Chapter 68: Smoke Detectors
We popped out from the portal and appeared in front of Arle's place. Soon enough, as if she knew, Arle came out with Carbuncle. "Hey guys! W-woa-!" She ran outside before falling into the snow. "Uh..." We stood there, feeling awkward. "I-I'm okay! I didn't think the snow would be this bad. Hehehe…" Arle said, getting back up. With this, I got to see Arle's winter wear for the first time. It looked like something that the others recommended for her, because it didn't seem to be her style. Still, I liked what she wore… but I couldn't really describe how it looked beyond that. "So, I guess you're ready to come with us, Arle?" Amitie greeted her. "You bet! I haven't really got to be with you all since the tournament ended. I would've wanted a better time to say hi again, but I realize that the Yogs might be on the move again." Arle replied before frowning for a bit. "With that being said: We should get a move on and pick up Schezo too." Rulue said. We all nodded as a group and traveled in another portal to get to his cave. When we got there, the snow was cleared from the cave, as though Schezo actually shoveled it away. It made sense, considering that he probably didn't want to be caved in by snow and ice. "Hey, Schezo, we're here!" Arle hollered. "*sigh* Yes, yes... I'm coming, Arle." We heard Schezo's voice echo from the cave. Soon, he came and did not look too happy. Well... maybe I should specify that Schezo wasn't mad; he was just somewhat upset. At the same time though, he was pleased knowing that he was most likely going to take down a Yog with us.
Schezo's new sword rested in a holster on his side that was big enough to accommodate for its size. Funny enough, this sword's blade was longer than the long since destroyed Sword of Darkness. The previous sword was already decently big, so to see Schezo actually move around fine with this current one was a surprise. The color of the blade was dark gold for the most part, and the blade itself seemed even sturdier than the Sword of Darkness. Wow… THAT'S his new sword? I bet he'll kick ass with that by his side. "Let's go, so that we can find out what's happening as soon as possible." Schezo said and moved. "He's certainly eager to get this done quickly… I suppose this IS one of those times that he would jump head-first into something." Rulue noticed right away. "Yeah, he wouldn't be like that for this if it weren't for me." I told her. We made our way to the village from one more portal. This time, Accord had to give Ex some kind of coordinate guidance. He himself didn't know where the village was, so he technically couldn't take us there without that bit of assistance. Once he did though, it didn't take very long for all of us to get to the village. Immediately, we got a slight hit of smoke and it continued to linger. We didn't have much time to confirm what the source of the smoke was. So, we went straight to where the village's leader was at. He told us that the smoke was coming from somewhere past his home.
Four houses behind it had the thickest parts of the smoke in the whole place, so that was where we began to investigate. "Okay, so this will be like that one time back in our world… remember that, Rulue?" Arle remembered. "Wait, you guys did something like this investigation back then?" I jumped into the conversation. "Yeah. Several years ago, there was once a village that we looked at-" Arle said, before getting interrupted. "Let me tell him the rest, Arle; I remember this vividly. … As Arle was saying: Several years ago, there was once a village that we looked at to see if a wicked seed was creating smoke. However, when we were figuring out where the smoke was coming from… local detectives were saying that they saw a man with a bunch of strange grass, all before the smoke came in. Sure enough, what we had found was not a wicked seed... but that very strange grass, as well as the man." Rulue continued for her. "Wait… you mean this guy had a large supply of weed going off at one time? What did he need WEED of all things for?!" I felt like I needed to ask. "... He said that he was wanting to cook some fish with it in a good spot. At that point, I got angry and smacked him around because of the fact that there was no wicked seed. After everything was settled, the… "weed smoke" dissipated." She answered. "*sigh* I just don't get why someone would go out of their way to cook fish by using weed! And furthermore, it was with a lot of weed! Did he WANT to make the entire village high?" I facepalmed.
