A/N: This chapter isn't as good as I wanted it to be, but it introduces what I wanted it to introduce. Plus, I really wanted to put this out. I haven't updated this story in forever. So hopefully, all of you enjoy. Tell me what you think of it in the reviews! Anyway, have a WONDERFUL Day!
A Fujou's Poppy
All that could be heard other than the damned, sadistic laughing of young women was the sound of shoes tapping on the floor of the cursed Fujou building that had been closed off now for over a decade. The short blonde looked around, her eyes only catching the sights of spider webs, dust-bunnies, and insects. Everything about the place creeped her out – how her partner didn't even seem a bit fazed by the situation was beyond her comprehension. She knew that he had stated something about the veteran employees basically being immune to fear, but she had not believed that for a second until now. Even in that horrid place, walking towards a potentially horrid scene, the "hound" kept walking, not even hesitating in the least.
"You alright?" his voice questioned her in concern. He had not planned to actually head inside the building rather investigate with magic and teach the girl the ropes of knowing the different signals of the magic that everyone in the agency knew, but it seemed that his luck was not so great. His feet stopped moving, allowing the two of them to take a break. His first night of being on the field was almost exactly like hers. An unexpected event led him to follow Kiritsugu into the depths of danger. "If you're scared, I can give you the keys to my car, so you can stay in there until I'm done."
To this offer, Jeanne's head shook violently. "N-no, I do not want to back down. I mean, I'm your partner, so we should always have each other's backs, right? Plus, I can't get used to something if I step away from it, so I want to stay with you. I don't care how scared I get; I won't let you go by yourself." She watched as the man smiled and nodded at her, a bit reluctantly she could tell.
"Alright," he replied simply. "But if you do get scared, just grab my hand a little tighter, and I'll make sure that my runes are sturdy." Jeanne bobbed her head in understanding before walking a little closer to him. "Alright, let's hurry forward. We have to save that girl."
As they started to run towards the stairs, all the two could hear was the horrid laughter that they first heard when they got in. It rang in their ears even when it stopped for a second. It was so loud, haunting. It was as if spirits had made their way into the detectives' ears. The rookie looked up at her partner, noticing the obvious annoyance on his face. She remembered something that Archer had told her before Cu had come back from his trip – "His name is rather fitting for him. Cu Chulainn, "the hound of Culan," heh, it's perfect for him. He has all of the qualities of a dog – an amazing sense of smell, incredible hearing, and a strong desire for meat."
"Are you alright?" she asked, although already knowing what the answer was going to be. He grunted audibly.
"God, that damned laughing is going to make my head explode if it keeps going. I can't stand it anymore," he exclaimed before putting his hand out in front him, a spear materializing in his grip. "I don't care what or who I have to kill to make it-." Suddenly, a young girl who seemed to by flying appeared before them, charging after Cu.
Jeanne got behind her partner, watching his swift movements take off the head of his enemy – or rather cut her soul in half. "How awful. It seems that you are too ignorant to realize that your body had a purpose other than causing you pain. It protects your soul. Ah well, it is your own fault that you will see nothing else, either in the afterlife or on this earth." Purple irises just looked up at him until the ringing in her ears grew significantly quieter. "Stay cautious; don't let your guard down for even a second. Now that one of their kind has been killed, they know that we're here."
"They couldn't feel our mana when we first entered?"
"They could, but they didn't know that we pose a threat to them until now. We're basically trespassing on their territory. However, I need you to promise me something." He looked at her, who was still behind him. She bobbed her head in agreement. "If you ever meet my mom, please don't tell her about this." Confusion was obvious in her face before he looked back in front of him and put his hand on the grand. "Grand scale."
With that, a blue light enveloped the tile floor. Cu stood back up. "But, now their trespassing on our territory. Now, I don't have to wait until they come to me; I can go directly to them."
"You know where they're at?"
"Yep, I ripped off my mom's Noble Phantasm, so I can create my own territories. So yeah, please don't tell her. She'd kick the shit out of me if she figured that out. But, this small chat can wait till later; it seems that our 'guests' are still planning on killing an innocent civilian on our property."
A young boy walked slowly to his parents' room through the quiet home, a stuffed bear in his arms. Once reaching the door leading to his destination, he went up on his tip-toes, pulling the doorknob down and pushing the door open. His big, light blue eyes peeked inside, the strawberry hair of his mother catching his eye. Walking up to the side of the bed, he lightly tapped her, trying not to scare her.
