-Return to Dust-
[A spell created by early Tsumi Clan members.
Its common use is to send Restless to the
Aetherial Realm, but is also used against Necromancers
to retrieve their corrupted Dust.]
I hadn't had much opportunity to explore the city yet, and I'd always just followed Oroske around whenever we went somewhere. Today, however, he decided to have me lead the group. He explained that the streets were named in a specific way to make it easy to navigate the city. "So this plaza is considered the center of the city, right?" He quizzed, getting a nod from Ari and I. "Then with what I said earlier about the street names, how would you guess they work?" While I thought about it, it also dawned on me that Ari probably already knows all this, so this lesson is just for me. "I'm guessing that since the streets have numbers and directions, the number just goes up by one for every street you go in that direction?" I said I guessed, but I was actually very confident in my deduction.
"Correct," Oroske said, "So with that out of the way, lead us to our destination. We're supposed to meet the old lady who lives on the corner of 15th South and 6th East."
I had to ask which way each of the directions were, just to help get my bearings right, which Oroske pointed out all four cardinal directions. "An easy way to remember which way is north, especially if you're on Center Street, is to look for that," he explained, pointing at a mountain in the distance, "that big mountain is due North of us. Sometimes you might struggle to see it over houses and stuff, but if you can see it, you'll know that you're looking North." Somehow I had never noticed it, or maybe I did and was just never really conscious of it. I realized it must've been the mountain in the Rift he and Nadred had told me about.
My bearings set, I began to lead the group. We hugged the South edge of the plaza until we reached Center Street, which went all the way to both the North and South edges of the city.
At first, I was counting in my head each street we passed. I realized after the second street that there were just signs on the intersections with the street names. I decided to still count the streets, while also checking the signs. This was my first time in this part of the city, as Oroske's house is in the North half. The feeling was much the same, with a large variety of styles. I asked Oroske about it once, why there were so many different styles, and he just said "A large part of our Clan's culture is our refusal to be bound by a single, uniform lifestyle. This shows in many ways, different architecture styles, combat styles, fashion styles, and so on and so forth." Despite the apparent chaos, none of the buildings ever seemed to fully clash with each other, and it brought a lot of individuality to the streets.
Center Street seemed to still be mostly shops, and a couple inns here and there. "The inns on Center Street are for extended stays," Xeron was telling Ari, "While the ones on Main Street are for those passing through, like the one our family owns. Some people will stay here for upwards of a year sometimes, usually representatives from various cities and such, so that they can participate in political meetings and the like."
"Precisely," Oroske chimed in, "Though some people just like being here, but aren't eligible to buy a house, so instead they just stay at one of these inns as unofficial residents."
I had no idea there were people like that, then again, I had very little knowledge of the people outside of the Clan. "What makes them ineligible to buy a house?" I asked.
"While Danfis isn't a huge fan of this tradition, and has been working on changing the rules around it," Oroske began, "you must be a member of the Tsumi Clan in order to purchase property here. Whether you were born into the Clan, were adopted into it, or married into it doesn't matter, but if you aren't recognized as a member you're out of luck."
"Wait, Oroske, you know Danfis well enough to know about stuff like that?" Xeron asked with an overly shocked reaction.
"Ah, uh…" Oroske hesitated, "Yeah, I do."
As Xeron expressed being impressed, we arrived at the 15th South, where I turned right, "I had no idea. That seems like something only Red Cloaks would know."
"Mmm," Oroske affirmed, following me, "Usually, yes. He and I have a lot of history, to say the least."
"Wow, I'd love to get to know Danfis more, honestly. He seems like a very interesting person."
As Oroske was about to respond, we came to the next intersection. I didn't pay attention to the sign, and got about half way across the street when he called out to me, "Kuro, where are you going?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
He pointed at the sign directly above him, which said 1st West, "We're supposed to go East, not West."
"Oh, woops," I muttered as I ran back to the group, "Sorry, got turned around haha." I returned to the front of the group, and led them in the correct direction. This would not be the last time I was bad with directions, I'll tell you now.
Now that we were on the right track, Oroske picked their conversation back up, "But yeah, Danfis is a good man. If you ever have a day off and have nothing else to do, I'd definitely recommend offering to help him with stuff. He'll usually just have you fill out paperwork and the like, but he can get pretty talkative while he works."
"Really? I had no idea I could do anything like that," Xeron admitted.
"Oh yeah, a couple of the Red Cloaks actually got their start from doing stuff like that with him. With how busy he is, especially lately, he doesn't have time to vet out potential Reds like he used to."
"Wow, I'm impressed you know so much. Have you thought about trying to become a Red Cloak some day?"
