Chapter 2:
"It is certainly nice, to be able to walk around in such a pretty town with good company, and a full stomach. Life is fulfilling!" Zeno remarked happily
"Zeno, you sound like an old man." Jae-Ha replied.
"Nonsense, Zeno is forever young." Zeno replied cheerfully. The happy hungry bunch just stared at Zeno, were they supposed to laugh at how true that statement is?
"That's right, despite being an elder, you remain your youthful looks.. But somehow it's difficult to offer you reverance as an elder. You need more wrinkles for that." Jae-Ha shrugged
"And every respected elder has a beard.. maybe you need to just let your stubble grow. It might make you look wiser." Kija pondered out loud.
"I can even lend Zeno one of my hairties if your beard is long enough for braiding." Yona decides to join the banter.
"Hey you guys, you are supposed to respect your elders. Can you imagine a beard on this baby face? Tsk Tsk.. young people these days…" Zeno shaked his head. The others continued laughing at this exchange. They continued walking along the riverside bantering.
Shin-Ah suddenly stopped while the group continued walking.
"What's wrong, Shin-Ah?" Yona asked, puzzled.
Shin-Ah pointed to the side of the river, behind the rock, there was a weird object stuck. It was colourful and.. it had a head?! It was a body of a person. But there was something wrong, the head was in the water, faced-down instead.
Jae-Ha was the first one to arrive to the scene, followed by Hak. Jae-Ha rushed to carry the person to the flat land beside the river. It was a woman, her clothes were slightly torn and the long hair was covering her face. By the time he laid her on the ground, the rest of the group arrived. Jae-Ha sweeped her hair to the sides to see her face. Yona gasped, while the others stared in shock. It was clear that they were too late to save her. If the ligature mark of strangulation, gaping head wound and slightly stiff posture wasn't indicative enough of her death, there was also her empty eye sockets where here eyes were missing. Around her neck was the necklace same pendant that Yona was wearing.. the prize for the winners of the art competition.
Kija and Shin-Ah went off to report the incident while the rest of the group remained at the scene. Yoon, as the medic in the team went to inspect her body. Her head was turned to the side with her arms stiffer than the rest of her body. She hasn't developed full rigour mortis yet. Her posture indicated that it was unlikely that she drowned to death, as drowning victims tend to adopt the foetal position due to the lung buoyancy positioned further to the back of the body. The water was also too shallow for her to have sunken. There weren't any pooling of blood at the front of her body that would occur if she had been in the position for many hours, but her skin was already wrinkled. Upon checking her mouth, there didn't seem to be any frothing or swelling of the respiratory tract commonly found in drowning victims.
"From my examination, I estimate the time of death to be around 2 hours ago. Most likely she was murdered on land before being dumped into the river." Yoon concluded.
"I remember this woman. She was at the backstage with me in the competition. She was rehearsing a song. Her voice was lovely, and she spoke to me about her dreams to be a singer." Yona replied with a voice which was too calm, but her hands were trembling slightly.
Hak looked worriedly at Yona before replying. "The motive of the murder is worrying. It is obviously not a theft murder, as the pendant is still with her. Also, the way the eyes are taken are not natural. Why did the murderer gouge out her eyes?"
"Hak.. that's enough." Jae-Ha glanced at Yona whose eyes were downcast, she was shaking with her fist clenched.
"I'm sorry.. If only we were here earlier, we could have prevented your death. In return, I promise to find out what happened to you." Yona steeled her gaze and walked away.
Kanazawa Akira. That was the name of the murdered woman. She was a regular singer in a tavern, and was leaving home from work when she was likely to be murdered. She didn't turn up for work the next day, so the owner of the tavern enquired about her as she has always been a responsible kind of person.
"Madam, pardon me for asking. But do you know of anyone with the intention to harm Akira-san? Has there been any irregular incidents in her life lately" Jae-Ha enquired.
"Akira has been a complete angel.. anyone who knows her would think that. How could anyone think of murdering her" the owner sobbed a little while answering.
"Please, if there's anything at all that you can think of, please let us know." Yona said.
"Wait, there has been an incident where she had a horrible break-up with her lover. She said something about how he took all her money which motivated her to join the competition."
"Any idea where we can find this guy?" Hak asked. At least they had a direction to pursue in this investigation now.
"Akira has been crying about how this guy spends most of the time in the red-light district. Maybe you can find him there..Be careful though, rumour says that that guy is the son of a Yakuza boss and is always surrounded by strong bodyguards."