Without another second, Alodine's red eyes opened, and she turned around to look at her tiny son. She sighed when she saw him, knowing exactly what he was in there for. She whipped her legs around to let them hang off the mattress. She then stood up and put on her robe and slippers, picking her child up and carrying him into his and Armina's old nursery. She went over to the rocking chair that she had gotten so used to sitting in after having twins, laying the pup down in her lap with his head resting on her arm. "Veer, I can't always rock you to sleep." She felt Veer's head move up and down before she felt his small body soothe. Her hand caressed his soft, little head that was full of white hair along with a pair of adorable wolf ears
She turned to look out the window, wondering how Jeanne and Cu were doing with their investigation of the Fujou Building. Deep down she wanted to be there with them like how the old days were, but things seemed to settle once one got older. Humans are odd things. She then let her eyes fall upon her second-eldest child (however only older than Armina by seven minutes). The only reason why she wasn't out there all the time was because of her children. Without them, the only person she would have in her life would be Zoal.
Her head abruptly pulsed, causing her to flinch. Luckily, Veer had already fallen asleep, so he had not noticed her jerk. Ah, so that is why Veer woke up. I'm sure they will be showing up here in a matter of no time.
"Ansuz," Cu Chulainn whispered, causing flames to erupt from the ground and killing the spirit that had attacked them. "I knew they would be a pain in the ass, but I would have never guessed that they would be this much of a pain in the ass! Seriously, when will they realize that they are extremely outmatched? Ah well, at least we finally reached the elevator." He pressed the button on the wall.
"Are you sure that we should be taking the elevator and not the stairs? This building hasn't been up and running in years. Is this not a bit dangerous?" Jeanne questioned worriedly. The elevator doors opened, and the two walked in (although the French detective was a bit hesitant).
"Yeah, it seems to be in perfect condition. If it's not, then I can fix it. Although I hate Emiya, he does have a knack for fixing things with whatever little mana he has," the man answered with a bit of a chuckle.
"Did you rip him off as well?"
"Heh, how did you guess?" he laughed. Jeanne giggled before pressing the button that lead them to the roof of the building. "When we get up there, you grab the girl and lead her to down the building. I'll distract whatever it is up there that's causing these girls to commit suicide." His partner nodded before the doors opened once more, letting them see what was on the roof.
What they saw was the sight of the souls of past victims practically pushing the girl off the side of the tower. One spirit, however, was above them, simply laughing. It seems that the girl's spirit escaped her comatose body. Cu mouthed "go" to Jeanne before speaking up to the floating spirits. She bobbed her head before running toward the high schooler and the souls. "Hmph, I am not sure why you're doing this, but it's a waste to allow beautiful girls to pointlessly fall to their unwanted deaths. Well, I guess it's up to me to stop it. It's time for you to fall."
His announcement had caused all attention that had been previously been on who was supposed to be the next victim to fall onto him. He waited for his partner to have a hold on the now conscious female who seemed to be insanely confused of what was happening. "You're alright. Just leave everything to us. We'll make sure that you go back home safely." Jeanne led the young lady to the elevator, entering it when it opened.
Cu glanced behind him, making sure that his partner and the one they saved from a horrible death were out of danger. His red eyes glowed as he turned his vision back toward the spirits. "I hate beings like you, you know? You're useless. All you can do is make the living miserable. However," he paused for a second, readying the demonic lance in his hand. "At least I get to have the pleasure of killing all of you. A sad life is only worthy of a sad end, no?"
With that, he charged toward them, a speed that wasn't even close to his top. The spirits charged at him, trying to put him under their curse. His skill was too impressive, however, and cut the physical outline of the curse in half. "Don't think that will work on me. Unlike your past victims, I've had quite a bit of training in killing, whether it be killing the living or killing the dead. Your destiny was determined the moment you decided to attack tonight."
The pawns of the living Fujou's spirit were cut and disappeared as the blade of Gae Bolg was twirled effortlessly by its master. Within seconds was there only the curser's soul left. Her eyes met Cu's, surprise and fear mixed in them as she simply stared at him. "Kirie Fujou is the name, correct? I see that you have somehow gained a second body. Although I am not sure how you obtained such a thing, that does nothing to my goal. I must kill you. If you are not aware, I have much better and more important things to worry about than a woman who is only in possession of second body, only cursing innocent victims into killing themselves. How pathetic does one have to be to commit those crimes?"
