The Shotgun Approach

by SuperNova90

In my mind I saw all the tiny chess pieces and tried to predict all their movements, from start to finish, but Yusuke was always the wild card—that one unknown factor that could ruin the entire game. Etternia is a rare demonic species called Elementa. She works as a paramedic in Sarayashiki and finds herself quite tangled up with Yusuke Urameshi, current king of demon world.

20. The Rush of Realization

The Shotgun Approach

Chapter 20: The Rush of Realization

A/N: We're outta the teens, ya'll. Thought this wasn't gonna be a monster, but guess I was wrong xD THIS IS A HIEI POV CHAPTER MY DUDES!

Also, the site is currently experiencing a glitch and reviews aren't showing up on the review page, but I still get the email notification, so please don't let it deter you!

. . .

Sleeping that night was an impossible feet.

Long after Yusuke fell back into slumber, I crept from the bedroom and passed Shou curled up on his couch. I found the kitchen and sequestered myself there. A window above the sink spread moonlight into the room, the light arcing across the table.

I sat there until it faded...and eventually turned to the light of day.

Shou stumbled in sometime later, took a long look at me with eyes still half asleep, and rolled them. He brewed coffee and then shooed me out to the table that took up half his den.

From there, I could keep an eye on the beaded curtain...and wait.

Shou poured us both coffee, setting out two empty cups for Yusuke and Etternia.

When he took his seat, cupping his hands around his own mug, he turned to me. "Is she going to be okay?"

At first, I remained silent. In the long run my answer would be no. But for this day, yes. She lived. Thanks to me replenishing the energy she lost from her body trying to keep her alive after severe drug abuse. She should have overdosed and perished last night.

If I wasn't who I was, she would have.

If I wasn't fire and ice...she would have died.

I did not know what to do with that knowledge. But Etternia owed me a life's debt many times over now.

She belonged to me.

And what she did last night was unacceptable.

Her past was painful. She was wronged in so many ways by people she once trusted. I felt anger on her behalf. I wanted to enact the worst form of justice upon her people. But she chose the coward's route. She did not face her fears or her painful past with an anger that should have fueled her. She faced it with a needle and a way for her to forget. To forget the past that forged her.

It made sense now, why she so easily gave up on the training I offered her.

My thoughts were interrupted when the curtain's beads cascaded apart, revealing Yusuke stretching behind them, yawning. "Man, I slept like a log."

He shuffled to the table, scratching an itch on his lower back and reaching for my coffee mug. He took a large gulp of it before I even thought to snatch it away from him. "Get your own," I growled.

"Whoa, grouchy much? No need to get your panties in a bunch."

I didn't even bother to retaliate to his asinine comment. I just cast him a glare before finishing off what was left of my drink, pushing it back towards Shou so he could refill it.

He poured one for Yusuke too, though the bastard didn't deserve it.

"How's Ettie?" Shou asked Yusuke, considering he couldn't get an answer out of me.

"She's still sleeping. Won't know until she wakes up, right?" Yusuke plopped down into a chair, sliding down until he was slumped in it, his feet stretched under the table.

One of his toes tentatively brushed the side of my foot and I almost hissed at how cold it was. But after a moment he buried his entire foot under mine, as if he needed the warmth, and I did nothing to stop him. The contact wasn't unpleasant. Just odd.

An uncomfortable silence permeated through the room.

Shou was the first to break. He got up and began to do some chores around his apartment. We ignored him, letting the minutes stretch into an hour. Then two.

The sound of the beads clacking against the door frame startled us both. Our feet split apart and we sprung up in our seats, backs rigid. Shou stopped whatever idiotic thing he was doing across the room, dropping a cloth and staring.

Etternia, her eyes sunken in and skin so pale it was painful to look at, stood in the doorway, one arm holding the beads up, the other balled against her stomach. She looked sickly, like a patient who should be on their death bed.

Her eyes darted around the room, noting each face, her features made of marble for how much emotion they showed.

She didn't say anything, just shuffled towards another door. I caught a quick glimpse of a bathroom before she slipped inside.