"Thank you madam. We will do our best to uncover the truth behind her death."
It was Yona's first time in the red-light district. She wasn't allowed entry due to her gender, but she needed to go in today, especially when Jae-Ha received information that the Akira's ex-boyfriend was here today.
"I have to do this for her, even if I have to cross-dress as a guy" Yona said with fierce determination.
"Yona dear, I don't think that's going to work. You are too cute to be a guy." Jae-Ha sighed
"We could always pretend that you are here as a geisha in training" Hak joked. He was actually relieved that Yona couldn't enter this place. There are some things that shouldn't be witnessed by those innocent eyes, even if they have already seen more death that they should.
"Hak! That's a good idea! I'm going to infiltrate this place to get to this guy" Yona said with renewed passion.
"Hey, I was joking! Someone with zero sex appeal like you will never be able to attain the air of the geisha." Hak was panicking slightly, he regretted planting crazy ideas into her head.
"Just watch me, I'll show you that I can do it! Stupid Hak!" Yona was angry at Hak again, he was always insulting her and treating her like a child. Or is there, something that Hak wants to do here that he doesn't want Yona to see? The thought of it makes her even more pissed off.
"H-hey!" Hak tried to grab Yona, but she has already run to the ladies dressing room.
"Hak, for someone so obvious, you are so stupid" Jae-Ha sighed. "Yona tends to be stubborn once she set her mind into doing something. The least we can do is watch over her"
"She's really a handful.." Hak and Jae-Ha finally agreed on something.
In the dressing room, Yona started to panic. She was starting to regret her decision. Why were there only suggestive and revealing clothing in the wardrobe? She started backing away slowly from the room when she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulders.
"Ara, ara… it's the tiny little dancer again. Are you running away?"
"Y-you're that boobsie woman from before!" She was the woman who approached Hak in the competition. Damn, she looked as smug as ever, looking down on Yona like that. Yona will never be able to to forgive herself if she cowered from the challenge before this woman.
Yona grabbed the outfit closest to her and waved it in front of the woman.
"Nobody's running away. I was just taking my time choosing a good outfit." Yona pouted.
The woman laughed at Yona, tonight was certainly an amusing night.
"Here, little dancer. This dress fits you better, it brings out the colours of your hair and eyes." The woman put the dress on Yona's lap and started helping Yona with her hair and makeup.
"Th-thanks" Now this was unexpected, boobsie was actually being nice to her.
"You can't seduce that handsome man with the dull clothes that you chose. You need to dress confidently and be proactive. You need to whisper into his ears and tell him how much you want him." the woman whispered into Yona's ear.
"W-what? No way!" Yona turned crimson immediately. The woman was laughing at her again, she was wrong about boobsie being nice to her. She was treating Yona as a toy.
"Are you too scared? If you don't want him, I'll take him instead" again the woman showed a smug smile.
Oh that was it. Yona was going to show this woman what she was made of.
The doors to the room opened, and a boobsie geisha introduced herself and another geisha.
"Dear honoured guests, my name is Sayo, and I will be your main server tonight. On my right is my little sister geisha in training, Yona." So the boobsie woman's name is Sayo. Yona filed that thought as three other geishas began to introduce themselves.
Hak and Jae-Ha were sitting in a room with a three other men. Two of them looked like elite swordsmen, sitting in a fit and poised, but the other guy was a young man with a more laidback posture whose appearance fit completely with the description given by the tavern's owner. It was Akira's ex-boyfriend, Kano.
Hak and Jae-Ha looked up from the sake they were drinking. Hak looked at Yona, the dress fit her more than he expected, and the makeup made her look more mischievous than usual. The red kimono she wore brought out her bright fiery spirit, but he chuckled silently to himself as he looked at her expression. She looks even more fiery and fierce than before, like the kind of intensity you had when staring down a wild bear. She could be a sumo wrestler dressed in a geisha's outfit.
As a geisha, they had to entertain the guests. They started playing music, and Yona was instructed to perform a dance akin to tango. It was a passionate and fiery dance that had her flashing a thigh or two, while she flashed her smouldering gaze to Hak every now or then and ended the dance with smug arrogant smile. How's that boobsie?! At the corner of her eye, Yona spots Sayo giggling at her again.
Hak spluttered and and accidentally poured sake onto himself. What happened to Yona today? She was more hyped than usual, and doing dangerous things to his heart. And she danced really well for an undercover mission. Too well, in fact. He didn't expect her to excel being a geisha.. If King Il knows what I'm Yona do, he will be rolling in his grave, he despaired internally.
