As soon as Grey and Jessica enter their shop, the shopkeeper bows to them and they stop him from doing so and ask, "Did a woman with …"
-and so continued the expected conversation. They gave the shopkeeper the description of her and the shopkeeper said that no one like that had come in. This happened in the first shop we stopped at. And then it happened in the second one. And then it happened in the third one.
"This isn't going anywhere. These two have 10 shops throughout the city. If we aren't lucky, we aren't going to catch her." Rain complains with an annoyed face.
"You have a better way to do this, Rain?" I ask.
"Well, no." She says, "But I can, like, use my powers to cover all the shops faster than we are doing now. I mean, no offence, but this thing you call a car is pretty damn slow."
"Sure, you can use your powers to cover all the shops faster and basically let Dues know through your ridiculously large aura that you are coming directly towards her." I say sarcastically, "I'm sure she'll wait for you to arrive after she senses you."
THWACK!
Rain kicks the car pretty hard, making a dent in it.
"Take it easy, miss. This car isn't cheap." Grey says.
"I am taking it easy, human, or your car would already be a pile of a junk by now."
Well, she isn't wrong, not wrong about the car being a pile of junk if she weren't going easy on it, and not wrong about the fact that we need to figure out exactly which shop Dues is headed to.
"So, do you two have any idea about this? I mean, a shop of yours that specializes in green crystals or a shop that has everything but green crystals. Anything like that?" I ask.
"Nope, we have equal amounts of variety in all 10 shops." Jessica answers.
Damnit!
"Alright, did Irium or Roswaisa have any connections to any of the 10 shops?" I ask.
"No, they didn't. Roswaisa didn't stay here long enough to get acquainted with gem shops and he has no interest in them."
Hmm … okay, think of something else. Anything else!
Wait! Roswaisa was an Emerald Angel, and emeralds are green. That could be a clue, couldn't it? … Emeralds are a variety of diamonds though, they aren't crystals. And that reminds me –
"Hey, you two," I say as I lean towards the two front seats those two are sitting on and continue, "Your gem shops should generally specialize in diamonds, right? What about crystals? Aren't there any shops that have more amounts of crystals than the others?"
"No, as I said before, we have a lot of variety everywhere." Jessica says, "There are crystals in all our shops. There is quite the demand for crystals in this city actually."
Wait! That's odd, isn't it?
"You are telling me people here like buying crystals a lot. Why?" I question, half-expecting a valuable reason but,
"There are all kinds of uses of crystals, you know?" Jessica replies like it's only natural, "It's used in therapies for example."
"Therapies? I see."
Crystals are multi-use products. They can be used for a lot of things. But, people rarely have a high demand for them?
"How much is this demand anyway?" Rain asks.
"About 35% of our products sold are crystals."
... SHIT!
I kick the car pretty hard in my frustration and something inside ends up breaking apart, causing the vehicle to stop.
"Well, look who just broke your car, Grey." Rain says with a frown.
"Rain, not the time. I think I know where that bitch is going." I say.
"And where is it?" As Aknin inquires it from the back-seat, all four of them turn to me for the answer.
"Well, actually, there are two places in mind and she could be going to any one of them." I say, "We got distracted by the crystal part especially because you two own gem shops, but that never had anything to do with her plan. In order for her to make sure Irium and Roswaisa kill us all, she needs – first of all – for Roswaisa to survive the encounter against Aknin. And for that, I doubt she'll let Irium and Danny handle everything. I bet she's going to try to tweak the past herself if necessary."
"Okay, that makes sense. What about it?" Rain asks to make me hurry to the point.
"Well, the things is, Rain, in order for her to do that without going back in time (which we know isn't in her plan or she would have already done it), she'll need to form a connection with Roswaisa to make sure she can do the 'adjustments' she need."
"That also makes sense, but what about it?" Rain seems to be losing her patience so I better get to the point.
"Well, the only way for her to form a connection with a dead Angel is through the summoning symbols used for summoning her."
"Oh, damn!" Grey says, "There are two of those symbols, one in Danny's house and another in Irium's house."
Yeah, those are the two places she was summoned in.
"So, we need to check both of them out?" Rain asks, probably just to confirm.
"Yes!" I answer.
"Hah!" Rain sighs and says, "It's quite understandable why Lucifer sent two Demons and two humans on the scouting."
Wait! That's true. That bastard! Did he know about all this? Probably not, but he did it just to make sure. Anyway, time to move out!
"Jessica, you come with me." Rain says and leaves Grey with me.
"And what about me?" Aknin inquires, seemingly ready to fight.
"You stay at the top of a building and keep watch to make sure nothing fishy happens on either side." Rain says.
"But that's the most boring and energy consuming job of all." Aknin complains, and gets silenced by a glare from Rain.
"Alright then, let's get on with it!" I say and we all move out in the three different groups we have formed. It's time to bring this charade to its rightful end.
*****