Disclaimer: I do not own Eminence in Shadow series.
Identity_05
On the rooftop of a tall building located within the slum, he let out a yawn and stretched his body in satisfaction.
After waking up from a good thirty minute sleep, Cid admired the scenery at dawn. He'd been running around, chasing down the shadow of a certain notorious serial killer.
"Skipping the sparring match is totally worth it." Cid thought to himself.
He was still in character. Even though he was by himself at the moment, the new role was established not to speak so he couldn't really say that out loud.
Last night, valuable information obtained as he spent time in many different places for a thorough investigation.
...
At another tavern, a guy called himself Muscle of Darkness approached the silent warrior. A cringe name by the way, the guy was probably still in his chuunibyou phase. Though Cid didn't deny the hard work showed from his giant limbs. Muscle of Darkness challenged the masked warrior to an arm wrestling match. Reason? Seeing a nobody wearing an intimidating mask kinda ticked him off, simple as that. Cid agreed to his taunt anyway.
Reason? Seeing a nobody wearing an intimidating mask kinda ticked him off, simple as that. Cid agreed to his taunt anyway.
When the count reached to three, Muscle of Darkness found himself pinned upside down on the floor because the word restraint doesn't exit in the silent warrior's dictionary. Hah! That guy got nothing in the face of an Eminence in Shadow. As the warrior left the place, all gazes fell on his back, filled with awe.
Admittedly, Cid forgot to gather intel during this visit. But the way people began to regard his presence as the silent mysterious warrior from nowhere sure put a grin on his face.
...
At an outdoor pub, Cid engaged in a conversation with the owner. He got the wanted poster showed to pose the old man a question.
"No idea, young man. This city has many serial killers with the same amount of bounty on their heads. Why don't you order another drink and maybe I'll give you something worthwhile for your time."
Alright, off-track topic! That wasn't the information he needed, it actually gave him an idea for the future. Assuming if he came up with a character who is a diligent bounty hunter, this whole place would basically become a gold mine to him and that particular persona. Most fun and fastest way of grinding to get the zeni pouring in like river, wouldn't that be cool?
Oh wait. He shouldn't let that thought go over his head. The concept didn't entirely fit for an eminence in shadow.
Sigh.
Once again, Cid failed to get anything useful.
...
"Hello there~."
Upon hearing a sickly sweet voice, a pair of slender arms wrapped around Cid's. A young woman greeted him in a busy street. Half of her face emphasized by the dim lit light from the fireplace, the other side enveloped in darkness...wow, that side of her face was totally giving him a smugged look.
The silent warrior yanked back from her grasp. She pouted.
"Aww, don't be like that. I'm attracting to you, can't you see?"
Sure. Her words could have been more convincing if she stopped glancing at his pocket every five seconds.
"You're looking for information about Mad Finger, no? In that case, I know just the right place for you. Please come with me."
He followed her without questioning anything. Cid didn't mind as long as the goal is fulfilled.
"Just so you know." She hugged his arm again. He secretly retracted it in a way that the young woman had no idea she was embracing a broomstick. "My line of work provides me with very wide, resourceful and precise information collected at many parts of the city. Rumors, urban legends, news. Anything you need to know about the serial killer, we have it. Of course, we don't give it for free, you need to pay our service. That's the only condition. This may be a lawless city where we're making for living, we also have our own principle in conducting business with others...EH!? Where did this broomstick come from!?"
While the young woman threw away the stick, Cid registered her words. Interesting, a proper business built within a city without order.
"I assure you will have the finest service provided along with the info. You can trust my words on that."
As long as customers have the money to pay for it, Cid read between the line.
"Here we are!" The young woman excitedly announced. "Welcome to the Pleasure Quarter!"
Outside a brothel, Cid stared blankly at the board name hanging above the entrance and turned to the young woman who led him here. As expected of a Lawless City citizen, she was smiling like a sunshine. He almost trusted her. Almost!
"Now come come! Dearest customer, my sisters will guide you upstai-Hey! Where are you going!?"
He ran.
This was the one place neither Cid Kagenou nor his Shadow persona planned to set foot in. Can you imagine what sort of eminence exists in there? Cid didn't want to stick around and find out.
And...
If this story somehow reached Shadow Garden, he wouldn't dare to even think what kind of reaction the girls will have.
"What? You visited a brothel? I can't believe you were being such a player. How inappropriate. I'm done. I don't want to play this Shadow Eminence game with you anymore. Goodbye, Cid."
Cid could imagine Alpha saying something similar to those lines. He saw the way she glared at her enemies before and devastated emotional damage followed. Soul-piercing and will-crushing as that glare was, he never wanted to be on the receiving end of it.
"Wait! Come back! We can give you what you need!"
Not far behind the masked warrior, the young woman was in pursuit. Well, his need has a boundary, thank you very much!
"Actually, I know who Mad Finger is!"
Cid had no intention of slowing down. Nice bait, not going to fall for that.
"He killed some of my friends!" The young woman shouted. "I want revenge!"