"She looks like shit," Yusuke said.

"That's to be expected..." Shou added. "No one looks pretty after an overdose."

He wandered off towards his room then, coming back scant moments later with an armful of clothes. Shou marched up to the bathroom door, knocked once, and when it was opened he slipped in as well.

"Seriously?" Yusuke said. "How many guys does she let see her naked?"

"She cares little about nudity. But Shou isn't fully male either."

Yusuke swung around in his chair, staring at me with wide eyes. He opened his mouth, more than likely to say something moronic, when I interrupted him. "Keep it to yourself, fool. His genitals have little to do with it."

His cheeks colored and he looked away, pouting. "I wasn't gonna say anything about that..."

"Bullshit. You have a horrible tendency of putting your foot in your mouth."

He looked back at me, incensed now. "Yeah, well! You—you have stupid hair!"

"Is that the best you could come up with?"

"Fuck you, Hiei."

I rolled my eyes, pretending to ignore him now. He knew how to get on my nerves, yet I somehow still managed to tolerate his presence anyway.

"So, we gonna talk about last night?" he asked several moments later.

"About the fact Etternia needs an intervention before she winds up in an early grave?"

"That...and what you told me."

I dragged my gaze slowly up from the table, my lips quirked into a dangerous smile. I conveyed exactly how I felt on the matter with my stare alone. "I don't recall telling you anything of importance last night."

"Are you for real? You're back to being in denial?" The palm Yusuke had resting on the table curled into a fist. I could see the tremor it sent down his arm, as he clenched it just a little too tight.

I did not understand the look of anger sparking in his eyes. This truly enraged him, but why? It was my business. Not his. He had no right to force his way into my personal life.

"I have nothing to be in denial over."

Yusuke stood up so fast from his chair it toppled over. I thought his vehemence against my wishes was a little dramatic, but I took a defensive stance anyway. Shou's furniture be damned, if it was a fight he wanted I was more than willing to give it to him. The rage I felt from last night was still fresh and sharp at its edges. It dug into me every time I found a reason to remind me of it.

The bathroom door clattered open, a rather inconvenient timing on their part.

The fight was long forgotten now.

Shou helped Etternia to the table, where she sunk down in an empty chair and let loose a breath she'd been holding.

Then Shou pointed at the two of us, disapproval coating every word. "No fighting in my place, you got it!? You break my things you can pay for all of it."

"Don't worry, I got the cash short stop. I'd even pay you for your emotional damages," Yusuke said, retaking his seat but propping his feet up on Shou's table, tipping the chair onto two legs.

Shou fell into his own seat, putting his hands to his face. "I keep forgetting your the king," he mumbled.

"How could you forget, he is on television all the time," Etternia said, reaching for the mug of coffee Shou offered her.

Shou threw out an arm, gesturing around his apartment. "Does it look like I watch TV? Kind of hard to do when you don't have one."

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the couch this morning," Yusuke said, laughter on his tongue.

But I was in no mood for jokes or nonsense. "Etternia," I said.

Her eyes snapped to me and then quickly back to the table top. I watched her take a single long sip of coffee, before she set down the mug and stood.

She thanked Shou, telling him she would return his clothes soon, and then gathered what few positions she had. She was halfway to the door when I got up to stop her out of sheer disbelief. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Home to shower and change. I work the night shift tonight." Blunt and to the point, but not what I wanted to hear.

"Do you have any idea what you've put us through? Do you even care?"

"Hiei—"

"Stay out of it, Yusuke!" I turned and snarled at him, slicing my arm through the air. "Coddling her will not do her any favors!"

"I do not wish to be coddled," she growled. "In fact, I wish to be left alone entirely. My life is not your business. I am your boss and coworker, but we are nothing more than that. Do not assume you have some say in how I choose to conduct myself."

Her words struck a chord. I could feel it. It made my eyes burn and throat feel tight. I could feel the fire burning in my stomach, the words I was forced to swallow should I say something I would regret. What did I care? If that was how she thought of me, than so be it. It was easier to think objectively that way and I had no intention of befriending her in the first place.

