Underground Sewer - ???
Vast-sized blazing torch rounded around the canal. Groaning voices were no more while the flame consumed them to the bits of dust. Merciless for those who dared them to ravage themselves by unfortunate impact, for they placed themselves.
Both Mirai and Veronica enjoyed watching the miserable ones to die out of their misery. However, Mirai felt Veronica's aforementioned statement about "someone who messed it up in the first place". The cause of it came from the glass break which was the trigger to create this impact and portrait in front of their awful eyes. It made them wreck around as if they did not understand what was going on through witnessing the flames for those who stumbled miserably. Although Veronica speculated of her belief, she sensed a strange figure that came out from nowhere — or perhaps, it was someone who drew them into this case. Until it revealed the answer, they picked their eye to "someone" with spectacular fashion.
That "someone" who had the skinny, masculine figure with pale-skinned face, purplish eyes, and bleached hair, was wearing the dark vibrant blazers and bowler hat. He was the strange young-looking man with a glamorous smirk on his innocent looks. He came out to greet them with a welcoming manner. Before fancying himself, he bowed to them despite seeing Veronica with her fully revealing appearance.
He voiced out with his gentle, flamboyant tone, "I'm really really sorry for the inconvenience, but I do think much of your cleverness which I appreciate the most. For now, I can give you a most satisfactory rating. Round of applause!"
Mirai glared at him to the fact that he set this up from the beginning.
"So you did this? To bait us into this?" She voiced her berate toward him.
Veronica chuckled, "It seems that I'm correct… as always."
Mirai shared the glare toward Veronica as she suspected of her harsh remark.
"Now now, calm yourself ladies. It's not the time to have a catfight towards me… perhaps I was rude to you minutes ago."
The strange man planned for his introductory exhibition. Mirai believed that the man in front of her eyes was the culprit behind this incident; however, she didn't care for a pity to these red-coated victims as they were mere hostiles who served the actions of their illicit support. Instead, she used it as an excuse of her pitiful anger towards him.
Mirai asked with her glaring eyes, "Are you also the one who associated with these redcoats?"
"To think about it, I'm just a man full of curiosity. If you wander throughout the dark path, the same goes for me," the man replied.
"Really? Because you totally look like you're a villain around here. Trivial answers, turn me off."
The man laughed with his hand placing on his abdomen, "Is that your first impression? Is that how you greet me to our first meeting? You're calling me a 'villain' just because of my looks and actions. I told you I'm just a man full of curiosity. I think you need some pick of your brain."
"How da–"
"Enough, Mirai. Stop being so unreasonable. You'll only worsen the exchange," Veronica scolded to stop her
"..."
The man bowed with his bowler hat on swaying arms, "Before knowing about me for you, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Luge Kira. I was lost around here since this place is so dark that I might be ashamed of myself."
Mirai looked down on him like he made fun for the sake of giving himself with the portrayal of her edgy feeling in front of her despicable eyes. Meanwhile, Veronica knew him which she was an elf with a longer life span that granted her more time to explore around the world with her sophistication. Despite some normal people seeing her as an atypical being, she worked herself up to grant her mere reputation to outwit their misjudgment. Her intuition portrayed around her scale of confidence to lift herself up from where she ideally comforted to. She felt relatable to the man named Luge who piqued her curiosity with a familiar sense. Sharing the wisdom, Veronica approached forward without suspicion.
"I see that you have grown such a fine man, Luge. You're having fun walking around the surface. Judging of your presence, did you force yourself to wonder?"
"Thinking about it, something intrigues me the most. Most especially, these so-called 'drugs' that torments every man alike into such beings like monsters. Even one speck of it will refine you into such instinctive creatures. One kind of scary phenomena named 'Demon Blood' frightens me a lot."
Luge shared his sophisticated interests as Veronica does. He thought the drug which could kill a human heart would despise him with a distasteful throb. Knowing the impact, he looked closely to the charred corpses for his pitiful sake. He walked forward with his slight tapping echoes around his shoes. While going near to bless, Mirai grasped his shoulder to act out with her doubtful fate.
"Are you just going to waste your time to feel sorry about them? Because you've done this in such a dense way to look down for your sentimental foolishness."
"Then, why do you sound like you know me more beyond my mother's instinct? Do you have some kind of caring embrace to encounter my feelings? You're such an odd, beautiful lady to sympathize with me… sorry to say that you answered without intuition."
Mirai chuckled while a harsh feeling bothered within her, "Don't you try to pick me up while thinking of me as a gentleman-izer. You would literally kill us with your 'accidental excuses'."
"Oh, I understand right now, but sorry to say, I literally apologized to you awhile ago. I was satisfied with what I witnessed, but… what have gotten into you lately?"
Hearing his remark, Mirai slightly gnashed her teeth and clicked her tongue, but she resisted punching him until smashed by rage. She forced her feelings to avoid her disgust, although the reason seemed rather complicated since she couldn't tell herself why she considered her pity as an excuse to mark it for her anger.
Luge pushed the grip away from his shoulder.
