Free Web NovelChapter 489: Arc 6, Chapter 105: Tension in a Taut String
’If I want to find Jotou and Kineko, I need to find where they live, or at least are stationed at. But if it was so easy to do that...’ Fumeko sighed the steam away from her mug of coffee.
Quiet. Cutlery hitting plates were surely audible, but no; the quiet was felt as no word left the lips of anyone at the dining table. Four seats—each taken on each side.
Fumeko looked right across to the redhead who watched her plate as if it was a coffin with a corpse inside that she mourned. Asobi to her right, was drinking up orange juice after her plate was cleared. Tiffany to her left, kept her head low and ate her food.
The brunette then turned her head to the living room, where blankets laid draped over the sofas and cushions were piled up on four different sides. She then leered back at the redhead.
’One night together doesn’t mean wolfy’s gonna be fine forever. At least we all got some sleep... Even then, Aru doesn’t sleep-in like she did. I don’t think Tiffy knows about Aru’s I-need-to-stab-myself problem; don’t remember if Sobi does.’ "Hotaru."
The wolf-woman’s ears were a little slow to react, "Hm?" she faced up.
"Lady Pinberry had me at her office to read out everything that’s... mine now. She said she’d send it here whenever she could. Do you mind taking a look at them?"
Hotaru’s head bobbed up and down, "S-sure, I can. I’ll do that cause I can." freewebnσvel.cøm
’She said like she can’t...’ Fumeko massaged the bridge of her nose. ’How am I gonna do all of this?’
"Delicious breakfast Stella! Thank you very much!" Asobi got up from her seat and pointed her wand at the ceiling.
Tiffany scrambled to look around, "Uh, I-it wasn’t much... I just p-put bacon in a pan and the... grease to fry the eggs," her voice vanished into a whisper.
"It was great!" the elf insisted with a point of her wand.
"O-oh-you’re welcome?"
Asobi lowered her hand, "In fact, so great that I think Aru doesn’t have to cook anymore!"
Hotaru took notice and slanted her head to the side, "Sobi, I just slept a little longer today, I’m perfectly fine to cook food-"
"Shh..." an illusory white glove came to shush up the redhead by the mouth. "I want Stella’s food."
"I can’t cook that well, I just know some-"
"Shush," another white glove came to shut the blonde up. "That’s no way the Child of Void should speak!"
’What the fuck is happening...’
"Ugh!" Tiffany flapped her hand through the illusion to no avail. "Alright, fine! Just stop bloody shouting in the morning!" she yelled. "Get this stupid hand away from me!"
"Then it’s settled," Asobi dispelled the illusions by popping them into confetti.
Hotaru’s ears were folded to rest flat against her head. "Whatever," she dismissed.
"We have enough money to order any food we need anyway," Asobi stated. The raven-haired elf then looked at Fumeko, "Meko, do you know where Detective Aetherton might be?"
Fumeko furrowed her brows, "No...? She’s probably at home, or I guess she could be looking into dad’s death."
"Then you should probs find her today; I think it’ll be helpful," Asobi advised.
Fumeko gave it a moment’s thought so that she could retort or reject the suggestion, but quickly came up empty-handed. "Sure," she dispassionately replied.
The magician poked a wand under her chin, "Or do you have something else you’re thinking of doing? Like finding Jotou and Kineko?"
"I’d like to, but I don’t have much of a starting point. The cult moves quickly, even when they broke in to the house. They have access to teleportation, so tracking them physically’s impossible.
It’d be something the Department of Arcana would be searching for and clearly, they’ve rarely noticed massive spells within the city, so."
"Mmh," Hotaru met the brunette’s gaze and perked up. "Teleportation; tracking. Uh, the grand alderman said something about it when Jotou and I met her. The department couldn’t passively detect large-scale magic and it has a set range.
And even so, the magic can be cloaked. Sir Vogel can explain better apparently," she conveyed.
