Oh boy, here we go again!
(Please Follow, Favorite, and Review! -Spirit)
The next day was catastrophic.
"We lost him." I said, sitting down on the armchair. "We tried to warn him, but he was already too far gone."
Sakura sat down on the wooden chair besides mine, sitting backwards on the chair, folding her arms over the edge of the chair and looking at the corkboard.
"I can't believe you were actually right about the cult." Sakura said, sounding kind of depressed.
"Same." I echoed, idly flipping the pen again in my hand. It did a triple flip in the air before it fell onto my thumb then tumbled back into my palm. "I really didn't expect my first case to be this weird."
"But we have no proof!" Sakura said, throwing her arms into the air and slumping down again. "Just because Issei apparently now walks with Rias Gremory to school doesn't mean that we can expose the cult."
"Apparently the Gremory's are really rich too.", I said. "So if they're rich enough to start a whole cult that apparently produces hallucination inducing drugs, distributes them without the police even being aware of the problem existing, and give all their members nearly perfect hair dye and colored contacts, their scale of operation is just incredible."
"Not to mention the swords." Sakura said. "Those things looked like they were made with gold and rubies or something. Real expensive. Not to mention that the craftsmanship was exquisite."
"Well, what can we do?" I said. My pen fell to the floor and made some very echoed clattering noises.
"I don't know." Sakura said, sighing. "I don't know. If only there was somebody we knew that had experience taking down gangs and exposing powerful groups. We don't know anybody like that, do we?"
"… Wait, Sakura." I said, suddenly given new life by the statement. "We do know somebody that did exactly that."
"Who?" Sakura said, looking up.
"Our dad!"
"You seriously don't believe what he's been saying in his stories, right? They're… just stories." Sakura said, shrugging.
"Well, he's the best bet we got." I said, already going out of the room.
…
"You all want to hear about my gang busting days?" My dad said, sipping his tea.
"Yeah. How did you expose powerful people and bring them to justice and all that?"
"I didn't." Dad said, putting down his teacup.
"What."
"Yeah. Do you really think I had the guts to make a public announcement and all that jazz? I just walked up to the most trustworthy police correspondent I had, turned in a bunch of pictures and documents, and went on with my daily life."
He chuckled.
"Got paid real good for that one too. The police appreciate not having to do any investigating work.".
"So all we have to do is get some evidence, turn it into the police, and wait to get paid?"
"Pretty much. That is, if you don't have a client. If you have a client, you have to convince them that whatever your conclusion is to their case is the truth."
His eyes widened.
"So you've finally found out something fishy about that school? Good on you, son!"
I smiled, but it was a flimsly smile.
"Yeah, dad… we got a lead down."
I fidgeted for a while, got up, grabbed Sakura by the sleeve, and got up to go to the door.
"We're going to go, uh, look for some more evidence. Be back before dinner!"
Then I left, a very confused Sakura in tow.
…
I sat down on a park bench and made Sakura sit as well, before slumping over.
"Why are we even out here?" Sakura asked.
"I…. just had to clear my head." I said, massaging my temples. "We've been hitting dead ends everywhere. We have no leads, we don't know where the cult meets, and we don't have the resources."
"Well, why am I here? You're the brains of the operation."
"… Emotional support?" I weakly suggested, realizing my actions really were kind of stupid.
"Don't worry about it." Sakura said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Although we don't actually have anything, our family has always pulled through from hard cases, right? Besides, we can ask dad for some stuff."
I nodded.
"Yeah. I guess that makes sense."
Then, something in the distance exploded.
… (Issei POV) ...
Obviously, with the amount of random stuff he ate in the club (those chocolates were really good), the hallucinogenic drugs were obviously still strong when the glowy red circle appeared out of nowhere.
The meeting with the "client" only confirmed his suspicions a bit. Tall guy living in a crappy apartment that had terrible disorganized messes, a bunch of bags filled with strange things in the cabinet, and rows after rows of racy novels spoke of probably being a druggie.
"She was supposed to have taken care of you. So, why are you still alive?"
Issei stopped thinking about his "client" and glanced up just in time to fall back and dodge a spear.
"What. How long do these drugs even last for?" Issei thought as he fell to the ground.
Getting up from the floor, Issei looked again to see a cultist in a dominatrix outfit (presumably in an opposing "faction" in whatever fantasy LARP war they were fighting) was floating in the air.
What did Rias say to do in this situation? Oh, right. Manifest his own imaginary weapon and fight back.
"To manifest your sacred gear, think about part of you that you think is strongest."
Issei really wasn't that strong.
"Well," he reasoned, "If I'm really in a cult, I guess I'm just going to have to play by their rules."
Issei didn't really didn't know what to do.
"So… do I just manifest my cultist powers and somehow obliterate this person?"
Said person was holding a glowing weapon and was making menacing movements.
Issei shrugged, and clenched his fist, thinking about a hero that could defeat any monster in an instant.
"Are you just going to stand there, accepting your demise?" His enemy smirked.