Jae-Ha was watching the whole display of emotion on Hak's face with an amused smile. He was so obvious. However, Yona seems to be forgetting the point of the mission, and she is clearly distracting Hak as well. They were here to covertly spy on Kano as he is protected by the Yakuza, they wanted to avoid an all-out brawl if they could.
The veteran geishas mainly started the conversation while Yona was instructed to pour sake to the guests. As she reached Kano's table to pour the Sake, she felt his hand groping her butt and momentarily froze.
"Yona-chan you are so cute, you should come and play more often. I am also kind enough to offer you some private lessons, just the two of us." Kano began to laugh, as if he's making a joke and being charming.
Unbeknownst to the dense Kano, the atmosphere in the room turned murderous in an instant. The glass cup Hak was holding broke from his force, and there was a dangerous glint in his eyes. However, before he could do anything, Yona twisted Kano's arm and grabbed his gi with the other arm. "Do not touch me, or I will make you regret it." She gave him one of the death glare herself that would make Yang Kumji pee his pants.
"Ouch ouch, what's your problem bitch!? All you want is money right, I'll give you some money and you will do whatever I want." Yona increased the pressure slightly to twist his arm, and the guys beside Kano got up and shoved Yona away. Another one unsheathed his sword and pointed it at Yona's throat, but it lasted less than a second before Hak sent a flying kick that sent him to the next room. Meanwhile, Jae-Ha kicked the other bodyguard in the other direction. So much for covert operation. It was quickly turning into a brawl.
"Guards, take them down!" Kano ordered, and they found themselves surrounded by almost 30 people. Hak and Jae-Ha started fighting and taking down the bodyguards left and right, but the coward Kano turned in the opposite direction and began to run away. The bodyguards were all preoccupied with Hak and Jae-Ha, so Yona slipped in between them to chase after Kano.
"Wait, Yona!" Jae-Ha wanted to follow her but was blocked by an overwhelming number of guards that started brandishing their swords.
Yona followed Kano into a room at the end of the corridor. It must be a store room, as it was filled with numerous shelves.
"Who the heck are you, bitch?" Kano arrived at the corner of the room and took out a pocket knife to point at Yona.
"Kanazawa Akira. Are you the one who murdered her?" Yona asked.
"What? Who is she to you anyways. She was just a useless bitch who couldn't pay me the money I wanted, so I dumped her."
"She was working-" midway through her sentence, Kano slashed at Yona's torso. She thanked Hak for finetuning her reflexes, she dodged to the side and and grabbed his arm to make him drop his knife. He made a sidespin to kick her and took out another knife from his pocket and threw it at her. She realised too late that she has underestimated her opponent. The force of the kick sends her to the shelves which falls on her. It hits her on the head and she loses consciousness.
Hak and Jae-Ha finished battling the bodyguards for Kano. They have already wasted so much time fighting these people. Hak hopes Yona is fine, he shouldn't have let her come here after all. If anything happened, it was his responsibility. They ran in the general direction they saw Yona running towards, when the shelves on the floor in the room across caught their eyes. The room must be where Yona fought with that bastard Kano. Hak and Jae-Ha were greeted with the sight of Yona under the fallen bookshelves.
"Yona!"
"Princess!"
Hak felt and icy fear grip his heart. This was a scene from his worst nightmares. Please be alright. They lifted the shelf off her but she still remained unconscious with her head facing the side. Hak saw a brief flash of the murdered woman in his memories superimposed on Yona. He shaked his in attempt to clear his vision and steady his mind. There was a pool of blood on the floor. Yona's blood. This can't be happening..
Jae-Ha turned Yona over and checked for pulse and breathing. He examined her injuries and sighed in relief.
"She's alright, Hak. The knife is just lodged on her leg, not anywhere critical. We'll bring her to Yoon to remove the knife."
True to his word. Yona begins to regain consciousness. She felt a sharp pain on her leg and looked up to Hak and Jae-Ha's worried faces.
"Yona, you were too reckless again this time. We are happy it wasn't such a bad injury."
"Sorry, Kano fled the scene. We lost the one lead we had on the murder."
"Think about your own safety before chasing after a potential murderer by yourself. You barely managed to escape as it is." Hak made a sharp remark, his expression darkening again. He carried Yona and began running towards Yoon. Yona felt a little guilty looking at his expression. She has done it again, causing troubles by her recklessness. She gripped Hak's arm and buried her face in his chest. Despite how terrible she was feeling, she felt safe in Hak's arms.