Chapter 10 Empty Garden, Chirapa Town

"Ack! No help!" Marco cried as his pink haired teammate forcefully dragged him away.

"Oh, grow up." Sakura sighed. "We're going to the town's legendary garden. You wanted to see the sights of the world right."

"...Yeah" Marco sighed. "Lead the way I guess..."

"Have fun lovebirds!" Yoro yelled. Both Marco and Sakura flipped him the bird for that.

"Welp I'm heading off too." Ricco said. "I heard that this town has some very rare plants and I'd love to test some things out with them. I'll be at the library doing some research if you need me."

"Well I guess I'll go look for a tracker then..." Yoro smirked mischievously. "Although I'm kind of hoping they don't have any."

Pete rolled his eyes as Yoro burst out into laughter, Pete had better things to do besides laugh at his friend's misfortune. "Like getting a hotel room for us." He sighed "Because lord knows those idiots aren't going to do it."

Unbeknownst to Pete two agents of the magic council were following close behind him. "Should we be keeping our eyes on him?" Maria asked. "Wouldn't focusing on the demonic energy be the more urgent issue?"

"Cero has the feeling that following this mage will lead us right to demonic power we've been looking for. Besides." Cero began to drool. "Councilwomen Jinah will pay Cero handsomely for catching his assailant."

"A promotion would be nice wouldn't it?" Maria said "But we should keep an eye on the others they brought as well?"

"You just watch Pete." Cero said. "Cero will keep an eye on the pink and purple haired ones."

Maria nodded. "Then should I send them after the other two?"

"Yes, Cero believes that would be the best course of action."

Maria nodded "Summon Kage Onno" "Summon Nobusuma" Maria dropped two crimson cards on the ground and out of them came two figures. The first looked like the silhouette of a women while the other was a chimera with a flying squirrel's body and a bat's face. The bat also wore a cape with magic council's symbol on the back and a cape could be seen as part of the other women's silhouette. "Your targets are Ricco of the Storm and his brown-haired companion is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am." The two said before they rushed away.

"Well I should be off as, well shouldn't I?" Maria said. "It shouldn't be long before our promotions eh?" Maria then rushed off after own target.

Cero smirked "Cero has a feeling that Cero will be much much richer by the end of the day."

Yoro was procrastinating, he had easily found a cheap GPS and was now searching through the games at a local store. Although he was unable to find anything good. "Man, what's with this place?" Yoro asked. "All these games are at least a decade old. They don't even work with the newest console."

Yoro looked around the store confused by its emptiness. "And now that I think about it where are all the people around here? I don't even think there's cashier." Yoro folded his arms 'Pete said there was a corrupt magic council member here but with the town this barren I don't think that's the full story.'

Yoro took another look around. "Actually, there isn't much of anything left in this store. How long has it been since it was restocked?"

Unbeknownst to Yoro two figures were watching. The first was Kage Onno who stayed hidden in the shadows. But was actually pondering the same things as Yoro. 'This area is directly led under the Magic Council's jurisdiction there is no reason for any store's stock to be this low or outdated. Especially not if the town is this barren.'

The second was a teen girl with bright red hair was watching him from the rafters. She wore a white overcoat with a red Magic Council symbol on it. A rose was pinned to the collar of her shirt. "Rose here." She whispered into the flower. "My target has been spotted."

An amber haired girl answered on the other side. She wore the same white over coat but had a golden magic council symbol instead of a red one. "Poppy calling in, my target has been spotted as well." The girl, whose name was Poppy, was watching Ricco as he strolled through the library grimacing as he saw the titles of several books.

"This library is the worst." Ricco sighed. "Not only do they severely lack diversity but for a floral town they don't have anything on poisonous plants." Ricco growled in annoyance "It looks like my research has hit another dead end and right when I thought I was getting somewhere too."

Nobusuma was listening to what Ricco was saying very carefully and decided that he needed to report it to Maria. Something had made Nobusuma weary of the town ever since he was summoned. And it wasn't just the lack of people, although that didn't ease his suspicions any.

Ricco groaned. "Maaaaaaan this is the pits. I knew this place would be sketchy the second Pete said run by a corrupt magic council member, but this is ridiculous. Has nobody even checked in on this place? It's so obviously sabotaged that the blind could see it."

Nobusuma had to agree, as much as he didn't want too. For a town that was supposedly famous for it's flowers the place was pretty dead. The girl that was next to him in the rafters however did not seem to think the same way. "I'm just about ready to strike." She hissed "Cosmos what about you?"

"Patience Poppy." The final girl was the youngest of the three and the most mature. She wore the same outfit but had a pink crest that matched her long hair. She also wore a large white hat. "I need to wait until they reach the garden for my magic to be as beautiful as possible."

"Well just hurry up." Poppy said from the other side. "I'm just about ready to kill this kid."

"Nobody said you had to wait for all of us to be ready." Rose pointed out. "You can capture him whenever you want, we need to go after that black haired kid later anyways and it's not like we have all the time in the world."

"No way." Poppy said stubbornly. "We spent all this time planning this out so we're doing a coordinated strike."

"We spent about thirty seconds on this plan at most." Rose deadpanned.

"Oh you wouldn't understand anyway." Poppy said. "It's a bit like when you're missing a singular piece of a puzzle and you get so mad that you just start attacking people at random."

"I'm sorry you lost me at that second part." Rose said in exasperation "I think that might be a problem that only you have."

Unlike the others Marco's advanced hearing allowed him to hear the conversation the three teens were having. "Saku-"

But he was interrupted. "This place is pretty quiet huh?" Sakura said. "I would really have expected more from a town known for it's beauty. I just hope this garden's not a disappointment as well.