"Ettie, you don't mean that," Yusuke said, rising from his chair and taking a step towards her. "You and Hiei are friends. I like to think I'm your friend too. Are you telling me you never felt the same?"

The stare she pinned him with was cold. And when she turned and left, Yusuke's face was crestfallen. He was too stunned to speak, but he followed after her, throwing the door open and not bothering to close it behind him.

I heard him call her name as he gave chase.

I hesitated to follow, until Shou came up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder I was sorely tempted to shrug off.

"She didn't mean it," he murmured. "All she does is talk about you. Yusuke too. Sometimes your friends. But mostly you two. She needs help...don't abandon her now."

And what good would I be, should I choose to heed him?

Why should it be my duty alone to help her? She did this to herself.

But even as I thought it, I was moving towards the door. I could hear Yusuke and Etternia arguing a couple of flights down and I slowed so I may listen, taking the stairs one at a time.

"Ettie, we just want to help you!" Yusuke shouted, the frustration he was feeling boiling over into his voice. "We care about you!"

Etternia scoffed, her tone disbelieving. "Whether that is true or not, this is still none of your business."

"You were the one who called Hiei here," he pointed out. "Did you forget that?"

Her silence told me that she had. And she was embarrassed by that fact.

"It won't happen again," she murmured. "I won't be a bother to any of you anymore, soon enough."

I rounded the final flight of stairs, seeing them arguing in a corner near the front door of the building. Ettie was hunched in on herself there, small and weary. Nothing like the warrior from her memories.

This alone made my blood boil, my fists clenching tight at my sides. She was a shell, just as she'd told Yusuke. A shell of what she once was, all because of a man. It was pathetic on astronomical levels. And it made me so angry I was forced to hold back from punching a hole in the apartment building's wall.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Yusuke asked, and I took the final step so I was standing behind them, my arms crossed over my chest.

I wished to hear this too.

"I am giving my two weeks notice at the station today." And suddenly she stood a little straighter, her eyes piercing. "I am going home."

"Home?!" Yusuke barked. "Back to Gandara? Why?"

She looked passed him, towards me, those earthen eyes as hard as marble. "No, not Gandara."

Yusuke was rent speechless. He stood there with his mouth hanging open, just staring, so I shoved him out of the way. I pinned Etternia with a look that would have made a lesser man wet himself.

"Home? You mean to the North. Back to those...people," I spat the word like it was poison, "that betrayed you. How far you have fallen, Etternia."

She stood with her shoulders straight and head held high, even though my words were meant to be biting. They did not affect her in the slightest. My lips grew into a tight line, irritated.

"I plan to answer my father's summons. My people are at war and I wish to fight beside them."

"You wish to die," I snapped. "You may as well speak the truth. That is the only reason. You plan to take the coward's way out and die by the hands of an enemy, because you cannot pick up the knife yourself and cut your own throat."

"And if I were to, would you not still call me a coward? It is better to die in battle than to die by my own hand, is it not?"

"Not if you have no intention of fighting. There is no honor in just laying down to die."

She looked away, her gaze falling to the floor. For a moment, I thought I had won. She would submit to me and do as I say. We would fix this.

But a cold smile curled the corners of her lips and with it came a sinking feeling in my stomach.

"I'm afraid this is goodbye, it was nice knowing the both of you," she said. "I wish you the best in all your endeavors. May the Gods smile upon you."

She gave us a parting nod, slinking her way out of the corner Yusuke forced her into and heading towards the door.

It was Yusuke who shot out a hand and grabbed her, winging her back around to face him. "Bullshit! You can't just up and leave, I need you! We need you!"

I felt my face harden into something ugly and a cold laugh left my mouth unbidden. When had a want turned into a need, I wondered?

She was not necessary.

But she was not lacking in value either.

This would be the first time I called upon these powers given to me when I was appointed a King's Hand. I knew Yusuke didn't have the balls to do it himself, too afraid of what she would think of him after I was certain.