"I, uh…" Oroske hesitated again, and I felt his gaze bore into my back, "Even if I want to, I have a promise to fulfill first." There was a strange, resolute seriousness in his voice. I couldn't help but wonder what this promise was.
Xeron was about to press further, but Oroske cut him off, "Ah, we're here."
I had kind of zoned out for a second, so I was very glad Oroske spoke up before I completely passed it.
It was a small, rustic house with a large front yard, the actual building stuck in the back corner of the lot. It was framed perfectly by the trees planted around the edges, and the yard had a large variety of plants and flowers surrounding a simple cobblestone path that led to the front door. They must have been watered recently, since even before we opened the gate and entered the yard, you could smell the moisture on the plants.
Oroske had me still lead the way to the front door, and even had me knock and greet the old lady that answered. "Oh hello, dears," She greeted as she opened the inner door, leaving only the screen between us. Oroske gave me a pat on the back, as though to tell me to return the greeting. I panicked a little before stammering out a greeting, "Uh, h-hi. We're here to ask about the Restless report you submitted?" I looked back at Oroske to see if I said the right thing, and he gave me a smile and a thumbs up.
"Oh wonderful!" She said as she opened up the screen door and stepped outside. "What would you like to know?"
Oroske and Xeron took the wheel from there. "We would just like to verify the report, if that's okay," Oroske started.
"We were told your garden had been ransacked, is that correct?" Xeron questioned.
"Correct," she answered, "Not my garden here though, I'm responsible for a garden that's on the Edge. That's the one that got ransacked. It's just straight down 6th East here."
"I see," Oroske picked up the conversation next, "Could you give us more details of how it was ransacked and around what time it happened?"
"Of course," the old lady wandered over to her rocking chair on the porch and sat down, "Two nights ago, everything was in place when I did my nightly rounds and went to sleep. But when I came back yesterday morning, several of the plants were dug up, dirt was flung over other plants, and a couple were even missing. After fretting about it for a few minutes, and looking for hints on who was responsible, I decided to leave the scene as I found it and reported it to the Hunter HQ. They said they'd get a case rolling for it, and here we are I suppose."
"I see, thank you for cooperating," Oroske said with a very small bow, "Has anything else happened since you made the report?"
"No, sir, other than the big pile in the park, but I believe someone else already reported that."
"Correct. Thank you again, if anything else happens, please don't hesitate to let us know." She nodded and bid us farewell, returning inside her house.
We left her yard and began heading down 6th East. "Alright, young'uns," Xeron started quizzing us, "Any thoughts so far?"
"I'm not really sure, it still sounds like it could've been someone getting up to now good," Ari spoke up after a moment of silence.
"I agree," I said, "I don't know enough about Restless to really say much, but it sounds like it could easily be either."
"I'm in agreement," Orun spoke up finally, after silently following us everywhere, his boredom very apparent, "I know better than most, Tsumi'din doesn't really have a curfew, regardless of age. So it definitely could have been some kid getting up to no good."
"Kind of you to offer something to the group, Orun," Xeron said, giving Orun a noogie, "But you're absolutely right. I think we'll have to actually see the scene to decide for sure if it was a Restless or not."
Oroske voiced his agreement as we arrived at the Edge. Which was exactly what it sounds like, the edge of the city, where the Rift begins. So here, at the intersection between 18th South and 6th East was a large garden. There were benches, picnic tables, and a gazebo with a beautiful view over the Rift. Well, as beautiful as a massive chasm could be anyway. The real beauty was across the rift in the forests of the Human Realm.
Definitely not the garden though. I'm sure it was beautiful before it got ransacked, but in its current state, over half of it was overturned.
"Well that's an unfortunate sight," Oroske sighed, "I had no idea it was this garden… Ari, Kuro, do you two know how to check for aetherial disturbance from Restless?"
Ari betrayed me by nodding, while I was left to shake my head no. She jumped on the opportunity to teach me before Oroske even had a chance to speak, "Oh it's easy!" As she grabbed my hand to show me, Oroske breathed a sigh of relief, saying he has no idea how to teach it, since it comes naturally to him.
She guided me to where some plants had been dug up. "Restless leave some residual Aether when they do stuff. So, reach out your hand and open up your passthrough, and see if you feel more aether than normal." I wasn't sure I quite understood her instructions, but I decided to give it a shot. I figured she probably meant opening my passthrough as being the same as the first steps to using magic. I allowed the aether to gather in my hand, and felt around the area for any spots with extra aether.
