The Sun beaming into her eyes, the sweat going down her entire face—she could not care less. "Clang! Clank, clank…" The pedals spun as she threw the bike aside.
She reached for the handle, panting before the door opened itself. "Huh!?"
"Meko?" Hotaru stood, wearing her trench coat and Asobi from behind her, "Where have you been? Jotou's mad you took her bicycle you know."
"Were you going somewhere?"
"Uh huh! Me and Hotaru were gonna go see Hotaru's father! Wanna come?"
"NO, NO, NO! Inside!" Fumeko put her arms to the doorframe and forced them back into the house.
"Tch, Fumeko! Stop," Hotaru pushed her aside. Her tail and ears already spiked up, "I already made breakfast, so go eat all you want. I have to go deal with this."
"I can assure you, it's not as important as this!"
Hotaru pinched the bridge of her nose, "Listen, my dad's in jail in the Magistrate District. I'm not going to go have tea, just bail him out and I'll be back. Whatever it is, it can wait."
"The Magistrate District!? NO! Wait… no velatos attacks are in the Magistrate District; it makes sense now!" Fumeko ran into her room.
"What? This is something about a velatos? Why didn't you start with that?" Hotaru shut the door.
"Maybe she ate a lot of sugar?" Asobi poked a wand into her chin.
"I didn't!" the brunette grunted out the room, heaving her evidence board out of her room, "And yes, this IS about the Velatos Case!"
"Slam!" It went on the coffee table. "Did a velatos make you so sweaty?" Asobi loomed a finger over the red string.
"Don't touch that!" Fumeko smacked her hand away. "Wait, there's something blonde missing. Where's Jotou!?"
"Jotou went by carriage to her training because you stole her bicycle… What is all of this? I thought the ghost broke your board," Hotaru folded her arms.
"Shit! Fine, I'll explain to you two first. Sit down Aru…"
_
"So… the Regime alongside Lexi and Moren started the Velatos Case, so that they could come into Kria and sneakily take over.
At the same time the information about this out of Kria is not the truth of what's happening here… And we're being watched by spooky people all this time?"
It was as if Fumeko's board of evidence was taken out and animated as the elf pointed her wand all over the place, trying to understand.
"I was expecting something stupid from you, but that about summarizes it I guess. I remember you saying something about the Krialin's funding? The day we met," Fumeko looked to Hotaru.
Her brows furrowed and ears were spiked; she kept following the red lines, "Yes, I did. The, Adventurers Guild and the Maleficos Ordinate are both funded by the governments worldwide.
Kria's no exception, but taxes are also pooled to the Krialin. The funding for the organizations were split equal, but the case made Kria Estate allocate more share to the more effective organization to deal with the case quicker…
If that's the plan, then the guild's funding and the Ordinate's funding skyrocketing was part of the plan, while Moren Mataya paid off the lack of funding for the Krialin directly.
This is all… A lot to take in… You figured out the case Meko," Hotaru stared up.
"I, wow… I did- I mean, of course I did!"
"Well, there's still some missing info, but if we can't take this to the Krialin, then we'll have to directly go to the mayor. Jack might know what to do."
"W-wait, who can we trust? Meko said there's more spies than food in the fridge. If there's creepy people watching us, won't they know?" Asobi hid behind her hat.
"That's true, but the fact we haven't been killed yet means something," Fumeko replied.
"We're going to be killed!?" Asobi ran behind the sofa.
"Calm down Sobi, we're not gonna get killed," Hotaru peered behind.
"Actually… Jotou's apparently a kink in all their plans. I didn't even see my name and Asobi was just a nuisance, but for some reason, they were worried about you the most.
They want to 'terminate' all of us and I think on that day, when the talking velatos attacked…"
Asobi was nowhere to be seen.
Hotaru's skin went pale… That thought had not even crossed her mind yet… "Moren Mataya was behind trying to kill… me… No wonder he let me into the guild so easily…"
"They were trying to group us up and end us?" Fumeko looked to her board again… "Aru? How exactly did you find me and Jotou on that day again?"
Her tail curled up in her lap, "I told you this that day; a lot of people were-"
"Yeah, but how EXACTLY."
