Tailo left his house late at night. He had been waiting for news from Misaki for several days, but no word had come yet. He made his way through the hilly streets of Iori city until he reached an inn. This was one of the most popular inns in the city.
Upon entering, his eyes searched for just one person. A man with messy black hair was entertaining himself with two women. Tailo walked toward them with determined steps.
"Crow, I've been looking for you," said Tailo, standing at the table with a stern look.
"Hey, use my name. Do you have a death wish?" Crow snapped angrily.
He gestured for the girls to leave. "What do you want now? Besides, I told you to use my real name when I'm not wearing my mask."
"So should I call you Senri Xigua then?" Tailo said mockingly.
"I told you not to use my clan name, you bastard! I'm not in the mood to deal with you - just say what you want and get out." Senri was fuming.
Tailo sat down in the chair across from him and ordered two beers from the server. "You know Hama is dead, right?" he asked.
Senri pulled out a pipe from his bag on the floor and started smoking it. "I know, he fought Kamiya and died by burning. When your report reached Misaki, it reached me too."
"Doesn't this make you angry? I thought your family takes revenge when someone is killed," said Tailo, taking a sip of his beer.
"My family does that, but I'm an outcast. I was pushed away because I opposed their stupid traditions and they couldn't force me to follow them. Probably no one would come after me if I died — though the man who could kill me hasn't been born yet, that's another story." Senri continued smoking his pipe with an indifferent attitude.
"I don't understand, how did such a closed-off family let you go?" Tailo was trying to get more information about the Xigua family from Senri.
"Because I'm strong, nothing else matters. Besides, I'm not sad about what happened to Hama, they were in debt to Misaki," said Senri.
"What do you mean?" Tailo was shocked. "Was Hama not actually kidnapped?" he thought.
"What do you mean what? The Xigua family became indebted to Misaki Pinguo because of an incident, but they couldn't pay it back. That crazy woman was interested in our powers. When they came with such an offer, she accepted it and took Hama in when she was young to raise her. Though, she normally wouldn't have lost to Kamiya so easily. I think they sealed her powers when they handed her over." He put out his pipe and put it back in his bag. "If you're going to keep talking, at least buy me a couple of beers," said Senri.
"I know you don't work for free, I'll give you some information too," said Tailo.
"I probably already know whatever information you're going to give me through my crows. But go ahead, tell me." Senri sat up straight.
Tailo told him everything that had happened. "I'm interested in those things you found in the basement, except for Sato's coffin. If I had been born a bit earlier, maybe I would have known about this, but I haven't heard anything about them." Senri's eyes were brimming with curiosity.
"Come to think of it, Hama was older than you, how do you know so much about him?" Tailo asked.
"There's only two years between us, not that much difference. From the moment I was born, all crows bowed before me. They've been telling me everything that happens around here since I was a child, and they still do." A huge smile spread across Senri's face.
"If you're so powerful, why work for Misaki?" Tailo found this meaningless, thinking he could have migrated to the empire and reached better positions there.
"The pay is good, plus I don't draw attention. Very few people take me seriously. You and I are old friends, and we fought side by side, even if briefly. If I were to be in the spotlight with my power, I'd probably have to play the bad guy, which is quite exhausting." Senri was drinking his beer as he spoke.
At that moment, two giant men carrying enormous swords entered. "This is supposed to be the best inn in the city, Obi, we can stay here for a while. Also, the man is supposed to be here," said Klenn while scanning the interior.
"There are so many people here, how will we find him?" said Obi while heading to the bar to order two beers.
Klenn approached Tailo and Senri. "Hello gentlemen, we're looking for a man called Crow, would you happen to know him?"
Senri smiled widely. "Coming straight to me instead of asking the innkeeper is quite strange. I guess you know exactly what you're looking for."
"My instincts are good. I'm guessing you're the one. Name's Klenn." He extended his hand.
"I'm Crow, you can get any kind of information for a price. Though I don't come cheap." Senri firmly shook Klenn's hand. For a moment, a strange red-black aura spread around them. Klenn's eyes widened - Senri had gripped his hand quite hard. Though it didn't hurt him, he thought that if anyone else had been in his place, their arm bones would probably have been completely shattered.
Klenn took two chairs from the adjacent table without asking. A drunk man sitting at the table suddenly snapped: "Hey, bastard, got a problem?"
Klenn turned around. "I'm sorry, I should have asked. May I take these?" he said.
When the drunk man saw Klenn for a moment, his senses returned. "No problem friend, I mistook you for someone else. You can take them," he said, swallowing hard.
"Thanks." Klenn sat in the chair as Obi came over with four beers. "Seems like you've found our friend," said Obi, turning to Tailo. "I'm Obi, you must be Crow."
"Oh no, I'm Tailo, I should have introduced myself. That's Crow, I'm just his friend," said Tailo, pointing at Senri.
"Well, now that we're all acquainted. I'll take your question - if I know about the topic, I'll quote you a price and tell you if you pay," said Senri.
"That's a reasonable offer, though we don't have much money. I hope you can arrange something suitable for us," said Klenn.
"Of course, you can pay in other ways too," Senri said with a grin.
"No, no! We're not gay, isn't there another way?" Obi said frantically, gesturing with his hands.
Senri and Tailo burst out laughing. "Ha, that's not what I meant," said Senri. "If you can provide me with information I don't know, I'll accept that instead of money."
"Oh, sorry." Obi put his hand on the back of his neck.
"There are actually a couple of things I'm curious about, though they're unrelated to our main request. I don't think this will be too expensive. Would it be okay if I bought you a beer in exchange?" said Klenn, extending the extra beer Obi had brought to Senri.
"You need to tell me what it is," said Senri, pointing to a spot on the table.