Her body backed up a bit, frightened as to what the detective was planning to do next. "Are you flying? No, you must be floating. Well, that makes things easier for me. Prepare yourself." He suddenly saw her face contort into an expression full of anger. Finally, she spoke out, or rather yelled out.
"Fall. Fall. Fall! Fall! Fall!" Cu Chulainn readied his lance as Kirie charged at him. She reached out her hand towards his neck, trying to grab it and drop him off the building. But as she felt his skin on her fingers, the sharp pain of a lance going through her went up her spinal cord. Her body froze, not moving, for she was in such shock that a human had killed her second body. "…fall," she whispered.
"You fall," the hound responded coldly, sliding her off the lance and letting her fall of the side of the building. Her body looked as if it had evaporated into the air. Cu only stared at the spot in which he last saw it before turning around and walking into the elevator of the abandoned and run-down tower. "Ugh, she didn't even give me a damn good fight. What a waste."
He entered the elevator silently, listening to the sounds of the machine lowering. "Well at least that case is done. Well, almost that is. Alodine has to go speak with Kirie tomorrow at the hospital. Having her second body die no doubt had to wake her first one." The elevator dinged before the doors opened once more, allowing him to make his way toward his partner and the victim. Once outside, he could see Jeanne and the girl having what seemed like a pleasant conversation. "Yo!" he called out to them.
Their eyes went to him before the girl the two had saved walked over. "A-ah, Miss d'Arc here explained to me what happened. I would just like to say thank you for saving my life. My name is Melony." Melony extended a hand toward Cu, who politely took it.
"The name's Cu Chulainn. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you, too!" she exclaimed with a bow of her head.
"Now if you will, please lead us to your home. We want to make sure that you get home safely. We can drive you there."
"A-ah, yes, of course! You have my thanks!"
"This is a beautiful neighborhood, don't you think? It's quiet, safe, and very clean," Jeanne commented as they made their way down one of the streets on the northern outskirts of town. Cu nodded in agreement as he walked toward their next destination. "So, may I ask where we are off to now? I thought that we were going to go back to your house. And if not, why are we walking?"
Red eyes met her amethyst-colored ones, complemented with a light smile. "We're making our way down to Zoal and Alodine's home. Luckily, they live in this area, so we did not have to drive to a whole other neighborhood. We're walking though, because I do not want to wake her husband and kids up at this time. They'll never get back to sleep if they wake up. Veer might, but Zoal and Armina definitely won't. Felicity would probably just sleep through everything though," Cu chuckled.
Jeanne's eyes widened in surprise, the moon's glare brightening in them. "I was unaware that Alo had children." She watched as the handsome male bobbed his head.
"Yep, she has twins. Felicity is her adopted daughter although they are close enough in age to be sisters, but Alo still calls Felicity her child. Veer and Armina are her biological twins though. They are so adorable. Veer may have woken up earlier like he normally does, so Alo might be in the living room already rocking him to sleep. I hope that's the case. One, so we don't have to risk waking Zoal and Armina up by knocking, and two, Veer is just so fucking cute when he's sleeping. Anyway, it's this house here."
The two turned left onto a long driveway leading up to a beautiful, large home. The Frenchwoman couldn't help but note the simple yet intricate decorations around it and the homey aura that was around it. They walked up to the large front doors before the door opened without them even having to knock on them, and there stood Alodine with a young, white-haired boy in her arms. "Good evening. I saw you two walking down the driveway."
Cu Chulainn gave a warm smile. "Good evening, Alo. We just wanted to report on what our findings were from our investigation. May we come inside?" The woman bobbed her head, opening the door wide to let them in and closing it behind them.
"How was your first investigation, Jeanne?" she questioned the rookie.
She gave a nervous laugh before answering. "Well, let's just say things weren't as we expected them to be. Unfortunately, Cu basically did all the work. I simply stood and watched. It looks like I'm not as brave as I thought I was." At this, Jeanne saw her coworker shake her head.
"That is normal. Everyone was like that when they started. We were all unsure of what we were supposed to be doing."
"Well, I guess that makes me feel a little bit better."
Alo nodded. "Let's go in the living room then. I need to hear of what your discoveries were. Is that fine with you?" In response, the other woman nodded. "Let us make our way there then. Make yourself at home."