I know she's there but let's spring the trap.

Marco nodded at the unspoken message. Their arguing had made them easier to spot and Sakura had been trained to react to the slightest noises on her search for Yo-Kai. Marco grumbled as the collar around his neck began to feel uncomfortable. "Hey can you take this thing off now?"

"Are you going to keep wandering off?" Sakura asked.

"Probably." Marco said honestly.

"Then there's your answer."

Marco sighed but then peered at the rooftop where another person had been following them from.

That person being Cero who was more then just a little annoyed at the moment. "Let's try this again." He growled. "Pete Karlov, Ricco Zar, Yoro Mekler, Sakura Luna, and..." the small machine he was holding had a huge cover it with the words no identity found under it. 'Damn it who is this kid?' He thought 'Being unable to identify a single person is unlikely but not unheard of. But I can't find any direct or distant relatives. It's almost as if he appeared out of thin air.'

Of course, there was always the possibility he came from another country but he doesn't have a tan like the natives of Bosco, Ishtar has been secluded for decades, and he doesn't possess any of the distinct accents of the other countries. "This is pissing Cero off." Cero growled "Who the hell is this kid, and why doesn't the Council have any records of him."

Maria was just as frustrated as Cero was. All her target had done was move from hotel to motel searching for somewhere him and his group could stay until eventually he had met somebody that made her want to stay out of sight.

"Awwwwwwwesome!"

Pete was knocked back by a roaming reporter with tall blond hair. "Sorry about that." He said "It's just that your the first person I've met upon coming here. Names Jacob from Sorcerer's Weekly."

Pete shook the reporter's hand "And I'm Pete nice to see you. I just arrived here too actually."

"Awwwwwwesome!" Jacob cheered. "I feel like I recognize you from somewhere. So you might be famous! Want an interview?"

"Ah... no thanks." Pete said nervously. "I'm really nobody so you might be remembering someone who looks like me."

"Alright then." Jacob shrugged. "But I'm guessing you know why I came to this town?"

"The garden right?" Pete asked.

"Nope, the garden's cool and all but the real reason is truly..." Jason grinned at Pete.

"Awesome?" Pete sighed.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwesome!" Jacob confirmed. "It's not everyday you get permission to scope out a literal ghost town."

"Ghost town?" Pete asked.

"That's right, the rumors say that ghosts line the streets 24/7 making the town seem like it's as lively as it ever was." Jacob said. "Although..." he looked around. "I don't see any ghosts so I'm starting to think that I was duped."

"Why would you believe that?" Maria jumped down from the rooftops. "This town was in fact a ghost town; the magic council sent a representative here for the purpose of ensuring they didn't leave this town correct?"

"Why are you asking us?" Pete asked.

Maria ignored him. "Why would he keep the fact the town's been abandoned a secret though? It's a mystery maybe?"

"She asks more questions than I do." Jacob muttered. "And I'm a reporter."

"But lady Jinah did say that Saxam acts directly under her orders, didn't she?" Maria mused "So should I let it go perhaps?" Maria shook her head. "I almost forgot, you must know who you are don't you Pete?"

Pete stiffened "Wait So you are famous?" Jacob asked. "That's awwwwwwwwwsome!"

"Trust me it's not." Pete muttered.

A man stood in front of a large machine. It composed mostly of a large blue orb with a computer panel at the bottom. Pistons came out the ends and large tubes were connected to the ceiling. In front of the machine was a middle-aged man with a strange like liquid that replaced his hair. He wore a white overcoat and a white cape. He also wore a white cape and a light blue undershirt with a white magic council symbol in the center. "Roses are red, Violets are blue, the spirits are restless, I'll collect them for you."

The man fiddled a pen in his hands as he wrote down what he said, "Dreams have a cost, A price we must pay, to achieve mine, I'll take the dead far away." The man smirked as he put the pen in his pocket. "That Morkyne really is a genius." The man mused "A machine that can harvest the souls of the dead. It almost seems like something you'd only read about in a Fairy tale. Not to mention he found this location for me. Chirapa Town, A place filled with the wandering souls of the dead it's almost too perfect. I've almost collected them all now, as soon as the girls take care of our visitors I'll be able to send these to Lord Ricardio, and then..."

A much younger version of man stood in a field of flowers although he had actual white hair instead of the goo he had now. A girl was with him with the same while hair and a plain white dress.

The scene changed to a laboratory where the man was seen choking on the floor, his hair had changed to goo and he wore a hospital robe.

The man shook his head "Pull yourself together Saxam." He muttered as he pulled his pen back out of his pocket. "Heaven's above, Hell down below, I envy them both, Can't wait until it's my time to go." Saxam sighed "Today is giving me all sorts of inspiration."

Sakura smiled "Finally Marco we're here." The town's garden was easily the largest place in the city. Although that might be because it was also the only place where any actual life grew. "Whoever takes care of this place sure does work hard."

Marco nodded only half paying attention. Instead he was looking out for any sudden changes in movement for when their stalkers decided to strike.

Meanwhile Cosmos was getting ready to do just that. "Let's make this a beautiful capture alright sisters?"

"Oh, you know I can't do anything less." Poppy said excitedly. "My passion burns bright like a tidal wave made of Magma."

"You lost me on that second part again." Rose sighed. "If you're going to do an analogy at least learn how to do one correctly."

"Spoilsport." Poppy grumbled.

"As for your question Cosmos I am in position." Rose answered.

"Alright then." Cosmos nodded. "Rosemary Brigade Strike!"