He spoke in a gentle voice, "Will you please excuse me for a moment? You're blocking away from my path."
"Ggh–"
Mirai clenched her fist for her excusable reasons while Veronica observed her behavior, which she wasn't usual, comparing from her previous momentary encounter. It confused her to the fact that she hadn't got the actual empathy, but all she portrayed was unfathomable to reach the core. Veronica, however, needed to compose Mirai with a relaxing pat onto her shoulder to combat her ferocious state.
Meanwhile, Luge grabbed the charred piece and looked closer for his analysis. He rubbed the piece with his thumb and finger, sandwiching it to sprinkle the drops of specks from the dense state. He could analyze the material through his careful eyes, observing every detail of the ashes. As a result, he felt the bit of elastic thicken while several fragile bits were dropping from its dense hold.
"The ashes are too thick for me to segment with my fingers. About four-to-five specks dropped from its stand. It looks like the fabrics of their flesh and tissues had somehow thickened for some reason."
Veronica responded to his remark, "What do you mean? Like this 'Demon Blood' can trigger something that can grow their figure apart."
"Not sure, but their behavior shifted in stimulation within their insides. But most likely, it had to be some hormonal cause to drive them crazy. Specifically guessing, it has to be some sort of testosterone."
"What?"
"Which is why I fear the most. Their body mass increased upon transfiguring into a monstrous level beyond normal as it is. Every muscle, blood, hormones, and even cells could drive the men alike through the enlargement process. Hypothetically speaking, it has to be an impact of cell replication."
"..."
"..."
Veronica felt puzzled as she couldn't figure out how Luge explained in scientific style — which she considered his knowledge as extraordinary sophistication. He already knew how he could identify the possibility of his experimentation back when he caused the trouble behind the "Demon Blood" drug. The drug that can reform every sense of man. With his sensible effect, it was convenient for him to observe every piece orderly.
Meanwhile, Mirai merely watched and listened to the conversation while exhaling her disappointment. She felt embarrassed from the effect of her glaring eyes behind Luge's back. Her disappointment retracted back to herself as if she blamed herself to greet him in irrelevant harsh — or she gave herself some bit of spice toward him. She doubted at first since he made the trouble that might threaten her with harsh possibility. All she could do was to bear the silence in order for her to regret what she berated wrongly in front of his face.
When Luge returned his face toward the ladies, he asked them with a smirk, "Can you follow me to the farther depths of the canal? I'm sure that there might be a huge present around here."
Which Mirai replied with her reverting anger, "Why? Is there something that you can show to us with your devices? I'm afraid to ask, but what if I refuse?"
"There's no turning back for now. Have you remembered something that forces you into such requests? Is it quite helpful to stumble into miserable mishap? Don't play horror games around here. This is not a carnival."
Veronica agreed to his response and said in front of Mirai's curiosity, "He's right. After all, Juliette invited you for us to obtain the strange phenomena with the drug cartel and such business. With Luge Kira's coincidental help, he can let us discover what he can do to this game of cartel. Despite how risky it is around here, it's your own job to fight for yourselves and others while obtaining something intriguing to motivate most people out of their uncertainty."
Mirai silenced herself while biting her lips to wash away her disappointment. She was a sensitive person to take an excuse and give it to someone who could tell that it was obvious to portray within her through body languages. The reason behind her anger was his innocent face to play along with perilous manner while encountering his trigger. Although he had to know the effect, he pitied himself and the victims whom he targeted for his exploration. It might sprinkle the spice towards Mirai, but the coincidental fate belonged to the three explorers as they dug deeper for the truth which bothered the nation of Reversia. Juliette could take this request, but she gave her the time to sum up the setting around Mirai's curiosity — which would benefit the answers within her mind.
Luge asked them for verification, "Are the two of you ready? It might feel spooky around here, but don't fret. We all have swords to counter with that."
Walking throughout the sewer, Luge kept his careful eyes with his normal smile while Mirai and Veronica followed him to spot the clue for essential purposes. All they saw was the empty-filled place with absence of probable bandits, except spiders and rats were the common immigrants throughout the sewer. They could fend for themselves out of the danger to gain their composure. They could smack the hostiles with oblivious fate as their paid consequences would obliterate them through judgments' eye, but they made their sole wish. Other than sitting idly from the midst of the dark side, they had to explore it for the track of impact and eradicate it away from innocents' misery. The revelation awaited them to tell the nation about a certain issue, to harm every individual without mercy.
Mirai thought overly about her rude attitude towards Luge. It was an awkward sense to greet him without casual respect, but all she could do was to suppress her impression that might take out of context. Meanwhile, Veronica believed that she had some bipolar disorder around her mind. She could tell sincerely that she might be cautious around Luge's impression, although the intention wasn't the ideal match as her.
When they reached the right place through an arduous detour, they smelled the stinging scent. Their curious eyes spotted something peculiar — an enormous stuff. It was the bloating, fleshy background of every wall and surface that swelled around the canal and path to pass. They found the red-coated guards in front of their eyes as it made the exploring trio to hide behind the safe wall.