Full stop! He drifted a short distance due to momentum and waited for her to catch up.
"Geez, how could you be so fast?" She spoke between gasps. "Fine, if you don't want our service then this should do. Like I said, I know Mad Finger."
Cid nodded, listening to her story.
"Before that..."
Click!
He eyed the handcuff inserted to his wrist. The other part of it was already on hers.
"Just to make sure you don't trust me and run away again. This is strictly for business, I hope you understand." She smiled brightly.
The sheer tenacity of this person! Was this how brothel workers operate in the Lawless City? How was she able to keep such a straight face while handcuffed somebody else? Was the kind Marie-san the only exception here?
"Hey. Unless my customers demand a roughed play, I don't normally do this to them. I have good eyes on people, and I know you won't hurt me."
Just so you know, slipping away from her and hiding in the shadow of these streets is easy as pie. It wasn't like he didn't see this coming. He let it happen. He LET her do this because she seemed to have the thing he was searching for real. Otherwise, he needed to make a mental note not to underestimate the women of this city.
"Of course, don't forget that nothing is free in this city and I need to make a living so this will go with a suitable fee, you know. Since this is your first time here, I'll give you a discount. Deal?" She winked.
Nod.
Deal! Let's get this over with.
...
Mad Finger the serial killer.
It was not a name. Rather, it was a title called and known to the rare survivors who managed to escape his grasp in the death of night. His reputation just only became known to public in the recent years. No one had ever come close to know who he actually was and his background. He was among the type of vicious killers roaming the darkest alleys after sunset. His target could be anyone as the man showed no discrimination in his killing. For the victims who got the worst luck by bumping into him, they would always receive a horrible end and left to be discovered in their own pond of blood.
Huh. Another typical sadistic murderer it seemed.
"There's more to it. People were wrong to think he was just another typical sadistic murderer."
Scratch that thought then.
"All of his victims till this days shared the same disturbing trait. Their fingers were cut off and missing. Many assumed Mad Finger keeps them like a trophy for his work. Other than that, no one wanted to think of what he was going to do with the victims' fingers to satisfy his crave."
A bit shaken, she continued.
"Last month, some of the girls were found dead. They were my friends, you know. Just a group of young and innocent girls who lost their way the moment they were born into this place. They didn't deserve that. That's why I want revenge, but there's nothing I can do about it. Since this place is a city without order, there's no authority figure here to care about dealing with this man. Maybe Lady Yukime of the White Tower has been trying. Even so, cases like these are just a drop in the giant dirty black swamp that is the Lawless City."
To fit in with the solemn mood, the masked warrior offered her his condolence.
"What makes him even more scary in the public eyes is the fact that he just killed off a high ranking member of the dark guild."
Dark guild?
"There was no sign of a battle broke out at the scene. Just a man in his prime found dead with his fingers missing like the rest of Mad Finger's victims. Despite being a seasoned warrior, he didn't even notice the strike much less the killer's presence."
Either that or the man's ranking in the guild was a bluff. Or Mad Finger was actually a threat to behold.
This was great. The details matched with everything he got from the gang members.
"Say, I saw you helped Marie-chan a while back. She and I are colleagues."
Oh? She was there?
"You must be really strong to defeat a whole gang. And you're searching for the killer, too. That's why I tried to approach you. If it's not too much, can I ask you a favor?"
Cid titled his head.
"Please put an end to that mad man for my friends."
Out of courtesy, the masked warrior nodded at her word.
No can do! He needed him alive for ten thousand zeni reward. If the guy was dead, Cid could only receive half of it. Yes, this was his real thought.
"Thank you." The young woman beamed a smile in relief. "Now that'll be fifty zeni for information."
Cid flinched. Her sudden change of tone flipped like a switch. Well, business is business.
"Pleasure of doing business with you, dearest customer~!" She unlocked the handcuff. "It's a shame you didn't want to unsheathe your Excalibur."
Heh. Bold of her to assume the cheap sword he bought from the market is named Excalibur...wait a minute.
...
Apparently, there were various guilds in the Lawless City, mostly Dark Guild branches.
Lucky Cid, he happened to stumble into one before sunrise. Information from the guild is mostly guaranteed especially when they come from the info merchant who usually stays at that one table in the hall. However, quality of the intel depends on the amount of zeni you want to spend.
The masked warrior was never a registered member of any guild, not that Cid would have any fake ID card for the occasion. All he needed right now was the location of the serial killer, or at the very least, his most recent hideout among the ruins outside the city.
The gang members he interrogated didn't know. The brothel worker lady didn't know. The shady pub owner didn't know. What he got left was this option. Just walk in, get the information and get out.
Once he gave the door a push, it didn't budge. It was locked from the inside.
"State your title and the code." A voice came from the other side.
Title? Code?
"State your title and the code." The voice repeated.
Cid had no idea what it meant.
"Forgot your code? State the ID on your member card."
He got the gist of it.