But I did not share in that fear.

"You plan to return to the North," I stated, and they both turned to look at me. "You have ties to enemies unknown as well as to the lord of Gandara."

"What is your point?" she snapped.

"You seem like a major liability, wouldn't you agree, Yusuke?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Hiei...?"

A smirk twisted my lips to turn my face vicious. She would surely hate me after this. "By the power granted to me as a Hand of the King, I forbid you to leave the world of man. If you should try, you will be considered a traitor to your king and will be punished in accordance with the new Makai laws against treason."

Her mouth fell open and then twisted into something feral. The earthen shade of her eyes bled into something closer to gold and she barred her fangs at me in a snarl. I felt her energy—my energy—swirl at our feet as a wind of pure rage caused the hair around my face to flutter.

"How dare you—!"

"No, how dare you," I cut her off. "Your arrogance is truly astounding."

"You have no right to keep me here! There is no evidence of a betrayal! You are doing it only to be cruel!"

"No right, you say?" I hissed. "I have more right than anyone! My energy swims in your veins and saturates your demonic core! You owe me a life's debt three times over and I plan for all of it to be paid in full."

She glared at me, the look making me toss my head back and laugh. What a beautiful face. Yes, be angry, anything was better than your bitter indifference.

She cast a final look towards Yusuke, her eyes alight with pure rage, before she stormed out the door. I called after her: "Stay close, Etternia! I'll be keeping my eye on you."

"Dude..." Yusuke said. "What the fuck is wrong with you? She's gonna hate your guts after this bullshit you just pulled."

"So be it," I snarled, before stalking away.

Once I was outside, I ran. I ran until my lungs were inflamed and sweat coated my skin. I ran until I felt as if I would explode. And when I came to a stop, I did not know or care where I was. I could not rid myself of the itch beneath my skin, the feeling driving me to madness until I was so enraged I caught myself burning down several trees.

I was in a park.

It wouldn't do to burn it down.

I was quick to stifle the flames, siphoning the power away and back into my core. I slumped to the ground after, pressing my back into the charred heat of a once majestic oak.

This was not what I wished to happen. But she'd given me so few options.

I couldn't allow her to leave, not now, not when she was so vulnerable. Her plan was to die, I knew that, but that did not mean I could do nothing as she walked towards her death, never to be seen again. There were far too many things I was unwilling to admit where it concerned her, but this was not one of them. I would not allow her to disappear and meet such a dishonorable fate.

She held far more worth than that.

So with weary bones, covered in soot from the trees I'd nearly burnt to ash, I made my way back towards the city.

I considered going to Kurama's for a shower, but knew he would pry into my personal business and I was in no mood for it. I weighed a few more options before finally settling on the one I hoped would be the least frustrating.

I should have known I would be wrong.

When I appeared on his doorstep, he raised a single eyebrow and ushered me in. He threw me a towel and a spare set of clothing, before shutting me into his bathroom.

I let the hot water pour over my back, my hands pressed to the tiled wall, head hung between them. I thought of Etternia. I thought of her as she ran into the thick of a trauma—determined and steadfast and blazing with pure energy. Seeing her in that light made me come to realize two things, each more complicated than the last.

One. I wished to be more than just colleagues with Etternia.

And two. Yusuke knew this all along.

I exited the bathroom, dragging a towel down my face, thankful Yusuke allowed me the use of his shower. I could not have stomached a visit to Kurama in my current state and the temple lacked appeal as well.

Yusuke knew.

And at first I thought he would leave me be.

I really should have known better.

He was sitting on the couch when I came padding in, toweling off my hair. "You're in love with her, aren't you?"

That same damned question.

My face was a bit too stony to be considered natural. And love...was too strong of a word.

"No," I replied. "Don't be ridiculous."

"Come on, man. Lying isn't going to do anyone any favors. I know, I can see it every time you look at her. Me and you are the same."

"Do not lump me in with your idiotic notions," I snapped. We were not the same. No matter what he said.

"If you're lying for my sake—don't. I'm not upset about it. I just want to hear the truth."

