The goal for today was to reach the other side of Tondo from the southwestern part of the area to the north. We had at least a day to reach the other side. It would mean that we had little to no time to retrieve materials while at Tondo. We needed to make space for the clay either way. But hopefully whatever the payout comes from new can be worth the wait. However the task might be easier said than done. But whatever we needed to do might have been easier said than done.
Tondo is actually has the most recorded population of ghouls in Laputa. It's actually a mystery on how much of the population of ghouls exist. However the news that ghouls tend to flock together to the nearest hordes are scarier than it sounds. Yet then again it leads to the question of why would they in the first place? But I rather not get into that. One would be that I'm not a biologist, and two being that it's way over my head and the pay grades that all of us signed up for. Richard and Rebecca were up. The range roles jumped and transferred into buildings to get a good view of the route the scouts were doing. The rest of the party was behind us but kept hidden at the alleyways.
Sakuya stayed with the support group to give further instructions. She and her group were behind us but made sure she was at the highest point to direct instructions. I was jumping rooftop over rooftop as I was keeping watch over each of the scouting squad. Parkour was paying off little by little as the effort needed required little of it. However just in case I shifted my arms into its demonic form in order to climb and to even jump on the edge of the buildings. To my surprise however was the fact that I wasn't even breaking a sweat. I then hear static at my headset. "How you keeping up, Akuma? Over." Sakuya asked. "Still can do more. Over." I replied on comms.
At my last yard I jumped to the roof and barely got a hold of ledge. Effortlessly I managed to climb up and found myself on top of a three story apartment. There was no entrance on top but it lead to a good view, showing that the main street was just a few buildings away. "I got a visual of a public road. Over." I said on comms.
"Permission to proceed?" Richard asked.
"Negative. Not until one of you take out the sniper. Over." Sakuya disagreed.
"Where is he?" Gram asked.
"On your left side. In the billboard. Around a hundred meters, Blackfoot."
With a launch of an arrow, Gram shot through the billboard. The billboard happened to be a few meters away from me and I saw the body drop from the structure and hit hard on top of the building next to it. "Akuma. Can you check on the body and see if there's anything else? Over." Sakuya insisted. "Roger that. Proceedings to location. Over and out." I replied.
I proceeded as I jumped from building to building. In a matter of moments I was able to reach to the location. Out from the roof entrance comes out two common ghouls to pounce on me. But with quick work I managed to dispatch them by beheading the both of them. After that I gently close the door, only to one of the heads still active and moving. "I got a ghoul with a crystal in its head. Should I obtain it?" I asked.
"Negative, Akuma. Just dispatch it and kick it off the roof. Check the billboard just in case and the guy's gear." She disapproved.
Even if the payout of these crystals were high, it was better this way. Even if the Ghouls were blind in nature, they often used their other senses to locate their prey. They might have developed echolocation but their sense of smell is pretty strong. And with the smell those things give off with their head busted open… I rather live another day with my head up a pig's ass rather than a horde of ghouls at my ass. So I instead took a knife from the dead sniper and stab the disembodied head at the eye socket and it immediately stopped moving. After that threw the head off the ledge and attended to the shooter. It was a perfect shot at the middle of the neck from Gram. But before I can even check his gear, I stabbed him at the right temple. It was tedious but it was something I needed to do. I didn't want him to jump on me when he turns into a ghoul. The sniper had a pretty good haul. He was on police tactical gear and a camo poncho. He even had a few clips of ammo on him and a sidearm pistol.
"Looks like this guy's been packing." I said on comms.
"Check in the billboard, Akuma. Grendel, go to Akuma's location and salvage on what you can find." Sakuya ordered.
"Roger that, Iris. Proceeding to location." Mr. Williams complied.
Mr. Williams then gets out of location with his crossbow and heads to where I was. Cautiously I could see him pass by each alley with caution. "There should be a feral dog at the corner. Kill it." She told him. Just as she said, out of the corner comes a wild dog, ready to kill as it jumped for the kill. But without hesitation, Mr. Williams pulled the trigger and the bolt of his crossbow landed at the animal's head. As he runs, the man jerks off the bolt clean and proceeds to my location. "Stop! The body in front of you is a ghoul. Shoot it at the head before you proceed!" She commanded. Mr. Williams then takes aim at the cadaver in front of him. He shoots the head and the corpse convulses a little then dies. "How are you doing this? How can you see that all? Aren't you in a shop or something?" I asked. "Ibis is actually an esper. When coming to Laputa, her abilities enhanced ten fold. She now has a lot of psychic abilities that can work for support purposes." Richard said.
"I can't say much for my magic abilities though." She told us.
"I'm not complaining. This actually makes this easier for me." Gram complemented.
"No room for flattery. Just get on location, Grendel. And make sure you keep an eye on that scope, Blackfoot." Sakuya insisted.
"Roger that." Mr. Williams and Gram agreed.
By a few moments, my company came and climbed up the billboard. He then comes out from between the space, rather surprised. "Looks like he has quite the setup here. He must have survived here for awhile." He said. "What's in there?" I asked. "There's some food and supplies fit enough last a month for a single person in here and..." He tells me before he goes silent. He then throws a jar in disgust. As it lands at the floor, only to discover that it was a shattered glass jar full of human fingers. I could smell the decaying flesh and formaldehyde, only for me to puke what I ate this morning. Mr. Williams then pulls out one of the sheets, only to be surprised on what he found. "Hey Rin, check this out." Mr. Williams called me. I go up the ladder to find a few dismembered body parts in jars at the corner. I cursed out of disgust as the sight was something would find from a serial killer's pad.
The both of us were pretty silent about all of this. Not something you would expect on the first part of the day. We then hear some static Sakuya was getting a hold of us. "So what's your status? Grendel? Akuma?" She asked from us. Mr. Williams gets a grip and complies. "Looks like the sniper had a sick habit out of getting trophies out of the victims he was killing." He said.
