And we are back folks with this experiment, let's see what progress we make today. Anyhow before we start I just want to say that there is a reason why this story is rated M, which does include some dark topics. I want to try to be respectful and tactful with the dark topics that are in the story but I do want to let folks know that they are there. Anyhow I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
Folks outside the wall had their own reasons for living outside the wall, for risking their lives in the wildlands with the Grimm and though the reason was always varied the response much of the time was always the same. There was a sense of peace out there that the city lacked. A peace. That the peace with the man-eating monster was preferred to the one of the suit and tie made him question what those folks had seen in the city.
This bustling city was filled with faunas and people alike, which had buildings taller than the highest trees he had seen. He had seen more people walking down the sidewalk than he had seen in his entire life. Clouds came lower than he had ever seen before, though he didn't feel the same calm as the white ones up high when looking at them. The feeling they inspired in him was similar to the one he got whenever he felt someone else's gaze fall on him.
He had only been in Vale for a week, and already he had been to discern a certain attitude from the people here. He had heard about people from the city being inherently selfish, and he had seen some of that but there was also this feeling as if they always had something to do quickly or somewhere to be as soon as possible. Some even seemed anxious about it. It reminded him of the haste that his brother always seemed to carry with him. But he didn't think that those would be reason enough for folk to take their chances with the grimm.
Azul walked towards the industrial district on his way to work as he passed by a few small shops. He still hadn't been able to shake his amazement at the variety of shops that were available in the city, from sports stores to family diners there was a ridiculous amount of the as well. Though they were not many that were cheap as the clothes he had to buy for his construction job had cost quite the sum. Maybe that was why people decided to leave the city, it became too expansive for it to be viable for them.
However, there was certainly no lack of opportunities for jobs. At least for those who had grown up in the city, it seemed because while they were many jobs, a lot of them required some type of experience that he lacked. While having been well taught by his mother, his mother herself had never really worked with a computer and hardly knew how to even use a scroll. There were jobs available for a certain type of person, but there weren't jobs for everyone. Could be that some recognized that and left the city to make their own outside.
Maybe they could sense the control these Templar supposedly had on the city and would rather live free taking their chances with the grimm. Or maybe Azul didn't know people as well as he thought he did, and they were more comfortable sticking their neck out for less than he would guess.
Though if these Templars turned out to be as real as the dead man had said, he was also sticking out his neck here looking for them. The 'Assassin' had said they held Vale firmly under their control and croaked before he could say more.
He pulled one of the blades he had received from his satchel, as he thought back to the last words the man had said. He had told him to turn tail and run, though not being able to say to where. For all Azul knew, the Templar controlled all Sanus or maybe just Vale, maybe Mistral. He didn't know where these assassins might be hiding except for not Vale but he did know where the ones responsible for the death of his family were. It had been precipitous when the soldiers had brought him to Vale but with is a man if not someone who takes advantage of the opportunities luck may afford him. His father had told him so, saying that it was luck that he had lived thus far but his work that had lived how he did.
The soldiers had brought him here to transfer him to the nearest orphanage in the area as he had been 16 when they found him. Though he had only three days before had to leave as he was turning 17. Well that wasn't exactly true, he had the option of staying with them for a bit longer if wanted once he had turned 17 but he couldn't stand to stay there. Where the kids looked at him as if he was some sort of strange creature who ate grimm. Besides, he could take care of himself-someone else might the space he had left behind, gods know his roommates did anyway. The backpack filled with clothes and items he had been able to salvage from the fire they had given him made for a nice pillow as opposed to the cement ground of the city.
He had gotten to take much, he wasn't exactly motivated to keep scavenging the house when he found the corpse of the Templar and his father, but he was lucky to have been able to get much at all. He couldn't tell how he had died but the weapon in his hand indicated that it had not been peacefully. The Templar was not someone he recognized from what little he was able to see of him due he seemed to have been a hunter with the mecha-shifting weapon near his corpse.
He had to get rid of the clothes of that day because they were filled with blood and torn with beowolves jobs but had found a few shirts and a coat that had survived the ordeal. In his brother's room, he had found an old film camera that his brother had taken to when he had been younger. Azul hadn't seen it in years. His mother's jewelry box had survived along with pieces of some pictures in her photobook. Nothing of his father survived except the tomahawk that he held in death. It wasn't much in all but it was more than he thought he would scavenge from his home.
