Chapter 30: Stalked
"A hunter? From Australia." Bo said in disbelief. Rin nodded and gave them the most serious look he has ever done.
"He's dangerous I'm telling you. When I was in Australia he was on top. He would hunt different animals in different countries, endangered or not. Tigers, lions, monkeys, rhinos, you name it! He has hunted them and sold their parts in the black market." he explained.
"If he did sell the animals in the black market, how come the police didn't arrest him?" Gou asked.
"Because of the lack of evidence. He might look all brawny but he is clever." Rin answered crossing his arms.
"Then why is he here?" Gou asked.
"I don't know but he was trailing you two. He might know what you guys are and will probably try to kill you." he said grimly.
"How did he even find out?" Gou raises her voice as her heartbeat increases feeling fear.
"Probably the same guy who hired that Hex guy." said Bo.
"Hex? You know whatever just be safe you too." he said.
"Thanks for telling us. He might strike if he keeps this up." said Bo.
"If he does what do we do?" Gou asked.
"We strike back." Bo smirks. "Well I should go home and make dinner. Aunty Nana will be home soon. I'll see you at school." Bo said excusing herself from the Matsuoka residence.
As she started to walked back see felt a presence and her vibes were becoming unberable to ignore. I looks behind her slightly but doesn't notice anyone there. 'This Shank guy knows how to blend in. I should try to loose him while keeping my guard up.' Bo thought taking the long way home with many twists and turns to loose whoever was following her. Eventually the presence was gone and she ran all the way back home.
….
"Aunty!" Bo called as she entered her home.
"What!?" Nana shouted from the kitchen. Bo entered the kitchen and smell something burning. Her aunt was cooking stew but the smell was very off.
"What are doing?" Bo asked looking in disgust.
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm cooking." Nana said keeping her focus on the stew.
"Well it smells bad. Did you add the right amount of ingredients?"
"Probably not."
"There's a reason that I cook and you don't."
"I know." Nana put her head down in shame.
"I need a favor Aunty."
"What is it?"
"There's a hunter Shank Sharkner wondering around and...he might know about Gou and I." Bo said slowly.
"I've heard of him. He hunts illegally and is not allowed back into those countries like India and half the countries of Africa. I'll look into him tomorrow at work for ya hun." Nana said while she served her stew.
…..
"Your aunt is going to look into him? Is that even safe?" Gou asked when Bo told her about her and her aunt's conversation as they say on their bench.
"Yeah. Apparently he is banned from India for hunting some Bengal tigers and white rhinoes in Kenya. There other countries he isn't allowed back too."
"How do you know all that?"
"My aunt said about the countries. I just researched the rest. The police know he's guilty but lack of evidence. To be safe they just banned him."
"Clever bastard." Gou tsked. "So what do we do? Confront him?"
"I don't know. If we come to him he will engage but if he does we engage. If him or us tell the police there's a chance they won't believe us and because of the priest incident, they will investigate and with his record he will be sent to jail."
"So there's nothing we can do." Gou sighs. "He might kill us."
"But he's human. If we kill him it's murder and it's vise versa with us but he might find away to transform out bodies and sell our skin to the black market. He knows how to clean up. He's not an idiot. We don't and there's a large chance of not getting away with it."
"Shit this is hard." Gou gets up and paces back and forth. "I can't just let him run around and jump us like this. This is really a curse huh? Why not just poison me and get it over already?"
"Because there's something called pain worse than death. Watching you in pain and terror gets whoever hired him off." Then Bo takes out a little notebook out her bag and beckons Gou to come look. Gou looks at the notebook and sees notes and plotlines.
"What is this?" she asked.
"Me trying to figure things out." Bo points to the name Hex with her finger. "This is Hex. He leads to the mystery man who is running the show. The kracken is related to them somehow. The priest and the dead woman were caused by Hex. The Golem could be the mystery man since they are holy spirit guardians or whatever. And the siren and the succubus were just coincidence. Now I think the mysterious man must have hired Shank after Hex."
"Wow." Gou whistles. "You can figure all this out but can't figure out the square root of 2."
"Shut up. This is just speculation though not set in stone."
"Well at least we have an idea of who's in charge but the real question is who and why."
"Exactly." then the bells rings and the girls went back to class.
…..
"Gou let's wall home together!" Makoto asked Gou after school has ended. She agrees and takes his hand and began to walk.
"It's been awhile since we've don't this. Third year has been getting busy." Makoto says with that same old smile on his face.
"I know. I've missed you." Gou wraps her arm around his and leans against his shoulder.
"I've missed you too." he kissed her forehead. Suddenly she felt someone watching and she stops abruptly. She looks behind them but sees no one. "Something wrong?" Makoto asked.
"No, nothing, let's go." she said pulling him.
…..
"I'll be back Aunty!" Bo called her aunt.
"Don't spend that money on that garbage you call food!"
"Yeah, yeah!" said Bo and left the house going to the store. When she was done shopping it was dark already. 'All man it's already dark…' she thought feeling her vibes going crazy. She took a deep breath and a sip of her water she bought and left the store hurridly. As she walked she felt the same presence again. She stopped and looked behind her.
"I know who you are Shank! You coward show yourself!" Bo called out. She felt the presence still around her. In the corner of her eye she saw something move. She quickly ran towards it and poured water out of the bottle. She created electricity and touched the water creating smoke. She saw a large figure in the smoke but it ran off. She felt fear rise and she bolted home.
