Chapter 115: In Search Of A Small Victory

Zanya and his brother stood in front of the Buddy Police Force Headquarter. They didn't enter inside, but were only watching it.

"Do you think Tsukikage is alright?" his younger brother asked.

Zanya turned toward Akatsuki and replied, "I'm sure he's fine. He is a ninja and a strong one. He won't let imprisonment break him and I can still use my Buddy Skill."

That gave some encouragement to Akatsuki who asked, "Do you think they might know where Azi Dahaka lives?"

"I'm not sure and I don't really trust Seiichi to give us the answer, so we have to keep going," Zanya said.

"Do you think our father will give us the information's?"

"I'm not sure... There is a small chance for him to give us that, but it's still worth trying. Kyoya residence is surely noted somewhere in the Police Station and if dad give us the authorisation, we will have a step forward," Zanya replied.

They two continued toward the Police Station.

Meanwhile, Kuguru, Gao, their buddies and Tenbu were waiting outside the school.

"School has been over for a while, why isn't Shido out yet?" Ironchain grunted impatiently.

"He is the student council president and might be busy," Kuguru explained.

"We just have to wait for him," Gao said.

"Even if Shido comes out, it would have been for nothing if Gallows isn't with him," Drum grunted, having trouble to accept the fact that they might need the help of Gallows to begin their independent investigation.

"Everything will come if we wait for it to come," Cat Sith said with a small grin as he gazed at Ironchain.

"I saw that you little cat!" the blue dragon yelled at him, "And quoting Tenbu doesn't make you smarter."

"Still more than you," the cute monster cat replied.

"Calm down you two, there is no need for you two to fight," Tenbu said.

"Gao. Maybe we should have split and try to speak with Troubadour," Drum suggested.

"I know we could ask him, but we will try that tomorrow. I don't want to cause trouble for him," the boy replied.

"Remember that time is of the essence Gao. We have a little more than month before the elections come and the new Prime Minister of Japan is elected," the green dragon reminded them.

"I know," Gao replied. He was about to say something else when they saw Shido coming out of school with his buddy and Sophia, "There they are," he said.

"They sure know how to make us wait for long," the red dragon grunted.

Shido and Sophia stopped when they saw the six coming at them while Gallows ignored them, busy with something no one knew what it was.

"What is it? We are busy you know," Sophia asked.

"It won't take long Sophia," Kuguru replied.

"We just have one question to ask to Gallows," Ironchain said.

Gallows stopped flying away and turned around, "Are you asking for a fight? Because I'm more than open to defeat you. Sha. Sha. Sha."

"It is not about fighting you Gallows. You weren't in the final of the tournament, so you're not that interesting," Drum huffed with a grin.

The darkness dragon didn't take it well as he replied, "I have no reason to explain myself to a racist dragon like you."

"As if you care about that," Ironchain replied.

The dragons, except Tenbu, were going off-track as they started to insult each other's, until Sophia said, "We are wasting our time here. Ask you question so we can finish with this."

"Y-yeah," Shido nodded.

Gallows flew toward his buddy, "That's all you gonna say?" he made the boy lightly flinched when he showed his claw near his face, "Sha. Sha. Sha. Stop flinching when my claws as just close," he giggled, "But don't. It's too much fun."

Drum frowned when he felt that Gallows gave him a mocking face while Kuguru wondered if Gallows might be one of the problems against Tenchi, but he was a minor one at least.

Gao and Kuguru wondered how they could ask the question without attracting

"Hurry up with the question," Gallows said before lightly giggling.

Kuguru grabbed Gao and whispered, "I'll ask the question."

Gao agreed, since she was smarter than him and could bring the subject more subtlety than him, since he could only think of a direct and suspicious question.

"We..." Kuguru thought about it and got an idea, "We have something to tell Azi Dahaka and we wondered where we could find him."

Gallows was wondering what she meant by that, "Why would you want to know where he is?"

"Gao and Drum arrested Despair and he is currently in Dragon World. We aren't sure if Azi Dahaka is aware of it. We don't want any trouble because we arrested one of his soldier," Kuguru elaborated.

Drum managed to hold his anger at the thought of Despair escaping justice, but Gallows replied, "We know about it. You're father tell my ruler about it and he let Dragon World judged Despair for his crime against you. So you don't need to meet him."

Gao and Kuguru looked at each other's and knew they couldn't try anything else.

"We won't waste any more of your time," Kuguru said before looked at the dragons and Cat Sith and walked away. When they were out of their school, they split up and returned to their home.

"Why did they ask us that? Aren't they supposed to already know about it?" Shido wondered out loud.

"They are misinformed," Gallows giggled.

Sophia looked at Shido and Gallows and commented, "You are both idiot."

Gallows yelled, "What?" while Shido gasped before replying anything.