I scoffed, wrapping the towel around my neck and wandering into his kitchen so I could pretend to raid his refrigerator, Yusuke hot on my heels. I found a half full pack of beer bottles there and grabbed one, flicking the top off with my thumb.

"I'm serious, Hiei. It's not going to bother me," Yusuke said, as if he were trying to reassure himself as well.

I slammed the refrigerator door shut and glared at him. "Now who is lying?"

"Listen," he sighed and sunk down into one of his kitchen chairs. "It's okay with me as long as it's you. Or even Kurama or Kuwabara. If she likes any one of you, I'm cool with it."

I stared at him, incredulous, the beer in my hand forgotten. "Why?"

"Because I love you guys. All three of you assholes. You're my family. Not my absentee mom, not some ancient demonic fogy—but you guys. You've had my back, we've saved each other's asses so many times. So if she were to fall in love with anyone...she couldn't do better than to fall for one of you."

I was momentarily lost for words. But it did not last long. I slipped into a chair across from him, rolling the beer bottle between my fingers. "Are you done acting like a sentimental cry baby? It's disgusting," I sneered at him.

He laughed. "Shut the fuck up, you loser," he said with a grin, before he rose to retreat to his living room. "And next time I see you two together you better kiss and make up!"

The words, though meant to be humorous, had an underlying tone of melancholy. They did not cause me to smile or laugh. Instead, a bitterness rose in my chest.

Next thing I knew I was chucking the beer bottle at the wall, where it shattered and streamed down it, pooling into a puddle on the floor. Yusuke rushed back into the room, standing in his doorway looking confused, and then turned to me and said, "What the fuck, Hiei!"

I was in front of him in an instant. He reared back, surprised by my sudden appearance, when I grabbed his collar and wrenched him downwards.

I did not give him time to stop me or think too hard about what I was doing.

I merely pressed my lips to his, forcing my tongue between them so I could run it along his teeth, so I could taste him and the fury that coated his breath.

He ripped himself away, panting, staring at me with eyes awashed with confusion and anger...but there was also hunger. A hunger that overrode all the other emotions that swam within them. He leaned in to kiss me again, as if in a daze, and I took a single step back, letting my hand drop from his shirt.

"You humans and your constant obsession with monogamy. It's a wonder your race hasn't died out entirely with your archaic mindsets."

Yusuke licked his lips and swallowed hard. "I don't understand..."

"You wouldn't." I stalked from the room, gathering my soiled clothing and heading for the door.

"Hiei, wait! We're not gonna talk about this?!"

"All you want to do is talk," I turned to pin him with a gaze so heated he sucked in a sharp breath. "Maybe if you allowed your actions to speak for once, you would have better luck getting your point across."

"Is that an invitation?" he growled, lips curling into a wicked grin, running his tongue across his teeth.

"It is whatever you wish it to be, your majesty," I said mockingly. And then I left, slamming the door shut behind me.

There was one last place I needed to visit...and it would do wonders to release some of this rage that festered in my chest with nowhere to expel it.

I took my time running across the city, hopping across rooftops until I could see the one I wanted in the distance. I landed heavily atop it, jumping down to the walkway below, and smoothing out my clothes. I walked through the sliding doors with straight shoulders, my hands stuffed into my pockets, my show of confidence making me look less out of place.

I walked up to the desk, plastering a charming smile on my face to get the doe eyed woman behind the counter to pay attention. "Could you please call Dr. Tadao..." my eyes flicked down to the badge dangling from the collar of her shirt, "Miss Tachibana."

Her cheeks reddened and she cleared her throat, "Y—yes, of course sir. Who should I say is asking for him?"

My smiled widened. "Just tell him we have a mutual friend I would like to discuss."

Her brows drew down in confusion, but she picked up the telephone and paged the good doctor anyway. A moment later the phone rang and she answered, hurriedly telling Tadao that there was someone waiting for him out front.

She hung up a few seconds later and turned to smile at me. "He'll be down in just a few minutes, if you'd like to take a seat."