’Sure, that explanation makes me complain less about my government, but it doesn’t exactly help... ...! I guess it’s worth understanding how the cloaking would work. Maybe that’s a lead.’
"Which reminds me, she also said we won’t be impeded by any government organizations going forward. Not a lot’s stopping us anymore, but it’s also not some kind of authority," Hotaru continued.
"It definitely sounded like one when she got me out of police custody yesterday," the brunette made mention.
Hotaru’s brows wrinkled, "It’s already in effect?"
"Why didn’t you say so last night?" Asobi asked.
Fumeko narrowed her eyes at the both of them, "Sorry, nothing else is going on in mind over the past couple of days and it must’ve just slipped by."
"It’s okay, I forgive you," the elf smiled.
The detective’s glare deepened.
"I was just kidding! Sorry. But that’s good, we can do things a little easier now."
"Advantageous as the boon granted be, the foremost factor to investigate is most incontestably the study of the late detective, would it not be so?" Tiffany corrected her posture.
’I know I have to.’ "I’m not too keen rummaging through my dad’s stuff right now," Fumeko crossed her arms. "If he knew an inkling of a location he would’ve told someone close. I think Mrs Aetherton’s my best bet."
"Knock! KNocK! kNOck! Knock-Knock! Knock!!!"
Everyone jerked back or flinched at the sudden series of knocks at the door; except Fumeko who indifferently turned to face it... She stared for a moment, but then quickly remembered she could not blink to the door and sighed as she got up from her chair normally.
"Knock! Knock!" "Knock-knock, anyone home? I got stuff."
Fumeko opened the door and Ben barged in, "Hey, hey," he told everyone and shut the door behind him. He panted and leaned his back against the wall, "Fuck me, these things have some heat on them."
’Great, I have to deal with this oaf in the morning.’
He was not wearing his armour; instead, it was completely black attire. His hair was a mess and sweat went down his cheeks while he wore on his forearms the thing he was referring to.
Segmented metal plates made up a pair of gauntlets, of which its articulated joints went up till the knuckles and left his fingers bare.
The glossy metal glowed a scarlet red, with a roiling flame pulsating in a central transparent node on each. It was from the node that the colour spread out across the weapon.
It had two massive plates layered at the top, where it far exceeded the width of Ben’s arms to the sides. The squarish plates extended past above the knuckles and had four small hammer-like instruments at the front. freēwebnovel.com
Gleaming with enchantments, the sleek yet bulky design stopped right at his elbows, but had two lines of metal along the sides of his arm and halfway up to his shoulders.
"Where the hell have you been?" Fumeko glared down while Ben slumped down to the floor.
"Dude, I don’t know," he was still catching his breath. "But these," he raised his arms to show the brunette. "This some cult shit, and it’s a goddamn magnet for gangsters."
Fumeko locked the door.
Ben noticed the other confused three at the table, "Sup. You guys haven’t found Jotou yet, right?"
"No, have you found any clues? Or have you found her?" Hotaru immediately got up from her chair and approached with haste.
"Fuck no, I’m just askin’," he shook his head.
"Explain yourself; how d’you get past security?" the detective asked.
"Oh well that, I just jumped over the fence. Explaining? That’s a long ass story- Phew," he attempted to use a breathing technique. "It started at the clocktower the other day. I snuck off and found some dude sneaking off with some box.
I staked him out and found a bar where he and his gang were hiding. I dealt with them just fine and got the box, which had these," he displayed his gauntlets.
"And what are they?" Fumeko set her eyes on it.
"An S-tier weapon, that’s what," he said with widened eyes. "A guy named Green-Fillet Johnes wanted to deliver it to the cult, it was for a new god."
’Deliver. ...’ Fumeko held a hand to her chin. The other two pushed aside their plates and joined the conversation.
"An offering to the false divinity. Pray tell, were their disciples present to collect that which now thou adorn?"
"No, but- Actually," Ben pointed at Tiffany, "That’s exactly it. It was an offering, not a delivery. They weren’t working with the cult; they wanted to, and these things were a way to gain their favour, I think."