"Sounds creepy. What does he got?" Rebecca asked on comms.
"Lots of stuff...we got fingers, toes, nails, eyeballs, a tongue and...."Mr. William describes with a pause.
He then looks with disgust, only to have something on hand. His direction of sight then goes to me, later on showing what the object was. It turned out to be a pickled penis around seven inches. Good thing there wasn't anything at my stomach, my guts were about to turn again. "You doing alright? You cut communications for a bit, Grendel." Sakuya asked out of concern. "Nothing, just more of the stuff from what I said." He replied with a fake laugh. The laugh said it all. It was something best not said at all. I look at one of the jars and true to life it was really disgusting on it's own. "Should we just burn these? I don't want the next guy to find any of this stuff." I suggested.
"After you salvage. Check out the sniper while you're at it. We might need to report it if he turned out to be part of a guild." Sakuya told me.
"All the more better to get away from these jars." I replied.
"If it makes you feel better, it looked like the guy wasn't focused to take aim at you. " Sakuya mentioned to me.
"It really doesn't." I replied.
We do a quick pat down on the body and check for anything that we might have missed out on. After feeling the body a bit, we noticed a couple folded sheets of paper at his coat pocket. Turns out they were snippets of newspaper clippings, taped on some sheets bond paper. All of them were couples next to each other and posing. Some of the pictures even had large red Xs crossed over them. "Who the heck are these people?" I asked. Mr. Williams' attention was enlightened and he signaled me to hand them over. I gave the pics using telekinesis. Mr. Williams took a good look at those pictures. "Looks like one of those 'love team' things." Mr. Williams mumbled. "What?" I asked.
"Usually it's a pair of actors paired to be promoted as a romantic couple." He said.
"So basically an idol version of shipping?" I questioned.
"Yep. The Philippines does that a lot. They even put these guys on romance movies, ads, even concerts or events." He told me.
"Are these even real? These couples...they sound fake when you put it that way." I reluctantly asked.
"Some of them are real...but the rest are just another cash grab." Mr. Williams answered.
Hearing that sounded predictable but cringy at the same time. I didn't know why but it sounded that bad to me but I brushed it off. But putting that aside I focused on what was going on. Especially the red X's on the clippings. At the last page though there was an ad for a charity event. I tried to put the pieces together but there was barely anything to follow. But I read the advertisement a bit further, finding a list of celebrities. The number of special guests were the number of love team clippings at the pages. Placing this all together I reached a chilling rationalization. "Mr. Williams...you don't think the sniper's trophy haul happened to be the parts of love teams...would they?" I asked him. Looking back it did make sense. He takes a further look at those clippings. "Yeah...this could have been his hit list. Maybe we should check if he has a guild card." Mr. Williams suggested as he pockets the findings.
The both of us did a further pat down and check what we knew about him. There wasn't a crystal around him, neither a guild card on him. All we can find was his wallet with a couple of IDs and licenses. "Looks like his name's Alger Mercado. Looks like he worked at the same studio as these love teams. Since there's no guild card, it's not really our problem." Mr. Williams told me. "Yet the capital isn't that far away from here. He could have just thrown it." I said.
"I guess that meant he didn't want to be found." He finalized.
But after looking into his wallet further, Mr. Williams eventually saw a thick piece of paper sticking out from his wallet. It was a photo of Alger, holding hands with somebody. However the only problem was that it was scribbled over with some pen. The stains looked old, judging by the marks from behind. My companion added the two together and eventually figured it out. He then crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it behind him. "Great...another idiot blaming celebrities for their breakups. What a waste of time." The man complained. He then goes up the ladder in a non-caring matter. "You check and start stripping the body, see what we can salvage from there. I'll check out the haul over here to see what we can get or burn...starting with these celebrity body parts." He told me.
"Oh yeah, check on Gram if he wants anything. It is his kill after all." Mr. Williams told me.
Mr. Williams then goes back inside and sees what he can find. I got back into business to tend over the body. I found nothing other than a few ammo clips, an extra knife, and Philippine currency on him. I then started to strip the body armor off, only to remember something kinda dull. "Say… didn't the Philippines have a lot of locations full of HAPs?" I asked Mr. Williams out of small talk. "Now that you mention it…I was supposed to go at some charity trip a year before our HAP. Some strong tropical storm hit Manila and one of those was Tondo. It was only a week before the trip that a couple of HAPs hit the Philippines. Too bad we didn't manage to get a refund on those tickets though." He reminisced.
Static chatter then can be heard from the radio. We adjusted our headsets to receive the transmission. "Grendel, can I get a status check northwest? The billboard is blocking my sight." Gram asked on comms.
"Roger that Blackfoot." Mr. Williams complied. The man then reaches for his crossbow and tries to get a visual. Something catches his eye but can't make it out. "Rin, can you hand me the sniper rifle? I can't see with my scope." He asked. I summoned a bird shikigami and made it bring the gun to my ally. Once handed to him, Mr. Williams looked at the scope, barely able to keep a straight face. "Rin, one of those news clippings said something about a charity event, right?" He asked.
"Yeah...what about it?" I asked.
He then signaled me to head up. I then climbed up the ladder. Mr. Williams takes my hand and lifts me up. The man then hands me the rifle. "Head to the end and check out the sight at the white metal roof. There should be a cover court." He instructed to me. I directed the gaze towards location. Adjusting my sight. I saw a large poster of the charity ad. But a slight nudge at the scope exposed horror to my eyes. It was a horde of ghouls mindlessly walking around the area. I put down the rifle and looked at the man in disbelief. "Maybe we should rethink our strategy." I insisted.