Rulue placed a hand on my shoulder and understood my frustration from that story. "I know... it was very stupid, Dave." She nodded. "If you're done talking, then let's track the source down." Schezo went on ahead. "Dave, let's put on our armor. Even if this isn't wicked seed smoke, it's not good for our health. It's just upsetting that the others don't have something like what we have…" Ex said to me. "Okay. ... Yeah... it is upsetting, Ex." I nodded. Me and him applied our tried and true bulky armor, then had the others follow us and Schezo to the closest house affected most. "Alright, who's house is most affected by the smoke? We're here to clear this stuff out of the village." I called out. "Th-thank goodness, help has arrived! You see, we don't know for sure... All we know is that these four houses are the most covered. But, it was rumored that something or somebody has been sneaking around this area lately... stealing coal." A man came out and said. "Stealing... coal? Guys, did it smell like burning coal when we arrived?" I questioned, then turned to face the group. "Nope. It certainly doesn't smell like coal, Dave." Schezo quickly answered. "Huh…" Rulue wasn't sure what to think. "Okay... then what could this mean?" Arle scratched her head. "Arle, this either means that this unknown something or somebody stealing coal is just a rumor… or something else is covering up the distinct coal smell by being burned." Schezo told her. "... I am catching a bit of something else… but I can't discern what it is." Klug smelled before covering his nose.
While we discussed this whole thing, snow slowly fell to the ground and became dark from the smoke. Without much of a good lead, we decided to blindly search the houses... one by one. As we did, we told the homeowners to show us the most affected part of their houses. The first one didn't have anything worth noting and it just seemed to be a victim of the smoke. The second one was heavier with the smoke, but just like the first one... we didn't find anything strange or out of place. The third house was where the smoke was at its strongest. I was able to tell from the excessive coughing that the others, aside from Ex, experienced. However, even with this, we still didn't find a possible source.
Trust me when I note this: We LOOKED. None of us were blind or dumb in this search. "Damn... I really thought the source would be here... *cough* ... The smoke is so thick here compared to the other two." Schezo fanned some smoke away. "Indeed, what the hell is this...?" Klug coughed. "Then perhaps this house doesn't do a very good job of keeping things like smoke out…?" Ex guessed. "Hm... ... Then let's check out the last house." I walked out the door. The others followed me as I entered the fourth and final house. From visual tells, I was able to guess that the smoke was the second strongest here. "If the source wasn't in that third house, then it HAS to be here. Search every inch of this last one twice over to make sure we don't miss anything." I said. The others nodded and we looked, sweeping the place for any possible sources. Unlike the other houses, this one had a basement. Lidelle pointed this basement out several minutes after the search began. But when we tried to open the door, it turned out to be locked.
After asking the owner of the house to unlock the door, my friends got hit with a big whiff of that smoke. "Yep, it's definitely down- *cough* *hack* -there, whatever it is." Arle struggled to speak. "Then let me and Ex investigate the basement first to see what's going on. As for everyone else, please stay up here. ... Oh-! And Carbuncle, come with us." I said. "Gu! Gu gugu!" The little guy jumped to my shoulders. "... Well, here goes nothing, Dave…" Ex went down the stairs first. "Yeah." I followed him. We slowly came down the stairs, noticing how dark and creepy it really was. Soon enough, I couldn't really see Ex in front of me. The only thing that even resembled a small light source was at the bottom of the staircase. "Man, it's pitch black down here… I can't see shit except for that light at the bottom." I commented. "Same. I wish I had brought a flashlight with me today..." I heard Ex say. Step by step, the stairs' floorboards creaked from our weight. This only managed to make the current atmosphere even creepier than it needed to be. Eventually, we both made it to the bottom where the solid floor rested. We were able to see ourselves and Carbuncle now, since we were by the aforementioned light source. It was a lanturn, dimly lit up with some fire. We began to search this basement, seeing if we could find the smoke source with the limited lighting. A minute later, we both heard something that made us jump. What the hell was that?! I know for a fact that Ex didn't make that noise, so what caused that to come through?