After a minute or so of looking and not feeling anything different, I figured either there's nothing there, or maybe I'm doing something wrong. "Hey, Ari?" I asked, "I don't feel anything different than normal. Am I doing something wrong?" She started looking in the area I had been looking around, moving her hand around the disturbed dirt. After quickly looking through the area, she responded, "Nope, I'm not feeling anything either." She looked over at Xeron and Oroske who had been working in silence, "You two find anything? Everything over here seems clean."
Xeron stood up and patted the dirt off his knees, "Nothing. Either we're too late, or this wasn't a Restless that did this."
Oroske followed suit shortly after. "Indeed, this doesn't seem like Restless activity. So, you two are the trainees, what do you think we should do?"
"Is there any other way of telling if it was a Restless or not?" I asked.
"Jarou mentioned the pile in the park being something Restless do sometimes, right?" Ari recalled, "And that pile contained items that were messed with right? Maybe we should go check there next?"
"Excellent suggestion, Ari," Oroske praised, "Very well, let's call our investigation here complete for the time being." He had this weird, smug look on his face like there was something he wasn't telling us, but we moved along anyway. Ari and I got up and brushed the dirt off our legs and hands.
"Ari, you lead this time. You know where to go, yeah?" Xeron asked, patting her shoulder. She nodded, "The park at 15th and 15th, right? So I can just keep walking along this path here, right?"
Once she got Xeron's approval, our group moved out. It was nice to be able to follow along, rather than lead. I hadn't noticed until then, but it had already gotten pretty late, and the sun was beginning to set, setting the sky on fire. This was the first time I got to see a sight like that from somewhere that wasn't the backyard or inside of Oroske's house. From where we were on the East side of the city, the sun was completely hidden by the houses, but you could still see the streaks of color in the sky above, painting the clouds. The atmosphere of walking with my comrades along the edge of the city, on a road lined with trees and gardens at this time of day brought me a strange sense of comfort and joy.
We had walked in silence the entire way, only broken when we arrived, and heard Jarou greet us. "Kuro, Oroske! Over here!" He was waving his hands in the air, beckoning us towards him. Even from the outer edge of the park where we were, you could see the large pile of junk in the middle of the grass.
When we got closer it was easier to see what exactly had been thrown into it. You had chairs, a table, a couple of flower pots, but a lot of it was dirt, rocks, and plants. Which made sense, considering both reports were about stuff from gardens and the like.
"Have you already investigated it?" Oroske asked the other group. Ranfa nodded and stepped forward, "We have yes. There is a small bit of residual disturbance on some of it, which matches up with what we discovered at our contact's residence as well."
"I see," Oroske sighed, "We hadn't found any at our location, but if there's disturbance that matches between here and there, that's pretty solid evidence. Kuro," he turned to me, "draw your weapon, you get to do the honors."
"Huh? What honors?" I said as I waved my hand to draw my weapon from my Demon Sheath.
"You get to piss off the ghost," He said as he kinda pushed me towards the pile, "Just stab the pile or pull something off, or something."
It finally clicked. Ah, Restless like restless spirit. Got it. I thought to myself as I hesitantly brought my sword to a large patch of dirt in the pile. Gulping down my sudden fear, I stabbed my sword into the dirt.
…
Nothing happened.
"Try pulling one of those chairs off of it," Ranfa suggested.
When it fell to the ground, in addition to a light thud there was also what could only be described as a hissing sound. I looked in the direction the sound came from, only to see a ghostly white figure standing behind Jarou and Nadred. The panic must've shown on my face, because they turned around shortly after. Jarou practically jumped when he saw it.
Everyone drew their weapons as it hissed again. I was one of only three that didn't elect to use a scythe, along with Ari and Ranfa. Ari's weapon was similar to mine, just a simple hand-and-a-half sword, but Ranfa's was way cooler. It was a large greatsword with a fur covered handguard. I started to understand her aesthetic a bit more seeing that it matched her cloak, which had a furry lining.
Why must you all always destroy what I hold dear?
I was taken aback. All I heard was the hiss, but somehow, I could tell what it was thinking.
"So, what do we gotta do to make you pass on normally?" Oroske asked, slinging his scythe over his shoulder, "Or are we gonna have to do this the hard way?" I wondered if he also understood it.
Who cares? Just let me keep my treasures. The Restless hissed again.
"Treasures, huh?" He said, looking back at the pile. He gave a small, sad looking smile, "Sounds like you lived a wholesome life if that stuff is what you find valuable. All the more reason you deserve to rest." That last statement was filled with resolve.
The Restless must have taken it as a sign of hostility, as it immediately began to attack. The more experienced members of the group jumped back, "Alright you youngsters got this," Nadred said, "We'll step in if needed."
