Prytaneum
Blanching
"Shit!" I swore, setting down the dishes with a thought and draining the water quickly away from them. "Ryuu!"
I didn't know if she'd heard me and I was less than convinced that she would have cared, already leaving the kitchen behind and discarding her apron with a flourish as she ran through the bar. By the time I reacted and rushed to the kitchen door, she was already at the exit, and I saw several of the civilian patrons look up in confusion, hair rustling as if in the wind. For their part, the other waitresses were wide-eyed, but their eyes were trained on Ryuu, clearly following her as she moved. A moment later, the door of the bar clicked closed, even though I hadn't actually seen her exit.
Goddamn, she was fast.
"I'm done with the dishes!" I shouted across the room at Syr, who looked as if she knew something was wrong even though she was no more capable of following Ryuu's movements then the elderly couple she was waiting on. "I'll be back later!"
"Ryuu…?" Syr said, not even seeming to notice me until her eyes slid my way and widened. "Percy, what is—"
"Something from Ryuu's past came up and she had to go. Can you think of an excuse for Mama Mia?" I asked her, reaching the door in a single bound but pausing to look at her.
"Ryuu's…?" Syr began to mouth before her jaw snapped closed with a click. After a moment, she pursed her lips, eyes wavering uncertainly, but I just smiled at her once and she took a breath and nodded. "Percy, please…"
"I'll bring her back with me," I promised before pushing the door open and exiting the Hostess of Fertility.
Already, I was cursing myself for delaying, even if I hadn't wanted to worry Syr. Walking out into Adventurer's Street and trying to find her would have been a lost cause even if I hadn't let her widen her lead. I scanned the crowd quickly, searching for any sign of green hair and pointed ears, but it was a surprisingly common combination on this street, with dozens of elves walking on their own and in groups. If Ryuu was here, she would have blended in pretty well, even in her uniform. More likely, she was long, long gone.
Growling, I closed my eyes. My awareness of other adventurers was pretty worthless here, with so many indistinct signals burning against my senses, so I checked it once in the hopes that maybe I'd get lucky and then discarded it. With so many people nearby, the movement of the air against my skin proved similarly unhelpful, merely letting me know that there were people all around me. I couldn't hear anything useful, either; not over a street full of people walking and talking loudly, shopping and cheering and preparing for lunch. Finally, I sniffed at the air.
Scents wasn't as easy to interpret as sights or sounds, but it was something that things left behind, even after they were gone. Generally speaking, I'd rely on Mrs. O'Leary to sniff out clues, because she was, you know, a dog and way better at it than me—but see would also have been a somewhat alarming addition to a populated street and she'd never met Ryuu. All I needed was to be pointed in the right direction, anyway, because I had a good idea of where she was going, I just didn't know where it actually was. I just had to figure which of the countless scents that filled the street was hers.
Right off the bat, I smelt pasta and beef, pork and spices, alcohol, and about a million different scents that blended together into an utterly meaningless, confusing mess—the traces of all the customers that had passed through this doorway, along with the food made within. It was a deep scent, something that had been all but baked into the wood and stone of the entrance, something so immense that it all but swallowed anything more recent. If I'd been starting there, I wasn't sure if there would have been anything I could do, but I'd trained with Ryuu all morning and even if it wasn't something I actively paid attention to, I knew her scent. Following the paths out of that murky blob to where things were more distinct, I found a scent like wind through the trees, mixed with more pedestrian things like sweat and soap, and I let it guide my path right, down Adventurer's Way.
Using that and what little I did know, I began to jog in the direction of East Main, towards where the festival had been held before. Sometimes I'd lose the trail because it was covered by the other fresh scents of the street, but knowing a general direction meant I could just continue moving forward until I caught it again; I didn't need to retrace every step, just follow her lead and know when she changed directions. As long as I could keep track of her at forks and intersections, I was fine. Following her trail, I went almost as far as the East Gate before turning off into a wide alley with a surprisingly fancy looking door at the end. Flanked by marble columns, Ryuu's scent led straight to it—and it had a sign on it with a big, fancy looking Guild symbol on it that reminded me of police tape. Or maybe I just hoped it was police tape and not something like 'trespassers will die', because Ryuu had clearly gone right through it and I quickly followed through the open door.
The moment I did, I deeply regretted tracking her by scent, because she'd gone exactly where I'd expected—to the scene of the crime, down in the sewers. And, in case you were wondering, yes; they smelt like sewers.
Raising a hand to cover my mouth and shaking my head, I did my best to withdrew my attention from my nose, trying to push the scent aside. It was still bad, of course, but just a matter of more background details, another distraction to be ignored as a demigod, like the touch of air and the constant noises. Bracing myself accordingly, I walked down into the sewers themselves, and got my first good loot at Orario's sewer system.
It was disgusting and I said that as someone who came from New York.
Making a face but unfortunately having still seen—and even had to clean—way, way worse, I went down the right side of the tunnel, back towards the direction the monster had come up from, walking until I reached a side door that led to an underground waterway, judging by the feel of it. Except…even before opening it, I could tell that something was wrong. The entire room was flooded over ankle deep in water, though thankfully not the same water as in the rest of the sewers, and when I opened the door, the first thing I saw was a massive hole in the wall, as well as the walls behind it, several rooms deep.
…I hoped this was something the bad guys did and not just Ryuu getting impatient, but honestly, it could have gone either way.