We looked at each other and smaller noises erupted near where Ex was. Me, Ex, and Carbuncle didn't make a single peep at this point, because that might've revealed our presence to any living thing that was making those noises. We separated for a bit to silently look for the source. And then, about two minutes later... some rustling came in from behind me and I felt something off. Ex looked at me and slowly pointed to my armor's back, like he was trying to warn me. Becoming fearful of the unknown, I slowly turned my head around and saw a dark figure attaching itself to my armor. It had a stinger and it appeared as though it was about to use it. I was scared at this point and screamed. Quickly, I grabbed the figure and slammed it to the floor. "Oof-!" It went. That sounded like a guy's voice... Who is this? "Dave! What the hell is going on down here?!" Schezo hollered. I realized that his voice was muffled, probably because he needed some way to block out the smoke from his mouth. Schezo came to the scene, using a ball of light from his hand to brighten up the area around us. "Eek! I've been exposed!" The figure was revealed by the light. Hey wait... I think I remember this guy from the fighting tournament! What's HE doing here?
The figure turned out to be Sasoriman, the scorpion man. "Huh...? ... Wait, wasn't this scorpion guy one of the many fighters from the tournament?" Ex also recognized him. "Th-the tournament that happened a while ago? You betcha!" Sasoriman confirmed. "Okay then, what are you doing here? You don't live here, do you?" I asked him. "N-nope-siree! I don't live here, I just used this place to cook some meat with that over there." He pointed. Schezo immediately brought himself and his ball of light to where Sasoriman pointed. I followed Schezo to that spot and we finally saw the source of the smoke. It wasn't a wicked seed, oh no... It was an entire pile of smoked weed and it was constantly in a slow burn. When I saw this for myself, I became livid. "... What Rulue and Arle had experienced in the past... it happened again. ... … Grr...! SASORIMAN!" I slowly raised my voice, before making my anger explode. "Wh-wh-what seems to be the issue?!" He panicked.
Is he seriously asking that question?! "You know exactly what the issue is, Sasoriman! Why must you use WEED of all things to cook your meat?!" I exclaimed. "Y-y-you know... it makes the meat better!" He stuttered out his supposed answer. "As far as I know...? Hehehe… Bullshit. How the HELL does smoked weed cook meat better than a standalone flame?! Weed just gets you high and NOTHING else! Why risk putting these villagers into this situation where they are inside constant weed smoke?! We were called in by them to get rid of this stuff and we figured that this whole thing might've been serious, because of something else that makes smoke... but NO! This was just plain stupid!" I called out on him. "W-well…" He continued to stutter. Since he wasn't giving me a straight answer, I decided to grab him. "We're throwing you out of this village, Sasoriman… and I know just the way to do that. Meanwhile... Carbuncle, destroy that goddamn stash of smoked weed!" I said, then ordered. Thankfully, Carbuncle complied with my request because he was just as furious about the whole weed thing as was. "Gugu! GUUUUUUU!" The little guy fired his signature beam. "Nonono! Don't ruin all of my hard w-!" Sasoriman begged. However, it was too late for him to make any sort of negotiations.
The entire pile of weed disappeared before our very eyes, and the smoke began to slowly dissipate. "Yikes! My enhanced meat is gone too!" The scorpion man freaked out. I had Schezo take the lead the way back up the stairs as me and Ex followed him. "Guess what we found..." Schezo said unenthusiastically. I presented to the others this culprit of ours concerning the smoke. "*sigh* Rulue, it happened again…" I told her as I revealed Sasoriman. "... A-Are you... KIDDING ME?! This piece of garbage was at it AGAIN?!" She became just as angry as I was. "Double yikes! It's her!" Sasoriman noticed Rulue. "... Dave, can you please hand him over to me?" She cheerfully asked with obvious malice in her voice. "It would be my pleasure, Rulue... I feel like you're the most appropriate person here to beat this poor soul up." I happily replied. "D-Dave…? Are you sure that this is the right thing to do?" Ex felt doubtful at first.