"They wanted to know where Azi Dahaka is instead of asking you Gallows to give him directly the message," Sophia started explaining.

"I think they don't trust Gallows for that," Shido tried to explain.

"What did you say? Sha!" the darkness dragon yelled as he pulled Shido cheeks.

While Shido painfully whined, Sophia said, "True, but Gallows wouldn't try to lie or ignore something involving Azi Dahaka. They must know about it."

Gallows stopped hurting Shido and ask, "Then they suspect something?"

"Yes. We have to warn Azi Dahaka now," Sophia said.

And Shido took out his cellphone and called.

"What are you doing?" Sophia asked.

"I'm not going to walk there," Shido replied.

"You sure are lazy Shido. Sha. Sha. Sha,"

Sophia sighed, thinking the same way as Gallows, but after a few seconds said, "It's best that way. Just in case they try to follow us."

Kazane and Phoenix were searching for someone in the street.

"Are you sure the darkness dragon is going to be here. If not, we are going to waste our time Kazane," her buddy said.

"Don't worry Phoenix, I'm sure he's going to be here. Gao told us that he likes to be around the crowd as they listened to his music," she replied.

Gao wasn't aware of it, but Kazane and Phoenix did ask a few information's about Troubadour and were wondering if he might know something. She didn't call Gao yet, knowing that he was surely with Shido right now and it would only be a bad moment. So she took this in her own hands.

"How are we going to ask him where Azi Dahaka lives without making him suspicious? He might like Gao, but he must be loyal to his ruler," Phoenix said.

"I know, but we have to try. Gao is our friend, so is Tasuku and Kiri. We have to help them," she said as she lightly looked down.

"Are you thinking about what The Reaper said?" the buddy monster asked.

"Not really. I am thinking about Jackknife and Joker. How are they feeling right now? Joker must be in pain, doing things like that because something happened to Kiri while Jackknife is worried for Tasuku. We have to help them too. It's hard not to think about how painful they must feel right now."

"Kazane," Phoenix whispered. He then added, "Then let's find Troubadour right now," he flew out of her hood and started searching around with his powerful eyesight.

Phoenix eventually heard someone playing an instrument and guessed it was Troubadour. He checked just to be sure and when he confirmed it was the darkness dragon, he flew back to Kazane.

She saw her buddy coming back.

"I found him. He's playing in front of the mall," he told her.

"Let's go," she said as she dashed toward the mall.

They reached their destination and saw the darkness dragon playing with his instrument. The dragon was lightly smiling at his audience as he played his music. When he finished, some humans applauded him while other's didn't.

"You are getting a little more critical," Troubadour said, "But this just pushed me to play better than before as I'll put more than my soul into it."

Kazane and Phoenix listened to his next piece of music as they wondered how they could bring up the subject without making the dragon suspicious. It wasn't easy to come up with the method.

Eventually, the darkness dragon stopped playing his melody, "Thank you everyone. This will be all for today."

He stood up and was about to walk away when Kazane said, "Excuse me."

The dragon looked at her, "What is it?"

"Can I speak with you please?" she asked.

"Sure," the dragon replied with a smile, "What do you want to know? Is it about my musical talent or my wonderful instrument?"

"No," Kazane replied, "Listen. I'm a friend of Gao and..." she hesitated.

"A friend of Gao is surely a good person," the darkness dragon replied with a smile, although he looked at her more intensively as if he expected a big question, "What is it? It's surely serious if you are hesitating."

"We are wondering if you know anything about Tasuku disappearance," Phoenix asked.

Troubadour face was emotionless as he turned around, "I know that he disappeared since Gao told Demios and his buddy about it, but nothing else."

It was obvious for Phoenix that he knew more about it. The green bird was surprised about the answer. He was just asking it to go closer to the subject when Kazane would ask about it, but Troubadour was obviously hiding something. He knows more than he's letting on. Is he hiding some kind of guilt or something else?

"Do you have anything you can tell us about it? Jackknife is really worried about him and is going to search for him soon after he's healed," Kazane asked.

Troubadour turned around and grunted, "Someone wounded Jackknife?"

"Yes. He's in the hospital now," Phoenix replied as he looked in the eyes of the darkness dragon. He saw fury on the face of the dragon.

"I got to go," Troubadour said.

"W-wait," Kazane tried.

"I don't know where Tasuku is right now," he walked away. He gazed at them and kept walking.

"Maybe we should follow him," Kazane whispered.

"Unless it's a trap," Phoenix said, but Kazane was following him.

"Fine," his buddy sighed, "But if we are in trouble, we run away and if it's too dangerous, we walk away."

"Yes," she replied.

And they followed Troubadour.

AC: This is the end of chapter 115.

Next chapter: Darkness Conflict.