"No need," I said. "I'll go meet him."

I walked away without so much as a word of thanks, my quick strides taking me towards the back of the hospital.

It didn't take long to find him. I could see him coming towards me from the end of a long hallway, but he didn't recognize me. In fact, he would have walked straight passed, if I didn't reach out and grab him around the arm. He pivoted on his heel to stare at me in shock, before that look turned angry.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded.

My hand tightened around his bicep, his face turning into a grimace. There would be bruises later, I thought with pleasure. Hopefully not the last of them. "We are going to have a chat, doctor, about a certain patient of yours."

"I have no quarrels with demons. Whatever it is you want from me, you have the wrong guy."

I dropped all pretenses, letting the look I gave him truly show off how furious I was. A bead of sweat formed and slid down his brow, his lower lip trembling.

"I'm here about the demon Etternia. And don't bother pretending you do not recognize the name, or you'll be leaving today with at least one missing appendage."

Tadao gulped and pursed his lips, nodding. "Okay...lets—lets take this somewhere private."

The doctor took us to an abandoned supply room and I tossed him inside ahead of me, barricading the door by pushing over an old metal storage unit. I stripped myself of my shirt immediately after, folding it carefully and placing it out of harm's way.

Tadao, realizing I meant business, backed away until he stood in the middle of the room. But there would be no escaping his punishment. No amount of begging would stop me. It would be easier...if he just stood there and took what was due.

But where would the fun be in that?

I circled around him, smirking. "You know why I'm here."

Not a question. A statement of fact. I could see it in his eyes, the way they flicked towards me nervously, but also the defiance there. He thought he'd done nothing wrong.

He would be singing a different tune once I was finished with him.

"I am well aware of who you are, Tadao. But do you have any idea who I am?"

"Yes," he breathed. "I've heard of you. Most everyone in Sarayashiki has. Mushiyori too."

"Then you know what I'm capable of." I lit the tip of each finger on my right hand, before curling it into a fist, watching smoke furl out from between my fingers.

"I don't care who you are, you can't just come in here and—" He never got to finish. I didn't care about what he had to say.

The first punch split open his lip. The second broke his nose. He tried a pathetic attempt to block the third, but I just punched him in the gut instead. I put just enough force behind each blow that he would feel the bruising for weeks, but not enough to cause internal injuries.

When he fell to the ground, curling in on himself, I relented, kneeling beside him so he could hear me better.

"If I so much as catch a whisper of you giving her drugs again, I'll end your miserable existence and not even bother to make it look like an accident. I will merely rip you limb from limb...and leave you on display as a reminder to anyone else who thinks they can fuck with me."

He rose up on one arm, those eyes still defiant. Either he was stupid, or insane. Perhaps a mix of both.

He spat blood across the floor, his teeth stained with it, and began to laugh. "She'll find it somewhere else, they always do. Too bad...my experiment was just getting started."

"Experiment?" I snarled.

He sat up, wiping the blood from his lips with the back of his hand. "I'm not only a doctor, but a scientist. Etternia was my test subject. I've dedicated the past several years of my life developing ways to better our treatment of demonic patients. There's too much we don't understand and the various differences between the species doesn't help."

"What the hell does Etternia have to do with that?"

"Well," he said with a grin. "Before you can use drugs on someone you need to have a basic understanding of how they should react. Etternia was a means to an end. I met her, realized what she was and the fact she was an addict, and I offered her my services. In exchange, she came to me once a month to run some tests."

My teeth gnashed together as I tried to contain the fresh fury that threatened to drag me under. I could kill this man with no remorse. In fact, I would take great pleasure in it.

"You are telling me you used her...as some sick form of a lab rat?"

"Precisely," he said with pride. "I was working up to the time to try and introduce something stronger, but her most recent breakdown provided a most ample opportunity that could not be ignored."

My fury turned cold then. Colder than the wind off an ocean in the dead of winter.

I reached out and took his hand in mine, he stared down at them quizzically, then back up at me. He opened his mouth, about to ask what I was doing I assumed, when I snapped his little finger in two. He screamed, the sound deafening, music to my ears.