To someone, this may seem to not be the right thing to do, but... "Ex… this piece of shit is the reason we came here in the first place. If it weren't for him, we would be having a normal time in Ms. Accord's class with less serious worries. We wouldn't have had to worry about an entire village being potentially fucked by a wicked seed's smoke." I told him. "I-I mean, what you say is true... but don't you think having Rulue beat Sasoriman up is a little too extreme as far as his punishment goes? We could just drop him off at a place in the woods where he'll be lost…" He said, then suggested. "No, this piece of crap deserves his ass to get kicked! He's already done this to a village back in the world that me, Rulue, and Schezo are from! Why should his punishment be something like getting lost, Ex?! He deserves to be smacked around in some form!" Arle didn't like his suggestion. "... As violent as it may be, Ex, I have to side with them on this. Surely you must understand why..." Accord told him. "..." Ex knew he lost this debate.
In the end, Sasoriman got what was coming to him and the smoke completely disappeared from the village. The leader thanked us for tracking down the source and taking care of it. After that, we left to take Arle and Schezo back to their places with a portal. Then, we returned to the classroom where we still had a few minutes to spare. "*sigh* That was a stupid as hell event and I hope it never happens again…" I sat down. "From the way that Sasoriman was driven out from the village, I doubt he'd think about doing that again in the future." Ex leaned on a wall. "... … So… this weed stuff is not good, from what's been explained to me. I still don't really get it." Amitie spoke. She clearly didn't know about drugs like this until today. "Amitie, that stuff is addictive once your body accepts it. In a way, it's debatably good because it can calm the consumer down. However, this shit messes the body up badly on the inside. Your lungs, the thing that allows you to breathe… it gets damaged by that, hence why one coughs from smoking weed. And when you take away weed from an addict, they become crazy and constantly demand you to give it back to them." I added.
At least, those people going crazy from it is usually the case. "Tch. To think that people use this as an anesthetic back in my world… It disgusts me. Give someone enough weed, they become high and addicted. Being high essentially means you get hallucinations and such until the effects eventually subside. You can tell when someone is high based on their current demeanor and how bloodshot their eyes are." I went into more detail. "Gosh, Dave… you telling me this is only making me hate weed." Amitie told me. "Duh. Amitie, once you realize how bad it is, you don't support it at all. Plain and simple." Ringo told her. "Besides, there are better ways to calm other people down. None of them require the use of any drugs; we have therapists for a reason." I finished.
Raffina stepped into this conversation, as well as Klug. "I've heard about minor drug dealings happening about a couple of weeks before we all met you for the first time, Dave…" Raffina told me. "Wait, what? ... You mean here in Primp Town?" I questioned. "Yes. It was also rumored that my father- uh, I mean Dioge… -was the central figure of these dealings. The police tried to dig up actual evidence of there being an illegal market that had drugs, but to no avail. They also tried to interrogate Dioge to get him to talk after he was arrested, but that went nowhere as well…" Klug added. Huh... so Primp Town seems to have an underbelly in some capacity. To think: I thought this town was rather clean… but that couldn't be any further from the truth. ... So, hold on... If Sasoriman had all that weed, then where did he get...? ... ... Ah-! No fucking way!
I realized then and there that Sasoriman might've been involved with the dealings, just so he could get all that weed. "Where's Sasoriman right now, Rulue? I need an answer from him as soon as humanly possible." I suddenly faced her. "Wh-what's with the sudden urgency, Dave?" She asked. "Just bring him to me. You'll understand why I wish to see him right now." I told her. Before long, she retrieved the still beaten up Sasoriman and tossed him to where I was. "Now... I need to ask you a question, Sasoriman, and I need you to answer truthfully: Where did you get all of that weed?" I lowered myself to him. "U-um... I can't really tell you where, otherwise... I'll get targeted by thugs!" He said. "Look, we can protect you from any uncalled-for things… but I need you to tell me where you got that pile of weed from. I want to stop people from giving others this stuff and you are our only lead." I persuaded him. "O-okay, I'll talk! I do know Primp Town decently well... … …" He said before telling me what I wanted to know.
