there told me a story about a monster that functions like that."
I glare at the hickey on his neck. "Yes, I'm sure you all did a lot of talking."
"No need to be jealous, Jo. Plenty of me to go around." I take off my other shoe and throw it at him, but he dodges it. "Anyway, the monster is supposed to be some sort of scorpion that takes sacrifices for a hundred and twenty days straight, then takes its true form and conquers the place where it lives, claiming every single life there. If it's not killed before the one hundred and twentieth person is eaten, it becomes unbeatable."
The twins exchange a glance. They don't actually buy that crap, right? Monsters don't function like that. They're mindless things, which is what separates them from magical creatures like djinn and fairies. I guess I can add devils to the latter category, too.
Wait.
"How sure are you three that there was only one devil down in the Labyrinth?" Patrick asks as Dexter starts walking, gesturing for the rest of us to follow, which we do. "That story is something we're familiar with, and the monster in it is a devil, different from the one Ozzie fought, and probably different than the one in the kid."
I think back on the second trial. Is there a chance another devil followed? Everyone seemed to be acting the same way... Snow didn't get possessed until he died, and the only other casualty down there was Arrow. If she is possessed, it isn't this devil. "That happened too recently for the monster in this town to be one of the devils from down there."
"Oh yeah," Patrick admits, blushing. "My bad on that one."
"And they're what we're meant to strive to be?" Obi grumbles. "Where are we going, anyway?"
"Hush," I tell him as Dexter enters the house. He gestures for me to come with, and the others to stay.
"You seem the most level-headed, so you're my protégé during moments like this one," he says as we approach the barely-covered girl sitting in the middle of the room, behind a desk. She gives Dex a serious grin. Can't blame the girl, either. The twins may be idiots, but they're definitely lookers.
"Where have you been all my life?" she asks. "Here to have some fun, pretty boy?"
He leans forward, and rests his arms on the desk. "Don't suppose you're actually asking me out, are you?"
The girl shrugs. "Not on your life. Payment comes first."
"And how about info?"
She bats her eyelashes, clearly into him, if even a little bit. "Info I've got plenty of, sugar. However, payment still comes first."
He could pull rank and force her to cooperate, which I assume is what Patrick would have done, but Dexter actually pulls out a king and hands it to her. Damn. I could live off of that for a month â maybe more. The girl takes it, but is cautious about it. People who can throw kings around aren't found just anywhere, after all. I assume queens are what the richest people of Rook have. I used to be that weary around rich customers, too. You never know what requests they might have, or what they can do if their expectations aren't met. I hope he's not aware of this, and using it as an implied threat.
"A girl who worked here went missing a while back," Dexter explains. "Her father went looking for her, then also went missing. Tell me where he went."
Some of the other girls are now looking at us, so the one he paid shoos them away. "Don't go bringing up situations like that one in full view of the customers, pretty boy. You're ruining the mood."
Dexter frowns. "I hope you'll make it worth the payment."
"Yeah, yeah. It's The Red Velvet house, way on the other side of town. I don't know why, but the man got it in his head that that's where Lana would be, and so he took off. Never came back. No body's been found, either. Poor bastard."
"Why do you say that?" I speak up. The girl finally seems to notice me.
"The Red Velvet is run by Boss Gerald. You don't piss him off unless you wanna die. Making people vanish into thin air is his specialty." Now that's a story that seems plausible.
"How does he manage that?" I continue.
"He's got mages workin' for him, obviously. They just burn the bodies into nothing, and take care of the smell. Not much they can't do. Devils, all of them, if you ask me." No one did.
"Thanks for the help," Dexter tells her, turning around. "We'll be going now."
Once we're all outside, the twins take us to a restaurant, where they order a full-course meal.
"I'm not hungry," Raksha says as Yukiji neglects to chew, swallowing large chunks of meat with ease. "Why are we here? Should we not be concluding the job, then getting back? Preferably really soon?"
"That's why we're here," answers Dexter. "We've definitely been noticed by now. Someone was watching us back there, in the middle of the street. Malicious intent was there, too. Had to get us away from prying eyes."
"You have a plan, then?" I ask. It's probably why they brought is here; They didn't want anyone hearing about it. Although, looking around, I find the company in the restaurant less than trustworthy.
"If the myth about the devil is true," Dexter explains, exchanging a worried look with his brother, then tonight's the last night for us to act. We can't go charging into The Red Velvet. It'll out us, and then the creature might not show up. That's the last place where it was, and since the disappearances only happen at night, it's safe to assume the monster's either incapable of going out into the sun, or contained by someone who only lets them out during the night. If we show up without a plan, we'll be revealing we know about them, and so the monster might just go to a different part of town, and complete the ritual."
"That'd suck," Obi mutters. I elbow him in the ribs.
"You'll be the bait," Patrick declares, eyeing Yukiji. Oh, fuck no. "You're a young girl, and you're of the same race as most of the girls here. You fit the demographic to a T. You'll go there, ask to spend the night, then wait for the monster to come to you. When it does, we'll kill it."
"Fuck that," I tell them, grabbing Yukiji by the arm. She's already trembling. "She's not going anywhere near that thing."
"We are the ones who call the shots," counters Patrick. I flap my wings a bit, reminding him of what I can do.
"Ryan tried that approach with me â twice â and it didn't go well."
The tension in the restaurant gets more intense immediately. Patrick glares at me, and I glare right back. Our mana turns volatile, and starts jumping around our bodies. The glass in front of Yukiji starts to crack. A month ago, my mana would've been nothing to an Apostle, but now, with my wings the way they are, I'm able to at least appear as powerful as him.
"You think you can take me?" he hisses, getting ready to stand up. I don't look at the others, but Yukiji is clinging to my arm now. "I'm too powerful for you to kill, kid."
"Maybe," I reply, "but I'd like to give it a shot, anyway." At that moment, the glass shatters completely, spilling water all over the table.
"Enough," Dexter says loudly, slamming his fist on the table. It earns our attention. "Sorry about Rick. He's not in the right state of mind right now." He gives his brother a look, and Patrick stands up, then leaves the restaurant. "He needs to cool off. Give him time. He didn't mean to get angry."
"I don't give a shit what he feels," I answer. "Yukiji isn't the bait. Find someone else."
He smirks at me as I say that. "Well, about that... You know, you have a pretty slim build." Oh, no. "Honestly, you'd look great in what that one's wearing." Oh, hell no. "What do you say, Miss Jolene? Think you're up for it?"
Obi tries to stifle his laughter, while Raksha just seems confused. I slam my forehead on the table. "Do I have to?" I look feminine enough as it is, and as such, I have no desire to turn it up.
"Only if you don't want Yukiji to be the bait, Miss."
I look up, glaring at him. "I hate you."
"You wound my heart, Miss. I thought we had something special!"
Obi bursts out laughing, and Raksha struggles not to join him, having finally understood the situation.
I sigh. "I guess we're going shopping."