He is still yet to make his home here, not from lack of trying but from a lack of affordable options. He was surprised by the price of many things in Vale but most of all the price of housing as Azul was looking for something for himself. He wasn't exactly keen on living with another person but that ideal was being tested by his nights in the street. They weren't all bad though. He had some fruitful encounters with regards to his monetary situation due to his time out in the street as he wasn't long for his construction job. There wouldn't be a need for his basic services next week as the planning was shifting next week. He didn't have much eating away at his income yet, only a gym membership so that he could shower and buying food. Buying ammo for his weapon was also another expense and by far his biggest as it was seeing more use in the last few days than it had in the past year.
For now, he was pretty sure that he had found a band-aid to his housing situation that would not eat away at his income hopefully. One of his coworkers had informed him that there was this organization in the center of the commercial district that offered a night's stay for 80 homeless every night. Offering free breakfast and dinner as well. All things go well he should have a roof over his head till.
"I'm sorry, I'm afraid we have no more space for tonight," said the old man who was denying him a place in the Valean United community center, Azul having found the name and location of interest after asking for some direction from strangers. Strangers 1 and 2 not being so kind but Stranger three had taken their time to walk with him there.
"Also, if you do wish to stay the night here in the future, we do not allow any sort of weapons in the buildings," the old man gesturing towards his holstered weapons.
"I understand sir. Thank you and have a nice night." Responded Azul as he walked out.
There goes that option. The streets weren't so bad anyway besides the fact that rained sucked. And that they had tried to mug him multiple times in the short time that he had been here. That was also an inconvenience. And also, maybe a shower would be nice.
He could maybe find a nice park tonight, though the last time he tried the park he had been harassed by junkies. Would beat-
"Hey buddy, do you know where the nearest bus stop for 54 might be?" asked from behind the pale wolf faunas who Azul was pretty sure had been following him since he left the community center.
"I'm sorry partner, I'm afraid I'm still new in town so I don't know my way about," answered Azul as he turned, shifting his dark red coat to flash his shotgun.
"It's not too far from here friend," said a voice from behind as Azul felt something press behind his head. "How about you follow me and I'll show you."
Azul just put his hands up, "Lead away."
The alleyway they took him to was not that far from where they had stopped and as they were stepping deeper Azul decided to take a dive. Before either of his assailants could react, he had turned on his back with his firearm pointed back up them. The fellow with the gun froze while his buddy behind him jumped in surprised.
"Before we settle on figuring who can eat more lead, I got a question for you boys." Started Azul as he got up. He pulled out the Templar cross with his free hand, "this symbol or the name Templar mean anything to you?"
The one holding the gun kept a straight face as he stared down Azul while his friend seemed about ready to piss himself. "Yeah," responded the cooler of the two heads to the surprise of his partner.
"Your mom was wearing-" BOOM! BANG!
The now corpse with a gaping hole on the side of its head collapsing to the hysterical screams of the faunas. As it was falling it fired off a shot towards the sky that passed by Azul by a wide margin. Azul just turned him aim towards the screaming man as he squatted down while holding his arms up.
"I don't know, I don't know! I swear!" screamed the man as he started to sob, "I don't know anything so please don't kill me."
Azul kept his aim on the man as looked towards the dead body and when he felt the blood on his face from his shot flowing down his face. He turned towards the cowering individual before letting out a sigh.
"You messed with the wrong mark," the man on the ground looking up with wide eyes and a confused noise, "he caught you two off-guard, killed your partner over here, and ran away. There was no business about Templars, you know nothing about them and you will keep that way."
Azul motioned for the faunas to stand up with his weapon and the man followed the command after a few seconds of processing.
"Go!"
The man scurried out of the alley as fast as his quivering legs would take him. This was going to bite him in the ass later.
After holstering his weapon, he turned his attention to the corpse on the ground as he started to check the pockets. Keys, scroll, and a wallet of one Mr. Kindle which only had 33 lien. It was actually on the smaller side of what these guys usually carried from Azul was used to from these last few nights. And he still had no lead on these Templars.
He was already a few blocks away when he heard the sirens of the police and even saw a patrol car race past him. He wondered what relations the Templars might have with the police. Where they oblivious to their existence or in the know and in cooperation. Was it some officers in the know or was the whole thing controlled by them?
They might be more likely to know something about the Templars possibly, the press as well. Except he couldn't go around questioning journalists or cops without attracting some attention. Petty criminals wouldn't go around making more noise than necessary so he had a little more impunity. Still, it didn't seem like any pair of fools looking to cause trouble here knew any more about them than he did. He had to start raising his standards for who he questioned, maybe asking some of the more 'respectable' individuals.
Well, the night was young right now so he could maybe find something by the end of the night.
He didn't unfortunately, but he was on the look for more information tonight. He had switched up which side of Vale he was looking in as some folks might have gotten wise that it wasn't the brightest idea to rob folks in that area. 8 reports of dead bodies in 4 days might have been excessive and that was only those interactions that ended with someone in a pin box. He might be running himself ragged.