I was satisfied with what he told me and waited for the school's bell to clap. When it did, I told Ringo that I was going to find someone who could tell the police where to find the drug dealings. If I tried to tell the police that by myself, they wouldn't believe me. That's why I decided that getting Hohow Bird to do this instead was a better idea. After flying around the woods with my armor for a while, I found him shoveling snow away from this one place. I assumed that it was the way to his place and that he really needed to keep that spot uncovered. "Hohow Bird, I have something to tell you." I made myself known to him. "Hm? Well, what are you waiting for? Come down here and tell me what's on your mind, Dave." He replied.
I came down and told him what me and my friends had been through during the day, as well as it's connection to drug dealings in Primp Town. "What?! Are you saying that you all found a lead that points to where the dealings took place?! Show me! Neither me nor the police could find ANYTHING relating to the dealings for several months, and Dioge constantly refused to talk to any of his interrogators." He stopped shoveling snow. "I don't need to show you myself, telling you will suffice. … … ... Just make sure to say that you had help from someone who wishes to remain anonymous for this, should this happen to get covered on the news." I went. "*gasp* O-of course! I've got to get going, Dave! Duty now calls for me!" The bird took off. I was shocked that the snow didn't slow him down at all. "Well, that certainly made him take off… I suppose I can now meet back up with Ringo, where she'll hopefully be with Lemres; I don't want to be left behind here." I began to leave as well.
I flew back to the school and Ringo was waiting with Lemres, like I wanted. "Yo, Dave. Ringo has told me the crazy shit that happened to y'all today." Lemres waved. "Yeah, it was crazy. However, it was also very dumb… I hated it. But hey, at least some good came out of it. ... No Yog to fight today, just tracking down the origin of that weed Sasoriman obtained." I said as I landed and disengaged my armor. "If you're wonderin' where Feli is, she went back home. So, there's nothin' else for me to do but to send ya two back to Suzuran for the day. Are ya ready?" He said before asking. "Yeah." I nodded. "Then let's go, Dave." Ringo grabbed my hand. Lemres made the portal for us and we jumped in it. We came through and appeared right next to our home's front door. "... Good, it didn't snow here at all since we left this morning… Hopefully it doesn't snow late tonight, I don't wanna shovel again tomorrow morning." I commented. "Winters here tend to be standard, so expect at least some snow when clouds come." Ringo remarked. The rest of the day and night was normal at this point. Sit around, eat, bathe, then sleep. I could've been able to arrange something so Serilly would visit Harpy… but it's difficult to do so, especially when we didn't know where the latter was at the time. After bathing by myself, since Ringo bathed with Serilly this time... I went straight to bed after saying goodnight to Ringo. As I laid in bed, I felt good about telling Hohow Bird where the drug dealings were taking place. A few minutes after imagining how the police might've captured the drug dealers, I fell asleep.
Author's Notes: Dave and friends have discovered that the source of the smoke in a specific village was NOT from a wicked seed. Instead, it was coming from a big pile of smoked weed. And the culprit of the weed burning was none other than Sasoriman. This has been the second time that he has done something like this. When it came to the first time, that happened back in Arle's world... several years prior to Dave being forcibly whisked off to Suzuran for the first time. Sasoriman was soon beaten up by Rulue, and all seemed to be fine. That was, until a thought crossed Dave's mind after being told about drug dealings. He asked himself how Sasoriman had that much weed before realizing what that day's event had been connected to. Dave soon went off to find Hohow Bird after making Sasoriman talk. After he found him, the bird took off in a mad heroic dash. Coming back home, Dave didn't do much besides what you would expect and went to bed at the appropriate time. As our main characters sleep, a new event is transpiring. What is this new event? Next chapter, Chapter 69: Genderbent.