Stepping into the water and shutting the doors behind me, I felt my senses sharpen and clear, helping me penetrate the darkness. Blinking several times, I felt my eyes adjust, not in the normal way, but like they did when I was in the depths of the sea, highlighting currents, the heat rising of living things, and detecting even the slightest bit of light or electrical current, borrowing some tricks from my father's kingdom. At the end of the tunnel, I could see Ryuu clearly, if not in a normally, against the darkness, and I walked across the water to reach her.
"Syr will worry if you just run off like that, Ryuu," I told her and I climbed up into what had probably once been a water tank before all the water spilled out. Ryuu was standing in the middle, surveying things in the darkness and probably noting the same signs of battle I did. Someone had come down her before us, maybe the Guild, and there'd been some kind of fight. When she didn't answer, I couldn't help but sigh. "Hey, I'll worry too, you know."
"You did well keeping up with me, Mr. Jackson," Ryuu said quietly. "But you should leave."
I considered that for a moment, looking around. Even with the difference in our Status, I was confident that I could see better in the dark, as long as there was water nearby, and I didn't see any other sources of heat besides Ryuu.
"They aren't here right now," I said, shaking my head. "And we don't know it was them, Ryuu; it was just an idea I had. I didn't think…I didn't think, I guess. I thought you should know, but maybe I shouldn't have said anything."
"No, Mr. Jackson," Ryuu said. "Thank you for telling me. If they truly were behind it, if some of them remain and are still attacking people, then it's my responsibility to deal with it."
"Is it, really?" I asked before letting my shoulders fall. I really wanting to argue harder, to tell her it wasn't or that she should let things go or give up her obsession with them—but I couldn't muster up the amount of hypocrisy it would require. "…And even if it is, they've left this place. If you're waiting for them to come back, I wouldn't hold my breath. If you're looking for clues, this place has probably been picked clean. Normally, I'd recommend asking the Guild for more information, but…"
"…How did you follow me, Mr. Jackson?" Ryuu asked. "You weren't behind me, of that much I am certain."
"I just tracked you by scent," I said. "And I had a feeling you would come here, I guess."
Ryuu turned towards me at that.
"What do you smell here?" She asked, apparently not caring about how I did it. I sighed, but focused again, sniffing at the air. Everything from the scent of smoke to fragrance of coffee reached my nose, owing to the people who must have beaten us here.
"A bunch of vague things," I said. "People were here before us and they walked all over this place, covering it in their scents. If the culprit was among them, I can't tell who they are."
"Could you recognize them if you smelled them again?" She asked.
"Maybe," I hedged. "But odds are, whoever punched a hole in this water tank did it to mask their scent in the first place."
Ryuu looked away again, hand clenched into fists.
"But…" I began, grimacing slightly. "I'll recognize the plant monster, at the very least. That thing is pretty distinctive. But I don't know how much it'll help unless we run right into them."
"I see," She said before falling silent. She didn't move.
"Come on, Ryuu. There's nothing more you can do in this place," I said, though I thought about calling Mrs. O'Leary. Her nose was far better than mine and if there was something there, she might be able to find it. I didn't think even she'd have much luck picking one scent out of several dozen, none of whom she was familiar with, in an area that had been covered in water, though—and if she did, I was worried how Ryuu would react. I'd look it over later and think about it then. "Come back to the Hostess with me. If we stay gone too long, Mama Mia will get mad at you and Syr will be sad."
Ryuu lowered her head, but didn't answer. Maybe she was debating her choices, trying to find something else. Maybe she was thinking about running away, hunting down clues to find them. It was enough to make me regret even mentioning the thought I'd had; if I had just kept my mouth shut…
But in the end, neither of us had enough knowledge to really do anything right now. All we had was the fact that there was an attacker and they may be related to Evilus, by virtue of being assholes. Nothing substantial, nothing to really work off of.
"I'll tell you what," I said after a long moment. "I'll ask around at the party, see if there's anything else I can learn. I intended to do that anyway and it's better than just waiting around here hoping for something to turn up, right? And I think we'd both do better working together than trying to tackle this alone, anyway."
"No," Ryuu replied. "You shouldn't get involved in this, Mr. Jackson."
"I feel pretty involved," I told her. "Seeing as their pet monster tried to kill me and all."
"Allow me to rephrase," She said, turning towards me. "You shouldn't get involved with me, Mr. Jackson."
I looked at her for a long moment, considering that before shaking my head.
"It's too late for that," I said. "Because we're already friends."
"Are we?" Ryuu asked, polite voice almost masking the challenge in it.
"We are," I confirmed. "You think so, too, or you wouldn't be so worried."
She fell silent again. I wasn't sure if Orario had anything like the Fifth, but it seemed to be her primary fallback.
"Come with me, Ryuu," I said. "I can help you with this. You know I can fight and I can make stuff, too. I can go places you can't, get information you need. I'll even introduce you to my friends. Trust me, Ryuu."
"…Okay," She said at last, her voice seeming distant but her eyes focusing on me. "Let us go back then, Mr. Jackson."
This time, my sigh was one of relief and I gave Ryuu a bright smile.
"Thank you," I said. "Do you mind if we make a quick stop on the way, though? I need to tell Welf and Wayland I'll be a while longer."
"Wayland?" Ryuu asked. "The smith?"
"Yeah," I said. "You know each other?