The steam of the bath was thick, fogging up the entire room as others chattered and bathed. The numerous voices were unintelligible as it all blended horribly. Except for Lita, whose voice's struggle stood out.
"What do you mean they're the reason your father is dead?" Mana questioned. Wanting to be done with the bath quickly, she nearly sprinted into the mini pool, tossing her towel onto the side but placing her knuckles gently onto it. "What happened, Lita?" she asked, lowering herself quickly, hoping no one was paying attention to her.
Lita stood up immediately; the water only to her knees. Mana quickly looked away; she really didn't know how to handle public bath houses.
"You literally have the same features," Lita giggled, attempting to get out of her temporary sadness. "But if you really want to know, I'll tell you in private," she said, making her way out of the bath. "Don't follow me, you stink," she smiled as she made her way towards a rack of towels. "Also, those weapons change. Click them together. You look funny always walking around with them on your hands." After wrapping herself up, she started towards the changing area, disappearing into the steamy fog.
Mana peered at her weapons; they change? She glided through the water towards them, how did I not realize that? She thought. She picked them up quickly, holding one in each hand before lightly tapping them together.
Nothing.
She tried again, and again; every time, it was the same outcome.
Then she finally put them on, immediately feeling a powerful connection course throughout her body. She clicked them together once more, but this time while they were on her fists.
Her weapons began to glow for a brief second, before breaking down into a fine, glowing dust that gravitated towards her wrists. The grounded, glowing metal swirled for just a moment before solidifying, turning into golden bracelets on both wrists.
The power still flowed strongly. How did Lita know to do that?
Mana quickly washed up, not wanting to stay around naked strangers any longer, and needing to know more about what was going on inside Korokin Village.
After rinsing the last bit of soap from her hair, she dashed towards the changing room where Yuri said her clothes would be. Upon a stool, folded nicely, was her green tank top and her shorts, while on the floor were her favorite boots. She didn't know what made her more excited; the new jewelry or her favorite outfit.
"Lita told me you were wondering about our father," Mana heard Yuri say from the doorway going back to the front. She turned to look at her, who was standing there with her arms folded into one another, and she was glaring at Mana. "You have no business knowing. You got what you needed from us, now leave."
She was confused. What did the guards do to their father? She wondered as she was shooed out of the store by a very angry Yuri immediately after dressing.
"You do your job, pay your debt, then leave. Do not come back," she warned as she watched Mana walk away.
Something more was obviously going on than just some mutated deer running about.
She hastily made her way down the dirt road looking for her cat and personal bodyguard, mainly using her nose to find them. She remembered him telling her where they would be.
Only a few stores down from where she was just banned, she found Viktor slumped over a table. Fluffy had nearly finished an entire roasted chicken by himself, and it was apparent Viktor didn't have a bite. She slid in next to the dying guard, but he only grunted to greet her.
"Something's not right with the guards," she informed them. She didn't want to tell them what happened to her, but she told them what happened to the twins.
Viktor came back to life, "what do you mean? Are they alright?"
"One, calm down," Mana raised a finger to hush him, "two, the guards are pigs, and three, the twins said the guards killed their father."
Another roasted chicken was brought to the table as Fluffy stared at it, licking his whiskered lips. As the 8-year-old waiter set the meal onto the table, Fluffy turned his head slightly to cover his mouth with his tail. "Thank you, dear sir," he said.
While the boy locked eyes on Viktor, who was not talking when a man obviously was, Fluffy quickly uncovered his face and bit the boy's hand.
"Ow!" The boy screeched, dropping the food onto the table and taking off towards the kitchen.
"I can't stop him," Viktor moaned in defeat. He turned to Mana, "well, you're here now." He began ripping both legs off the chicken simultaneously, "I'll see if I can find anything going on. Corrupt guards always slip up somewhere," he told her in between bites. "But in the meantime, we do owe our hosts. Even if the guards are corrupt, it is still something that will help these innocent people." He took a giant sip of water he had reluctantly agreed to accept earlier, "and it'll help your agility. For someone who is supposed to be a quick in and out; you didn't have much out."
"Excuse me for having to do a supreme guardsman's job at only level 5," she mocked him, making up a random rank.
"Just kiss already," the cranky cat hissed through his munches of chicken. Mana and Viktor both shot him a look of disgust.
"Eat up, Mana, and get something to drink. We have a long day ahead of us, I can feel it now." Viktor sighed, "I don't regret helping you, I don't; but why is it, you're always finding something that just completely sucks?"
"What do you mean?" She chuckled, taking a few bites of chicken.
"What I mean is; by the time we get to Midflora, that letter your sister had gotten will be a scroll."
"Eradicating the rot will not be a straightforward thing, Viktor. I've already accepted the scroll," Mana took a dainty sip of Viktor's water with a smirk; Her anxiety for adventure was rapidly turning to excitement.