Stress ate at as I worked my way through Blue Crusade’s headquarters. Why was he calling so urgently? I could think of dozens of reasons, and none of them were good. Has soone figured out? Was my cover blown? Should I flee the city? Try to get away from the Blue Crusade? I could go to a city aligned with the Golden Spine Consortium.
Or was it sothing else? Had the Neo-Jokers found out it was and turned in? It would be just my luck to be arrested because a gang turned in. Or was it so other kind of bullshit? Maybe even the Jade Fangs? They’d been quite recently- er, at least quieter than usual. I hadn’t heard from Ishimaru in a while.
My hands were shaky as I trekked through the hallways to the Inquisitor’s office. My every step, I had to remind myself to calm down and I was just under the effects of the various Crusader’s masks. The crushing paranoia wasn’t even my own to begin with.
I stopped at the doorway. This was the last chance to flee. Nah, c’mon Shiro. Don’t wimp out. It's probably nothing. Hell, it might even be sothing in your favor for once. Maybe you won’t get shot in the foot just by interacting with the Inquisitor for once. I lightly wrapped on the door.
The Inquisitor’s icey cold voice called from beyond the door. “Enter!”
I took a stabilizing breath and wrapped my hand around the cold handle of the door. It was frigid and yet felt searing at the sa ti as I opened the door and stepped in.
The Inquisitor sat at his desk, as per usual. Hope sat across the desk in a chair, peacefully dozing off. Or at least she was dozing off. She snapped to attention as the door’s hinges squeaked. She rapidly blinked at , rubbing at thick bags under her eyes. “Hah…”
She actually looked in much better shape than the last couple tis I’d seen her. The thick bags were slightly less thick as if she managed to get at least thirty minutes of sleep. Her arm was also free of her sling for the first ti since I’d t her.
I stepped just behind the chairs in front of his desk. “Sir?”
“Good, you’re here… take a sheat.” Inquisitor Ligh nodded to the chair next to Hope.
Take a what- ah, take a seat. Right, that’s what he ant. I slid in across from him, taking the opportunity to glance at what he was working on. It looked like ledgers of so kind. His hands blocked the majority of the page, so I couldn’t tell what exactly they were for.
The Inquisitor shifted his head between the two of us, pausing longer on my face than on Hope’s. Then he pulled out a device from below his desk and activated it. It looked like a hockey puck, though with plenty of wires and thorn-like protrusions sticking out of it. Maybe a Scrambler? It looked like Shinobu’s from oh so long ago, though this one seed far more high-tech. The shield and wreath symbol of the Blue Crusade sat on top of it.
The guy’s next words imdiately set on edge. “What I’m about to shay doesn’t leave thish room, clear?”
“Sir.” I nodded, feeling my muscles tense up. I had a bad feeling I was about to hate what he had to say.
“Sure, whatever.” Hope leaned down onto her palms, resting her head gently.
“Good.” The Inquisitor leaned back in his chair. “Vio was found flatlined in his cell this morning, hanging from the rafters. The coroner’s first guess was suicide.”
Suicide, eh? Didn’t think the guy had it in him. Guess facing prison would be too much for the maniac who ruined so many lives at SPS. Though, the timing was a bit-
“It’s suspicious, Inquisitor. He was like a rat when we took him in, even taking his own subordinate hostage.” Hope slung her shoulders into a half-hearted shrug. “No way he’d ice himself.”
The guy humd. “My thoughtsh exactly. High chancesh we have a parasite amongsht us. The caras just happened to short out during Vio’s ‘suicide’.”
“Do you want us to root them out?” I asked, feeling a sense of trepidation. It would be difficult to root out one amongst the hundreds of people who could’ve had access to Vio. Not impossible, but definitely ti-consuming. Hell, it could’ve even been El Soga. I doubt it, but it did match his MO mostly. He liked to do things far more publicly though.
“No. I have a different mission in mind.” The man reached into his trench coat and pulled out a piece of paper. “I managed to extract so info from Vio before his untily demishe. I’ve got the location of a safehoushe. You two will raid it without , hopefully throwing our little worm off as I run dishtraction.”
The thought of raiding a base of our mystery group sounded just delightful. Hope sat up straighter as I felt my soul leak out of my body. “What are we expecting?”
“Heavy defenshes, but should be moshtly abandoned. From what I could tell, it’s a central gathering point left largely alone outshide of a defender or two.” Inquisitor Ligh’s voice seed to drop several degrees. “Lethal force ish authorized.”
Hope’s face drooped slightly. I couldn’t quite tell if it was just sleepiness or sothing else. “Backup? The other squires could help us out.”
The Inquisitor’s shiny silver mask flashed in the light as he shook his head. “They’re both running important jobs for … Zuku should be all the help you need.”
I’m sure my expression turned sour as I heard the guy. But what was I going to say? That I sucked at combat? I was supposed to be an actual squire who received training and everything as an aspirant before I was promoted. Sure, my records showed I was only trained briefly, but still.
I shifted focus. “Where’s it even at?”
“Underground, underneath Oldtown.” The Inquisitor passed a map. “Roughly in between the FSA bashe and the Corporate Quarter.”