Azul stopped outside of a shop to look at his reflection as he took himself in. His hair was still short, and he still kept a clean shave, but his skin had tanned more and he had large bags under his eyes. He wore a navy button-up in a short grey coat with woolen lapels, some grey cargo pants, and black work boots. The latter half of the getup was bought for his job but had served him well outside of it.
He got going before he would attract the wrong kind of attention and it wasn't long in his walk before he heard some shouting from just around the corner.
"Let go of me you piece of shit!" shouted a girl who couldn't have been more than 17, "Fire! There's a fire in the building, someone call the police." The girl then turned around to clock the man with a facemask and cap. He stumbled back a bit but was able to maintain his grip on the girl and before he could retaliate against her-
"Holy shit!" came a yell from inside the car as Azul shot one of the tires of the car than man was trying to get her in before turning aim towards the man with the girl.
"Let go of the girl or you're dead!" shouted Azul as walked towards the man.
"Fuck!" the man let the girl go causing her to trip forward, "alright man, just don't shoot, don't shoot."
Before Azul would say another word the girl who had been struggling came up to the man and kicked him in the balls as the car tried to take off. The shotgun quickly changed targets and fired multiple times at the back of the car before it swerved and crashed into a parked car. The driver's side of the car opened before the driver spilled onto the ground. They only got up to run a bit but collapsed a few feet away from the car.
Turning to the man that had been fighting with the girl, he was still on his knees before a boot to the face laid him out on the ground causing the girl to yelp in surprise as she stepped back from the two. The criminal grasped his nose before he felt a knee on his chest and saw the barrel of the shotgun close to his face.
"Where were you going to take the girl?" shouted Azul
"I-uh" the man's eye widened as he struggled to come up with words.
"Where?" Azul yelled once again.
"I c-can't say,"
"Only if you continue to hold out,"
The man held out his silence till the barrel of the weapon was pressed against his face.
"I find nothing, I'll make sure there's nothing left of you understand," Azul whispered to the man before he got up.
"I promise, tha-" the man didn't finish that sentence before his leg was blasted, "Gah! Ahhhh!" the man howled as he held his shin.
"You alright miss?" Azul turned to the girl as she held her hand to her mouth in shock, only nodding in response to Azul. "I'm sorry you had to go through that but you should be alright now."
The nod was the only response again, Azul just headed out towards the address that he was given in hoping that diving down this rabbit hole could give him the answers he was looking for.
"Huh," was the only thing Azul could say looking at where this human trafficking ring was working out of.
It was an old family diner on the edge of the residential area where he had stumbled on that girl on. He had walked by it this morning. It wasn't even that large. Well, the basement could be bigger. The sign said they were close but someone was working the front and someone eating near the front of the place as well. The fools acted as if everything was normal despite the that it already was hours past their closing time.
He walked up to the glass door with his left hand underneath his coat on his holstered shotgun and he knocked. Counter gestured towards the sign on the door, and Steak just gave a second's glance. He knocked. Counter once again points towards while mouthing that they are closed, and Steak continues with his meal. He knocked. This time Counter shakes his head in frustration before seemingly shouting, and Steak is now giving him a dry look. He knocked. Counter's face goes red as he seems to be shouting again before throwing a napkin holder towards the door, and Steak stood up as he stomped towards the door. He knocked. Steak now covered Counter as he stood in front of the door, and he glared down at Azul nostril flaring and all. He knocked.
The door swung open and-"What!"
"Your boys got caught," responded Azul evenly as continued to look evenly up at Steak.
"What do you mean?" Steak lowered his voice as he sounded as confused as he looked.
"They were being stupid and got caught," continued Azul as he tried his best to imitate his father's poker face. He gripped the handle of his weapon tightly as he waited for the man to respond.
"I don't know what you are talking about." Every word enunciated as he lowered his head. "Now scram."
"Not without the girls," that seemed to have gotten a reaction from Steak as he went for his pistol. Unfortunately for the life story of Steak, he was too slow. He fell back quickly and before Counter could reach for whatever it was he was looking for, he too, was shot down.
Azul knelt by the man gasping on the ground with little worry for the one behind the counter as he was pretty sure he shot him in the head.
"Who is in charge of this?" Azul asked as he grabbed the pistol and tossed it away
"Fuck you." Was all the men said as he glared at Azul.
"You can still make it if EMS makes it here on time."
"I'm dead either way,"
"No guarantee."
The man on the ground took a minute to contemplate before he looked up towards Azul, "He is in the basement with one of the girls."