I had trailed the adults with my head, snapping back to face the Restless after he said that. I took a deep breath and recalled my combat training. Wait, I haven't learned anything about fighting Restless, I realized quickly. Eh, they look human enough, how different could they be from fighting a person?
Turns out, very. I launched myself towards the restless, using wind magic to boost my speed. Just before I got into striking distance, suddenly a very powerful gust of wind stopped me mid air, before throwing me backwards. I managed to land on my feet somehow, and didn't get particularly hurt.
"Ari, together now!" Fyr called to the blonde girl next to him. The two took a much more grounded approach, with Fyr running at the target from behind, and Ari from the front. I saw Jarou running towards the target as well, from the side. When we made eye contact he nodded at me, then nodded to the target. I think I understood what he meant, and started to charge from the opposite direction, creating a four way pincer attack.
Fyr grabbed his Return to Dust scroll from his pocket, and gestured to Jarou, Ari, and I to do the same. Shorty after the Restless hissed again, and attacked. Either it didn't realize it was the target of a pincer attack, or just decided to go for the person directly in front of it, but it quickly lunged at Ari, transforming its arm into a piercing spear. She dodged it at the last minute, having it just barely nick her cheek. She quickly closed the small gap between them and punched it in the stomach area with her free hand, which was clenching the Return to Dust spell. Along with the punch, it seemed she put some magic into it, as the Restless' body was sliced in half by the punch. It quickly started to rejoin with the bottom part of its body, but it seemed like it was stunned for a second.
Fyr presented the Return to Dust spell, unrolling the scroll and placing the parchment on the blade of his scythe as he neared striking distance. After which, he swung his blade horizontally, aiming for its neck. The blade weightlessly cut through with no resistance, and the Restless went still.
There was a brief moment where the only things happening were Jarou and I running towards the target still, before the body of the Restless lit up a bit, before dissipating into glowing dust. The dust slowly faded away, and there was still a little bit left by the time Jarou and I got close.
"Are you okay, Ari?" Fyr asked, bending down slightly to inspect her cut.
"Yeah, I'm okay," She said, wincing a little at the pain as she wiped the blood off her face, "Just a small cut, I'll be alright." She smiled up at him.
"Well done you four," Xeron congratulated as he approached, clapping.
"Indeed," Oroske followed up, "Ari and Fyr, you two work really well together, I can tell you've been involved in training together already. And of course, Kuro and Jarou also worked well with you, adapting to the pincer attack quickly. Consider me impressed!"
"Well put, Oroske. Though, if what you said earlier is true, we've only taken care of part of the problem." Nadred inputted.
"What do you mean?" Ari asked.
"At the site we investigated, not only was there no evidence of a Restless, there was very obvious evidence of someone using a shovel or other tool to dig up the dirt. Meaning…?"
"There is someone else messing with stuff?" I offered.
Oroske snapped his fingers and pointed at me, "Bingo. Luckily, in this case we can merely include that in our report and that'll be that."
"Oh good," Orun sighed, "I've gotten tired walking around with you guys all day."
"That's… all you did though," Xeron prodded, "But in all seriousness, good job you all. All that's left is to report to HQ and 'turn in' the Hunt."
"We don't need to clean up or anything here?" I asked, worried about the pile and the ruined garden.
"Nah, as this is a Training Hunt it'll be handled like the aftermath of real Hunts, in which the officials involved with hiring us will take care of it," Oroske explained as we began our journey back to the plaza, "We're Hunters, not cleaners."
It was now fully nighttime, it was nearly 8:30PM when we returned to the HQ. Compared to the dark outdoors, inside the HQ was almost blindingly bright "Ah, welcome back!" Venn greeted us with a cheerful smile, "How did your Training Hunt go?"
"Pretty well, mind if I grab a report sheet?" Oroske responded.
She filtered through a drawer on her side of the desk, and handed him a sheet of paper. "Do you need a pen as well?" She asked, gesturing to the container with several of the writing utensils.
Oroske thanked her and took her up on the offer, and we all went and sat down at one of the lounge tables, around the same area Oroske and I waited for Danfis when I first woke up. It was hard to believe how much time had passed since then, but even more so how little time had passed. Oroske silently filled out the paper, then had us all sign and write our names at the bottom to verify our participation. He then went and handed it back to Venn, making sure to return the pen as well.
We all returned outside and bid each other farewell. "We'll have a follow-up meeting tomorrow around 12PM, make sure you're all there," Nadred said as the group split up.
I was now one step closer to becoming a Navy Cloak Hunter again. All that was left was to take my exam, which I still needed to continue training for.