Chapter 2. I apologize for the shortness!
There was another person searching for the Snake that night. This person was not a healer of the sick and wounded. Criminals feared him and ran when they saw him. He punished severely any criminal he found.
Currently he was sandwiched between the chimneys rising from one of the more well to do houses. Patiently he waited. The night was warm, and insect whirred around him, seeking a meal. He ignored them and focused on the street below.
Earlier he had heard a woman shriek. Yet no matter how much he had searched, he had not found the woman or the cause of her yell. All he had seen was a man and a woman huddled together, speaking in low voices. If he had bothered to look more closely, he would have noted the slight gleam of the woman's floating weapons in the air and the man's fearful look.
Something moved in the corner of his vision. Years of practice had trained him to follow movement with his eyes only. He watched as the figure scurried down the path. For a moment he was confused; villains kept to the shadows. They never went to the center of the road. After brief hesitation, he decided that a good man would have been sleeping at this hour and swung himself down from the roof.
The man gave a quiet squawk. "What do you want now, Painted La –," he broke off as he saw his assailant. "Blue Spirit!" he whispered, quavering. His hands went up in a gesture of respect and fear.
The Blue Spirit pulled out his Dao blades and held them threateningly. "Why the Painted Lady?" he asked, keeping his voice low.
The man spread his hands. The Blue Spirit noted with interest that both of his pinkies were gone. "I spoke with her. The Painted Lady. She took all my weapons and told me the way to the… center. She said I would receive help there."
The Blue Spirit scowled behind his blue mask. The Painted Lady had appeared out of nowhere soon after the plague started. He didn't have anything against her healing the ones stricken with the illness, but now she was sending every criminal she met to the rehabilitation center. All villains deserved punishment.
The man wasn't finished with his advice. "She's looking for the Snake."
This caught the Blue Spirit off guard. Why would she want to go looking for him? She only healed the sick and – oh no. The Blue Spirit sheathed his blades and swung himself back onto the roof. The former assassin breathed out a sigh of relief as he watched the Blue Spirit sprint over the rooftops.