I looked at the paper, ntally marking down the exact address. I pulled out my phone, quickly pulling the area up in the city archives. Unfortunately, the archives were typically barren of anything related to the Underground, and that little fact proved to be true this ti as well. It would be quite a bit of guesswork to find the place.
Hope looked over my shoulder at the piece of paper. “We’re going to need supplies. Masks, at least.”
”Got it covered.” The Inquisitor pulled two masks from below his desk. They looked like typical gas masks, though less bulky. “Don’t head to the armory and requesht anything for thish. We want as little trail as posshible. Ask directly if you need sothing.”
That sucked. Hmm… maybe I could get equipnt out of this still? “I’m low on equipnt though. I never got fully kitted thanks to supply shortages back when I was promoted.”
Hope frowned. “I could’ve sworn you had a vest though.”
”Had. It’s got holes in it. I could probably wear it and be fine, but…”
Inquisitor Ligh rifled through his desk, pulling out a mostly blank piece of paper. ”That’sh fine. I’ll write up a requesht. Just getting the base equipnt we give to shquires shouldn’t be problematic.”
“Won’t that take a while though?” Hope shifted in her seat, her eyebrows pulled tightly in concentration. Probably trying to piece together a ti fra, if I had to guess.
The Inquisitor remained silent for a few seconds as he started writing on the paper. “Go in three daysh. They may have bumped up the security since Vio was caught, but if we don’t make a move imdiately, they might calm down. The Crusade isn’t known for taking things shlow.”
We discussed the particulars of the raid over the next hour, though my mind was only half present. Hope already had a plan to get down there, which was nice. Plans of my own were starting to form in the back of my mind over how I wanted to approach this. I had three days to prepare.
As soon as we were done speaking, I headed ho. There were three things I wanted to do at least. Read the Mystical Agriculture book, make Molotovs if possible, and cash in the final Perk Point for Firearms. Not in that order.
I tossed my stuff off to the side, locked up my apartnt, and headed for bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was transferred to the pavilion. I wasted no ti heading for the Firearms shelf.
Just like First Aid, this was the first ti this particular shelf was present here, so I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what to expect.
「Killer」
「Death Stalker」
「Aether Shot」
「Kill Clip」
「First Shot」
「dic’s Intuition」
「Quiet Killer」
「Gun-Nut」
「Critical Hit」
「Mark of the rc」
「Bash」
「Ancient Firearms」
「Threat」
「Marksman’s Endurance」
「Killer’s Touch」
There were a lot of interesting Perks for Firearms. For instance, Killer would grant twenty tis experience gain for all Skills, but I could only gain experience through killing. An incredibly powerful Perk, but the drawback was too much for . That, and it would lock into a path I didn't really want to follow.
Quiet Killer was the sa thing as Silence for First-Aid, which was interesting. Basically, if I hurt soone with the intent to kill them, all of their actions would turn dead silent. I wasn't sure what all it entailed though. Like, what if they knocked sothing over? Would that make noise? Or if they shot a gun, would the gunfire make a noise?
Or even Ancient Firearms was super interesting. It was solely dedicated to muskets and the like from way back when. It was focused on boosting their effectiveness to compete with modern weapons through magical ans as well as granting intimate knowledge of them. Extrely tempting, but I doubt I’d be able to buy a musket or flintlock anywhere. I’d have to make my own, and at that point why not make sothing better?
I looked through the list, but nothing spoke to . I sat there for who knows how long just reading each of them over and over. Eventually, I decided to go back through the rest of the scrolls just in case I missed sothing I would like. Eventually, I found one.
「Dexterity - Increases weapon handling and movent speed while wielding a firearm.」
It seed a bit out of place at first glance. It was one of those Perks, like Death Stalker or Ancient Firearms that had dual requirents. In this case, it was Sleight of Hand and Firearms to level four.
I imdiately grabbed it and moved to the easel. I wanted it purely for the amp to move speed. If there was one thing I noticed during my rare fights since I got the interface, it's that I was far too slow. Insight gave warnings every ti I was about to get shot, but I was just too slow to dodge them. Hopefully, this one would help.
I tossed the scroll onto the easel, revealing a beautiful painting of soone in the midst of reloading. They were on a massive battlefield sowhere, and there were dead soldiers all around. It was so realistic, I could even make out sweat peeking out of the person's skin.
I braced myself, expecting to be thrown out onto the battlefield at any mont. Dexterity seed like one of those that needed to be trained after all.
Instead, I was tossed out of the interface and back onto my bed. I only had a few seconds of stunned confusion before I first felt it. Fire seeped into my skin, scorching my insides. A reactionary scream ripped from my throat.
I felt my nerves ignite, but that wasn’t even the worst of it. My brain seed to be the central point of the Perk as my blood felt like magma pumping through . I desperately tried to resist the agony. It was the worst kind of pain, one that ate at my very being. I curled into a ball, trying to get away even as the burning torture worked its way deeper into every part of .
I tried to distract myself by looking out the window. It didn’t work. My senses pulsed, causing bile to creep up my throat as I stared at the falling rain. In one mont, the rain fell at a normal rate. Then it slowed to a crawl, gravity seeming to stop as the fire scorching turned even hotter. Then it sped up well past its normal pace as I skipped in and out of awareness. Eventually, the pain grew too much as I passed out.
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