"Acceptable. Since you were there, you must know I wasn't present. Clever, this way you'll be able to verify I'm not giving false information, Mr. Klenn. So it seems you're not all brute force," Senri praised. He looked at the massive swords resting on their shoulders. It irritated him that he had no idea what they were. He was quite curious and already knew what he wanted besides money.
"Here's what happened: Numbers three, four, and five from an organization called Kaguyaku-chi attacked the village with hundreds of puppets. Since the puppets were weak, the village wasn't completely destroyed. Anyway, back to the point. Number five teleported the puppets to the center of the village. Then complete chaos broke out. They waited for Kamiya to leave the village and attacked their real target, Yahiro. The fight seems to have ended very quickly. While number five was creating a distraction, number three attacked with all their abilities," Senri explained, detailing the rest of the battle.
Tailo broke into a cold sweat. "They attacked because of the information I gave. Even though I hate Kamiya, it's sad that lives were lost needlessly," he thought and swallowed.
"Do you know the names of these mask wearers?" Obi asked curiously.
Senri smiled again. "That information is incredibly expensive, since nobody knows them. But I can tell you Number Three's name - his identity was recently exposed and it's spreading quickly: Uchiyama Naizen. Other information about him is mostly rumors, nothing else important to tell." said Senri. "I assume that's sufficient for you."
"I have one more question, also unrelated to the main topic." Klenn passed another beer to Senri.
Senri looked at the beer. He had three beers in front of him and hadn't paid for any of them. He looked at Tailo and thought "This idiot wouldn't be satisfied with just one beer, seems the payment hasn't been made yet." He pushed two of the beers towards Tailo. "You drink these, I don't want to fill my stomach yet," he said while staring intently at Tailo. Tailo's face lit up. "Ah, thanks Crow." With that, he downed half of his first beer in one gulp.
"Our other question is," said Klenn, his face turning serious as he placed his elbows on the table, "how did the man called Kenshin Seiryo obtain the Cursed Phoenix Heart?"
"This question costs more than one beer, but since it's not your main topic, I'll give you one beer's worth of information. A warrior, or in your language a wizard, brought six eggs and a heart here. The location of two of these eggs is known. There's no information about how the heart passed to Kenshin - maybe he found it by chance, maybe someone gave it to him, or perhaps Kenshin was just an experimental subject." Senri answered seriously and left his words hanging in the air.
"I see, I think this wizard is the person we're looking for," said Klenn and showed his palm, signaling Obi to show his as well.
Senri's eyes widened, he leaned forward and whispered: "Holy shit, did you make a pact with a dragon?"
"Yes, we accidentally entered its territory. It was going to kill us, but it said a wizard of our kind had stolen its egg. If we bring back the egg, it promised to set us free and empower us," said Klenn. He wondered why Obi hadn't jumped into the story. After all, he loved telling stories. When he turned his head to look, he saw that Obi had drunk six mugs of beer. "You bastard, did you spend all our money on beer? You idiot," Klenn said angrily. Obi had already dropped his head on the table and was dozing off. He was still listening, hadn't lost consciousness, but couldn't control his body.
"I've heard these dragon pacts usually end up being like a curse," said Tailo. "Does this symbol cause you any harm?"
"Yes, we have about a year," said Klenn, showing the shape. "Every line that forms around this circle shows the passing of time. When the circle is complete, we'll lose total control of our bodies. As time passes, we get stronger but we also lose control. That's why we must find the egg and return. Crow, do you know the location of this egg or the sorcerer?"
"To be honest, I don't know the sorcerer's name, but I know who might have the egg," said Senri. "In exchange, first tell me how you obtained these swords."
"Ah, these are dwarf craftsmanship. Where we come from, there are dwarves who forge magnificent items. They're also incredibly powerful warriors, unmatched in close combat. I don't think there are any dwarves here, we haven't encountered any. They combine body parts from energy beasts or normal beasts with materials to create powerful items like these. We found a blacksmith in this city who makes something similar, but it was quite expensive," said Klenn.
Tailo was a bit surprised. The essence of these swords was similar to the necklace he used. The difference was that these swords contained both energy parts and physical parts, while his necklace only contained the monster energy essence stone that carried the beast's energy.
"Dwarves, you say... I've read about them in a couple of books, and your words have officially confirmed their existence. Ah, should I perhaps go on a journey?" Senri paused. "Well, back to your question - this payment doesn't warrant giving you a name. However, your target should be Kaguyaku-chi member number two. They have the dragon egg, and you're lucky, it doesn't have a carrier yet." Senri finished with a smile and took a sip of his beer.
"What does it mean to not have a carrier?" said Obi, his words barely intelligible as his cheek was pressed against the table.
"Energy, mystic, or ancient creature eggs come in two forms: physical and energetic. You can make a person into a carrier - in this case, the egg feeds off their energy and lives inside them in an energetic form. You either make a pact or it takes complete control. According to rumors, some people capture evolved creatures that aren't in egg form and forcibly seal them inside, but I've never seen anyone alive who's done this. Of course, you can either fully release the egg or absorb it while it's still in egg form, but each of these stages is very difficult. I think the egg you're looking for will be used by one of the members, but I don't have detailed information about what they plan to do with it," said Senri, then downed the rest of his beer.
"It's gotten quite late, let's break up now. I think I've answered everything," said Senri.
Klenn was pleased to hear all this; he now had a target: find Number Two and get the egg back from them. "Thanks Crow, after three months we'll finally be able to make some progress."
They stood up and said their goodbyes. Klenn managed to lift Obi up with difficulty. "Where are we staying now, are we outside again?" he muttered angrily. Obi raised his hand and showed the key. "Ah, so that's what you were spending the leftover money on. Good, at least we can get through tonight."
They gathered themselves up, went to their rooms and fell asleep with the happiness of making progress.