Mr. Arasaki's six man team gathered in the premises of the North military base.
This had been their gathering spot for the number of days they had been on the case of the investigation of mage spies in the temple.
It had been two weeks since they were assigned the mission.
Mr. Arasaki has been leading them everyday since then on every patrol.
They had covered most parts of the temple but still had not found any sign of what they were searching for.
Asides Mr. Arasaki, the rest of the five men were noble Sohei of the North that the council found worthy enough to take on this most sensitive mission being picked based on sheer trust and power level.
They were set to continue their search mission to find out whoever was the bad omen in the temple and bring them to justice.
The men, since they lived in the military base had already been outside a few minutes before Mr. Arasaki showed up.
They were preparing their horses and were gathering their weapons.
When Mr Arasaki got to them, they exchanged greetings and he inspected their gear.
The atmosphere was stygian even though it was morning around 11am.
The gathered clouds indicated that there was probably an upcoming rain.
A cool advection of wind swept across the area which left goosebumps on the skins of the team members as parts of metal sheets on their suit ups touched their skin every now and then as they made movements.
"Today we'll deploy a new strategy".
Mr. Arasaki said as he started addressing his men.
"Rather than go in pairs like we have done since the beginning of this mission, we all patrol singly and converge at the end of the day to share whatever we have learnt from our survey.
The goal is to search the streets into every existing neighborhood to find any signs of an enemy's presence.
Once we can find clues, vigorous investigation must commence.
Those found around must be taken into custody and thoroughly investigated.
We converge by 6pm at the military base.
Any questions?"
Mr. Arasaki asked after he concluded.
"No sir".
The other five members replied almost in unison.
"Let's head out then".
Mr. Arasaki said as he moved towards his horse.
They all mounted their horses and walked off in different directions as instructed by Mr. Arasaki.
**************
Zelda kept on adjusting her head not finding a good spot on the suppressed pillow on her bed in her room.
Her dad had already gone into the city and she was off work at the hospital today.
She laid there uncomfortable on the bed, alone in the house, trying to find sleep but not getting it.
Her expression was pale and her hair was messy.
She was still in her night clothes meanwhile afternoon was already fast approaching and she was still unmotivated as regards getting out of the bed, even though she had begun to get uncomfortable from lying down for a very long time while not sleeping.
She looked at the mini clock on the bed cupboard (where she had also kept Usher's tool bag) beside the bed for the umpteenth time and turned again to wrap herself with her blanket.
It had become clear that she had no plans of leaving the bed.
The stygian weather was one of the pioneers of this sluggard demeanor she was assumed on this particular day as she was almost always active and not usually sluggish in her approach to doing things.
Her head was filled with the thought of Usher and it had been mostly so all night, such that even the realm of her dream wasn't spared.
She was dazed by the thought of him.
Probably her slackly attitude was due to an uneasy spirit.
She was weak in spirit and there is nothing the spirit can do even if it's willing while the flesh is weak.
She kept on guessing where he came from, what happened to him, why his arm was lost and what brought him to the outskirts of the city.
Nothing made sense and it kept on frustrating her and she demonstrated it every once in a while by suddenly grabbing her head tight with her two hands expressing the stress her brain was going through.
Now how could she find him? She thought.
At this point, her eyes were closed as she laid on her side, facing the window.
The ambient light filling the room through the window caused her closed eyes to see a residue of faint red light filtered in by the skin of her eye lids.
She was like this for a while before she eventually decided it was time to get out of her bed.
As she was still sluggishly trying to completely accept the thought, she felt a swift passing of darkness that covered the faint red she was seeing from beneath her eyelids and left in an instant.
At first, she felt probably a bird flew past the window.
But then after reconsidering she opened her eyes.
She knew it wasn't a bird.
The window shook significantly well at the gust of wind created by whatever passed.
It wasn't an animal, which animal would move that fast? Or even move without making any sound?
She then sat up.
This finally got her to completely awake and to stand up not really because she was afraid or anything but because of the sheer disturbance.
She didn't even consider the whole incident as all that was on her mind as she got up was how to get on with the day, chores and everything.
She stretched and yawned.
Taking one good look at her messed up room, her first incentive was to start the day by cleaning it up.
She headed for her room door and opened it with her right hand, her left palm rubbing her eyes.
As she stepped out the room door, she bumped into something.
"Huh...?"
She said with a confused expression she was not expecting anything to be in the front of her door. Or was this a prank by her father? She thought as her head was still bent down her hands rubbing her eyes.
She lazily raised her head up to see what was there.
"Aaaaaaaarrrrrrghhhh....!!!"