"Anyone else," Azul's weapon hovering over one of the man's wounds.
"Just call-" the screamed as Azul dug the barrel into his stomach, "no one. He came by and asked me to step out."
He started to walk towards the back when the man shouted, "You said would call EMS!"
Azul would fire more shots as he went into the kitchen. When came up to a locked door he fired off one more shot and went in.
The stair came down the left wall with a few mattresses near the bottom of the stairs. The light was hanging from the middle of the room but barely lit the room. He could see a few women chained to the wall behind the stairs. There were three on the wall and one on a pole. There was also a large cage with more in it but the dim light didn't let him see how many more women were in there. He looked around and saw that there was a light source coming from around the left corner of the room. There was a quiet sobbing that got louder from the same direction as well. None of the girls seemed to look at who was coming down the stairs as they all had their heads done and seem to try and keep quiet.
When Azul came around the corner he had his weapon ready only to come to a girl on a mattress crying and a shirtless man on a chair looking up at the ceiling like an idiot. Only after looking at the desk with the needle and spoon did Azul begin to have an idea of what was going on. Holstering his shotgun he approached the sobbing women.
"It's ok miss, it's ok," reassured the teen as he knelt near with his hand held out to her, "I'm here to help. I'm not going to hurt you." The woman continued to sob.
She had long black hair which obscured her face and wore a torn white nightgown. She just shook her head and hugged her bruised legs as she tentatively looked up. Her eyes were red and puffy from the crying as she held a bruise on her left cheek and a cut on her forehead. She seemed to shrink away from Azul's hand.
"I promise miss, I'm going to get you out of here," Azul said as soft as he could but the women just scooted back. Azul pressed his lips as he looked down. "I'm sorry."
Pulling out his tomahawk he brought it down on the chain connecting her to the wall. He went to do the same for the women he saw while coming down and the lock on the cage. Many of them were littered with the same bruises that he had seen on the girl. No one said anything.
Azul grabbed the intoxicated man with little resistance and when he was going up the stairs when he heard it. At least he thought that he heard something. "Thank you." Azul stopped for a moment as he looked towards the women who seemed to be checking on one another. No one looked upon him and he turned to leave.
"I'm sorry."
Azul had lugged the bastard up onto the roof of a building quite a ways away from the diner, the man being non-responsive the whole time even when he was dumped onto the ground. He did give some sort of reaction when Azul had started wailing on him, he lost a few teeth and broke a few bones, but nothing indicated that he was all there yet. He had one eye closed up from all the bruising and his right arm along with both his legs were bent at angles not conducive to his good health. He knocked out for quite a while after he vomited and Azul just waited for him to wake up.
After searching his person the man only had a couple of hundred lien and nothing that would indicate that he was a Templar. It would be around 4 in the morning when the man had started to stir.
"Wha-" he had started to talk before he groaned in pain and the teen went to pick him up by his curly hair dragging him to the edge of the roof. "The fuck. What is-"
"Listen up you sorry excuse for a human being because I am only going to say this once," Azul whispered to his ear as he brought his tomahawk to the man's groin and pulled him over the edge. "What do you know about the Templars?"
"The fuck i-" he was tossed towards the ground Azul brought his knee down on his broken arm pulling out the cross. The man gave out a weak groan in response.
"Do you know what this is?" Azul brought the cross up to his face and the tomahawk to his throat.
"Fuck you." The toothless smile the man gave only lasted for a second before Azul cut his right ear off. "Aghh-" only for it to be interrupted by the handle of the tomahawk smacking his mouth shut.
"Answers or I get the other one next." Promised Azul
The man took many shallow breaths as he looked at the cross, breaking out into a chuckle after a bit. "You went after the wrong people kid." The man said, "We ain't got anything to do with whatever Decroix and these templars of his are. We even against them."
"Who is Decroix?" growled Azul.
"He's the shmuck trying to take over the northern industrial district. He and his Pikers weren't settled in with what they had, and they'd been making all sorts of noise in the northern ID. They started moving our turf recently though. We met up with their leader, Decroix, to talk business and I swear to the Gods, that bastard had a ring with that same cross. He talked big as well. Saying how he was backed by some big players." The man had a wide smile, missing teeth and all, as he laughed at Azul.
"You know what the funny thing is." He brought his head up cutting himself against the blade on his throat, "we would have paid you to take on him and his goons. But you had to fuck around and find out. Now we going to put you and that bastard Decroix and whoever else is backing him up in the fucking river."
"What do you know about Decroix's operations?" That man's skull being pushed back against the floor.
"Do I have to do your fucking homework for you kid huh?" The other ear went away.
"Fingers are next."