Fumeko pursed her lips and broke her strings of thought. Disappointedly, she looked at him and confirmed, "So they didn’t know how to get to the cult definitively then."
"I don’t think so? The guy said he got some intel that they’d be at the clocktower and wanted to offer it there, but then he got trapped inside the bubble-barrier and the cult already left; when it popped, that’s when I saw him."
"Where did they get the information from?" Hotaru questioned.
"Uh, don’t know; I didn’t ask."
Asobi tilted her head, "Then where’s green-fish now?"
"Green-Fillet Johnes? He’s dead."
"Thou slew the sole source of intimation thou hast come across?" Tiffany’s brows furrowed.
Ben put his hands up and scowled, "I didn’t. Clyde shot him through a window."
"Clyde’s come to Dolpool?" the wolf-woman’s ears flickered.
"I don’t know anyone here using arrows, but I haven’t found him exactly. I beat Johnes unconscious, I didn’t kill him; here," Ben tried to reach into his clothes, however struggled to do so with the massive weapons.
"Regardless, you said that the bracers are a magnet for gangsters—why?" Fumeko crossed her arms.
"Will y’all let me finish!?" Ben waved his arms frantically at all of them. "Christ. Listen, they were made in Vandlevela, that’s one of the regimes, right? They wanted to send it to, and this is a guess, the four-armed lady—Lorelei- Forallei? Yeah, her; I mean look at these things.
I don’t know how they got it in the first place, but they did. I took out pretty much all of the Black Ladybug Boys. When Green-Fillet Johnes hit the floor, an arrow shot through a window and into his head, with a piece of paper that was pretty much a sign that Clyde’s on his revenge arc.
I had to get out of there with the box, but I opened it instead to check what it was. They were just some dull silver plates with leather straps that looked like bracers and I put them on and I felt heat and the they expanded and fixed onto my arms and then started glowing bright red.
I can’t take them off, I’ve been trying, and I heard reinforcements coming in. Luckily, I can still use my hands, a bit, but enough to scorch through them. And Jesus these babies pack a punch.
My magic’s like levelled-up, my arms are swinging wayyy faster and I don’t know what else they can do yet. So," he let out a heavy breath, "Ever since then, all sorts of gangsters are coming after me for it and I don’t know if they’re all the same gang, but I don’t think they are since some of them shot each other.
I don’t know how they keep finding me, my stealth’s fucking maxed out, but if I had to take a guess, they want these to send to the cult themselves. There, I’m done."
"Probably one of the smarter things you’ve said," Fumeko pondered aloud. "That implies that the gangs in Dolpool know of a way to contact the cult. Not to mention the fact that Green-Fillet Johnes got the information in the first place."
"If you wanna go find them, I can defo point the direction, but can someone get these off of me please?" Ben got up from the floor.
"I can pry them off of you," Fumeko unsheathed her dagger.
"There’s gotta be an off button," Ben shuffled away.
Hotaru approached and lifted one of his arms. She grazed her thumb across the hexagonal patterns that made up the texture of the bracers. "I’m not sure; if it’s a magical implement, you can usually will it to stop."
’Why does it look like... ... ...! Frost’s armour? But she’s from Trailon. Did the technology come from Vandlevela?’ "If you can’t think it off, then there’s probably some trigger," Fumeko very easily looked under the gauntlets.
The brunette found a small notch locked into place; she reached under and pressed the button poking out, inward... Nothing happened, until she slid it through the slit.
The roiling flames dimmed gradually and the hue of the bracers faded into greys. The plates assembled back into their compact form and the metal extensions retracted back down into the device.
Within seconds, Ben had one arm free, with but a leather strap that wrapped around his arm and a silver, disc-like metal plate at the top, with a clear crystal in the middle. "There’s a sliding button under them you dolt," Fumeko stated.
...
Ben looked underneath his other arm and did the same... He quietly took them off and held the bracers in his hands as he bowed to Fumeko, "Thank you, detective-sensei."