She took a moment, staring to the floor as her hands glid over her tail, "I went around to the guild, bought some food like I usually did every morning before work…
Two people sat in the table next to me and they seemed like intermediate adventurers maybe. They talked about Jotou and you and how you two defeated a velatos without magic. Come to think of it, they didn't even look at me."
"Now's not the time to flatter yourself."
"No, Meko, people leer at me; much less sit next to the table I'm at. I was a regular and people knew I always sat there… You don't think…?"
"You were set up from the beginning to deal with three birds with one stone."
"What do birds and stones have to do- Birds don't eat stones!" a voice came from somewhere in the room.
Fumeko connected the strings and pins, "I still don't understand why I wasn't killed. Jotou they wanted to interrogate first and you kept healing yourself.
After that, the whale tried to get you, but then the spirit assassin went after Asobi because she was becoming a threat to the velatos themselves and because she's powerful."
"I am!?" Asobi appeared from behind the kitchen counter.
"Probably something subjective, get over yourself," Fumeko shook her head. Asobi poked a wand to her chin.
"We need to go… we need to go get- Jotou! We need to get Jotou, now!" Hotaru got up in a panic.
"Listen, Kor said to meet back up at the Ordinate and we're not sure who we can trust other than ourselves right now. I'm not sure about you, but I'm ready to leave. We need to get out of Kria."
"Fumeko… Kria, our house, we can't just…"
Asobi stepped over an illusion of her own body, "I did it!"
Fumeko glanced over then back to Hotaru, "What choice do we have? If there're spies everywhere what good's the mayor gonna do? We can get this information to somewhere like Cravolta instead."
Hotaru's ears drooped, "Meko this is my home… I can't just abandon it, especially when we can do something here, at least try before going to Cravolta."
"I left Burnetrout and now I'm ready to leave Kria. What matters is that we're together, please… We can't be a hero here and there's no telling who's around the next corner…"
The redhead's brows furrowed, "We can't just leave the people. We've done all of this, why stop now? We'll get Jotou back and we'll face it head-on. Can you live with yourself if you just leave like this? Because I can't."
"Hotaru…" the brunette whimpered, "I'm scared…"
Glaring eyes widened and the magician turned her glance… "Meko… Don't be scared," Asobi tilted her head, walking over.
Hotaru stared at the girl in purple, her brown eyes constantly darting, the sweat from cycling intertwining with that of fear… It was hard to tell little tears apart.
Hotaru kneeled in front of her, taking her hands, "Okay. We'll leave." Fumeko looked up into the brilliant blue eyes.
Asobi sat on the couch arm, swinging her legs as she patted Fumeko on the head. "Hey!" she protested.
"We'll go all together; just like a circus. Except we're more than a circus! Right Hotaru?"
Hotaru could still give a smile, "Right."
Fumeko peered to the both of them… There was no being cold, no being hostile, no snarky remark. There was no playing this off… She gulped, eyes darting away as her face went red, "Thank you…"
Hotaru sighed standing up, "Okay, let me get my dad out. He doesn't need to come with us, but I'd rather at least get him out before I go. Why don't you start packing your things."
"I can go get Jotou!"
"Ahem," Fumeko sat up straight, "I have the address to her master's place, take the bike."
"Ooo! The bicycle! I can use it just like Mr Fabtulo! Except not on a rope that will snap!" Asobi ran outside.
"I'm… sure that's a story for her to tell… You better give her the address before she cycles off. We'll divide and conquer and meet back at the Ordinate. Sound like a plan?" Hotaru beamed to the brunette.
Fumeko stood up, "Hmph! That was my plan wolfy. No need to take credit for it," she flipped her hair aside. Hotaru's tail wagged as she rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, that sounds like a plan."
_
She stuffed all that she could into that giant sack of hers. "I should probably get Jotou's stuff too," she remarked, opening her door.
Her eyes darted before her ears picked up. No one else was in the house… Then where was that sound coming from…?
Out the hallway, the sound of metal against porcelain. Her heart skipped a beat, a shiver down her spine before it went faster than when she was cycling across the city…
"What's the matter Namora?" Moren stirred the cup, "Don't you know to offer refreshments when guests are in the house?"