The man growled like a dog at Azul as he tried to swing his not broken arm at the teen before Azul kicked it down bringing his foot down at the wrist of the man. The blade of the tomahawk coming to the side of his nose.
"Everything on Decroix, or else I will strew every part of your body across this fucking city before cutting your balls off and feeding them to you."
The man had started to hyperventilate and sweat bullets, "Fuck-" the man had started before the blade had started cutting into his nose.
"Everything."
"He originally was some nobody, at least no one had heard about him before he took over the pikes after their old head honcho died. The pikes had mostly been in money lending and some basic protection schemes in the eastern part of the north ID, nothing much. Decroix though, he started breaking some rules when he came up. He had started to expand the operations and started rolling with the Unions. He also started to tax some of the cargo going through the river for some goods, nothing major like dust but tobacco and a few scrolls that was good to take. Problem is that none of the suits are calling him out just yet and the police seem to blind and deaf cousin. So fucker decided to also grow the operation, claiming everything north of the river in ID his. Almost has it as well, that's why he started to mess with us here. He's got someone else backing him though, someone is selling him weapons and it ain't coming from the ID cause no one is selling him any fucking guns there. Seems to be he's also got himself his own Junior as well, know exactly which boats are good to go, probably in the union but I don't fucking know anything except Junior said he ain't doing business with him. That's all. Nothing more on me." The man said with a hopeful sound to his voice.
"Tell you what?" that man now smiling again. "You bring me his head and I let you live punk. Promise. I'm a businessman, I can look past this. You pay up a bit for this and you bring me his head I'll forget this ever happened. Might even go after these Templar if they're helping a pain in the ass like DeCroix." A sigh of relief left his body as Azul got off his body.
"I always said you can't replace a good opportunity." He propped himself on his one good elbow as Azul stood over him. "Money and women, they come and go. But something like this only comes once pal, I tell y-"
The man yelled as the tomahawk cut his nose off and he was lifted by his hair. Whatever the man might have tried to say to dissuade his death was forgotten as he screamed being tossed over the roof and even that was cut off as he hit a fire escape and flipped onto the pavement below.
Azul just look below as the thing that had called itself a man twitched on the ground as he just remembered the sobbing.
The ceaseless crying.
He wonders if it had stopped now as the man seized to move and the pool of blood only grew.
He went to greet the incoming dawn over one of the bridges as he looked towards Beacon. He had heard of it but never thought he would actually see it. His grandfather on his mother's side had been a hunter apparently, and it hadn't been that uncommon, especially then, for a hunter to settle outside the wall. It also hadn't been unusual for a hunter to die before they reached the age of 40 back then and now. Still though, his mother had loved to talk about her papa when he was younger, telling Azul that had a strong resemblance to the man. Both he and Sol had taken after someone on their mother's side, Sol specifically reminded his mother of her older brother. Azul wasn't sure what had happened to the man, only that his mother loved him dearly like she did his brother.
He had to start heading to work now, for what little time he had there and for as tired as he felt owed it to his boss. Azul sighed as pressed off the railing and gave one last glance towards the east.
The sun had started to rise, shining its light first upon Beacon and then the rest of Vale. The water sparkled as the mist hanging over the city revealed itself and the shadow of the city seemed to fall on Azul. The new day had come to Vale as Sol's color washed over the city and the cacophony of it seemed to quiet if not for just a moment.
The Templars, or at least what seemed like them. He had them, he had a start. He could start moving in and maybe, just maybe find some semblance of reason for what had happened 8 days ago. This organization or whatever it was, he would burn it down; he would have his vengeance.
Chapter 1.2
So my first instance of what could be called an action scene in this story, which honestly was more just Azul shooting people but that's how things might go in gunfights without aura. With regards to the situation with human trafficking, I want to give an unfiltered look at the underworld so you can expect things of similar nature but as I said at the beginning I don't want to do it just for the shock value, these do happen when you talk about gangs and cartels. I want to incorporate that as part of the story without relying on it to make this story 'realistic' because that's just edgy crap.
Also, I want to try and make this story an actual writing exercise for me as well so I will experiment with it in the future as you might notice with Mr. Steak and Mr. Counter. Tell me what you thought about it, were you indifferent to it, hate it, or enjoy it? One thing that I can say about my writing going forward is that I want to be more descriptive. I don't want to fill the story with unnecessary details but I want to accurately get the image in my mind across, I want you to be able to see and be able to imagine the scene I write out playing in your head without bogging down the story with excess. I will work on that in the future for sure but are other things you folks see that could be improved? What did you like?
I hope you have a wonderful day/night wherever you are. Take care and be good people.