Issei swore he could hear guitar rifts coming from somewhere, let the hypothetical hallucinogenic drugs take over his system (Rias did say that magic really was real, but then again, Tantei's cultist theory also made sense), and followed the urge coming from deep within him. Something stirred, something that felt ancient and powerful.
"Attack…." It whispered.
Issei obliged.d
"One Punnnnnnnnch!"He shouted, throwing his fist forward in a rather sloppy punch.
The force that came out of the weapon shocked him. A veritable funnel of wind had been created with him at the epicenter. The shop signs and streetlamps were blown askew as the sheer force of the blow blew away the skimpy clothing the "angel"(Seriously, what self-respecting angel would wear an outfit that commonly appeared on Issei's phone screen?) was wearing, revealing-
"Nice." Issei said, enjoying the view of the girl's uncovered … nether regions. Thoughts better left unwritten emerged from his brain, only interrupted by the angel's shrill screech.
"I've got better things to do. I'm going to let somebody else deal with this crap!"
Then, in a flurry of wings and a cascade of feathers, the girl left.
Issei observed the gauntlet on his left hand. It was bright red, with sharp ridges and a glowing green gem embroidered in the center. Reminiscent of a certain Caped Baldy's signature choice of hand equipment.
Then he realized it had manifested on his right arm.
"Had this thing always been in my arm during all the times I had-"
…
Sakura and I ran to the site of the explosion, curious and afraid at what had expired.
The sight that greeted me was… terrifying.
The not-really recognizable back of the brown haired Issei was crouched on the floor, presumably inspecting the damage he had done to the area.
My favorite pizza restaurant. Smashed. A sign for some knockoff potato chip brand. Blown off its supports and strewn on the floor. Neon signs were smashed and the colorful glass lay strewn on the floor, shattered into tiny pieces.
Worst of all, the street stand that gave me diarrhea as a kid… was just fine.
Issei was laughing.
"It's real!" He giggled. "It's actually real.".
We backed away slowly and ran out of the streets.
"Oh god did Issei detonate a bomb or something?" I thought, nigerundayo-ing.
"And that's why you don't do drugs, kid." Sakura said, probably trying to lighten the mood.
"… Not the time, Sakura." I said, mulling over the facts.
…
School tomorrow was… weird.
All of the classes went totally normally, but Issei actually stopped being a pervert for a while and the Perverted Trio became the Perverted Duo. The boy with the glasses and the tall one with the bald head seemingly cursed the heavens for Issei abandoning them.
Then again, it was probably a good thing. The cult wouldn't be spreading through Issei's now reverent devotion to whatever LARPing program they were running.
Still, as I looked at the faces of Kiba and Koneko, the secretly insane public faces of the club, mingling with the students, making small talk, and smiling innocently (at least in Kiba's case. Koneko was probably going for the tsundere loli combination that was most definently jailbait), I felt dread course through my veins.
How many more innocent lives are going to be ruined by this bomb carrying cult run by one of the richest families in the city?
I gripped my mystery novel with an iron grip and decided to do something about the world. Then, I looked at my report card.
A 72 in BC calculus. Barely even a C-grade.
My parents were going to kill me.
Well, there was the old saying. "Manage thy family before you manage thy country.". It was time to brave the flames that was my mom raging over my terrible math grades. And hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
(Even if, even though I didn't know it yet, hell was mostly filled with angry woman and perverts).
…
School was finally over. Stretching as I got up from my social studies class, I walked out of the room, waved a casual goodbye to the teacher, and admired the sunset through Kuoh's grand windows. The shadows and hues it cast over the city were simply breathtaking.
But this was no time to be slaking off.
To track down the location of the clubroom (and, of course, to avoid going home too early and enraging my parents about my grades), I hopped on the bicycle I had bought for just this purpose, put on a dark hoodie and an old baseball cap (because nothing screams "this person is not a detective" like a baseball cap) to trail Issei to their potential clubroom.
About half an hour later, I was regretting my decision. My natural anti-athleticism made me puff and wheeze with every single meter I was going. The hills' crests and slopes filled me with dread and a promise of pain.
"I should've let Sakura handle the tailing part." I thought as I finally gave up and began pushing the bike up the rural road.
The fancy car that Issei had left in (apparently he also rode with the Occult club to wherever they were meeting) was long gone, but it was fairly obvious where they would go.
There was only one road here, after all.
I finally saw a medieval-looking manor in the distance, mentally fist pumped, and got out my phone to call for a tactical retreat before the cultists spotted me.
… Beep …. Beep … Beep….
"Where have you been young man?" My mom screamed in the phone. The distant echoes of "Honey, calm down!" could be heard in the background amid the furious screeching that was the pure, unadulterated anger of a parent defied.
"Mom…" I sobbed, "Can you come pick me up?"
It really was getting dark out here.
...
If you don't get that last line of dialogue, just watch Dorkly's Pokemon Rusty series. It's hilarious.
Hope you had fun reading that. I'm putting my main story, Chasing Light, on hold because I'm kind of running out of inspiration about how to begin the next arc.
And wow, writing 2k word chapters are so much easier than writing 3k work chapters.
Please follow, favorite, and review if you want more updates or just want to make my day better.
Peace!
-Spirit