By the time I broke every single finger in his left hand, he was sobbing, snot running down his face to mingle with the blood marring it.

When I moved onto his right...he passed out from the pain.

I stood over him afterwards, sneering down at his prone form. "Good luck cutting into your patients without the use of your hands, you soulless fuck."

I left the room exactly as it was before I entered it—minus Tadao.

Slipping my shirt back over my head, I walked down the hall as if I had no other place to be, a cold grin quirking one side of my lips. May he rot in hell.

As I left, I nodded to the woman at the desk in passing, slipping out of the building as if I was never there.

There was no better feeling in the world, than enacting justice on my own terms to those that deserved it. Tadao would regret the day he decided to use Etternia for such nefarious reasons. He would not forget me until the day he died, I would make sure of that.

I would make sure he did not forget me even in hell.

And he would never set his sights on her again. Or he would lose more than just his fingers.

I watched from the roof of the neighboring building as the police showed up, their guns drawn as if expecting to find some unknown attacker within the hospital. But I knew Tadao would not breathe a word of my involvement. He was not so foolish to think it wouldn't be his undoing.

Certain the chaos was passed, I made my way back across the city to one particular location, landing on her balcony with ease and letting myself in through the sliding door.

I did not trust that she would heed my orders.

And I was right to have felt as much. Her apartment was in shambles, things thrown around in haste as she packed. Or so I thought...until I saw the box.

That damned box she sometimes brought out but would never let anyone look inside.

It was where she hid her secrets. The things inside were important and precious to her. And there it was...laying open on the floor, half its contents spilled across the wood.

I knelt, brushing my fingers through some of it, picking up odds and ends. None of it seemed all that valuable. Some newspaper clippings...a lock of hair...some crystals, and pages from a text written in an ancient language. Drawings. So many drawings.

I found one of me, sketched in stark detail, my face drawn covered in soot. I recognized the scene immediately.

Placing the drawing back down, I took a closer look at the newspaper articles. Most of them were about the bombings...but there were a few that intrigued me. Stories of a mysterious figure that had been spotted at certain crime scenes, but no one could ever make out their face.

Was it the same person Etternia had seen during the chaos of the industrial complex bombing?

I pocketed the clippings, shuffling through a bit more of the box's contents, coming across a small wooden jewelry box. This I also recognized.

It was the same box Ingvar attempted to force on her. But why was it here? She'd thrown it back at him during that time...unless...

He'd been here again. Recently.

The box made its way into my pocket as well. The rest of the items I carefully replaced back into their rightful home. They meant nothing to me without the story behind them.

Leaving the box would have made it painfully obvious that Etternia did not leave here of her own free will.

Or she was beyond desperate to make it seem that way, at any rate.

I searched the rest of the apartment, checking for any other clues that may lead me to her whereabouts, but found nothing else of interest.

Positive I would not find answers here, I dug the idiotic human contraption known as a cellular phone from my back pocket. There were only 3 numbers in the contacts. I hit the first one on speed dial with a jab of my thumb.

It did not take him long to answer. "You ready to talk now?" he asked, clearly annoyed.

"She's gone," I said, not bothering to acknowledge his question. "She made a very convincing show of tossing her apartment. But it was not quite convincing enough."

"What do you mean?"

"It is just a hunch. It feels too staged to have been a robbery or kidnapping. She's too strong to allow for something like that anyway."

"That still doesn't tell us where the hell she is."

"Wait for another bombing. You'll find her." I clicked the phone shut, hanging up on Yusuke, and slipped it back into my pocket.

What I told him was true, wherever one occurred she would surely end up, but I didn't plan to wait that long.

It was time to collect the first of many debts, from Etternia the Elementa.

. . .

A/N: I have a shit eating grin on my face right now. Whoo, that felt good. Who saw this coming? I know some of you probably hoped for it, well there you have it ;) But where the heck has Ettie run off too now?! She's a little too good at getting herself in trouble.

Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! Curse me out in the comments!