Members of the dark guild gain access to these places through the use of title and private passcode. Cool! This is like username and password for access to a website that requires an account! They were running a business model similar to the internet back in his old world!
Unfortunately, Cid didn't have an account a.k.a membership. Plus, this wasn't an ideal approach for his current persona who was the silent type.
This meant option two.
Hashtag. Kick The Door.
SLAM!
Cid walked in, the unconscious guard who crashed into one of the tables and the loud smash when the door bounced off the wall earned him the full attention from all the available guild members inside the big hall.
In a single glance, he could tell the difference in strength. None of them was strong. Compared to Shadow Garden or Beatrix, these men could hardly hold a candle to them.
The feel of bloodlust began to fill the atmosphere. The promises of unmatched violence and death wishes directed towards the masked warrior. As he moved across the hall, only his footsteps echoed in the still air. He sat down at the table where a lone figure was occupying their seat.
"Quite an entrance you made, newcomer. How can I help you?"
The info merchant didn't seem to faze. He had experience with these scenarios before. Cid placed the wanted poster before him, his finger pointed at Mad Finger's face.
"Mad Finger. A name I'm familiar with, he's been the talk of the town during these months. What do you want to know about him?"
Cid pointed at the map of the city pinned by the wall.
"Ah. his location, you mean. That will be five thousand zeni."
Suddenly, the info merchant froze. His eyes glued to the glowing dots behind the mask.
Out of nowhere, an immense pressure choked him by the throat and steadily tightened its squeeze. There was no tremor, yet the man found himself shaking rapidly. He quickly realized the condition of his body as fear slowly creeping in the back of his mind. Behind that mask was an existence beyond the norm.
His throat spasmed violently, the man tried everything to turn his neck to look at the others in the hall. Much to his shock, they ended up the same like him, sweating, letting out roughed breathes and hardly got enough strength to force back the terrible pressure weighting down their very being. One of the receptionists collapsed on the floor and faint. Another guild member began to scream like a mad man and his voice soon locked within the raging contraction of his lung.
The info merchant looked back at the masked warrior, his whole body enveloped in a deep shade of purple. The concentrated flow of mana was gathering around him in way that it sucked and condensed all the air within the building.
"...a..gh...f..i..v..." The info merchant lost his voice in-between gags. "...f...i..ve.."
His arm weakly raised up, trembling hand outstretched. He drew whatever left of the air in his lung and shouted.
"FIVE ZENI!"
Immediately, the invisible pressure stopped. The info merchant took a moment to breath in normally before he can continue.
"Five zeni!...*huff*...*huff*...I'll give you this info for just five zeni!"
The price was significantly reduced as the man didn't want to further anger the overwhelming presence in front of him. The mana flow was still there, lingering around the masked warrior like a gentle stream of water.
"Errk!"
The info merchant squeaked, eyes closing shut when the other person extended his arm. He was actually grabbing the man's hand for a friendly handshake gesture.
Cid agreed with the price. Sweet deal! This was better than the previous cost, wouldn't you say so? Just look at it, five thousand zeni for just one specific info? That cost was a hundred times what the brothel worker lady offered him, and she was even willing to tell him her own background story.
"To the west. You'll find an old statue of a Beast-kin hero facing the entrance of a ruin, stretching deep to the underground. That's where you'll find Mad Finger."
Nod.
"A warning, though. The ruin has a complex layouts with many floors connected each other like a maze as far as I heard."
Sounded like he has a dungeon to explore at hand.
Wait! It made for a fascinating plotline, too! A mysterious masked warrior ventured into the world most dangerous dungeon to capture alive the vicious serial killer. Yep, that looked like something he could share with Beta for her next book. Well, assuming she didn't plan to write another rom-com since her last one was a big hit among the best sellers.
Five zeni paid, Cid left the table only to find the whole guild surrounding him. The dark guild members all shared the same intention, their weapons out and pointed at the one and only target. Fear still lingered on their faces despite the rush of adrenaline.
"What in the world are you!?" One of them questioned.
The info merchant seemed to have packed his stuff and retreated towards the back of the building. Nice of him to recognize the outcome of this situation.
With a war cry, they charged at the same time. Cid loosened his fists and exhaled.
The condensed mana flowing around his body burst.
...
That was the whole story.
Cid stretched both arms over his head and gave a quick glance at the aftermath. In the distance, smoke rose on top the remain of one of the dark guild branches. The entire structure collapsed the moment he released his concentrated mana on every direction. No casualty, one hundred percent guaranteed. Everyone got blown out, either smashing themselves through the wall or the window before the building officially crashes down.
Maybe there were some broken bonds and bruises due to impact. Trivial things to those men who worked in the nasty underworld anyway, their wounds would heal off in a few weeks or months.
Anyway, he made some nice money grab by looting their pants. SSS-plus stealing skill once again put into work for a good cause. In the name of Shadow Eminence, he promised to use these zenies to their fullest potential.
Cid grinned. He knew where Mad Finger is, there was only one thing left to do before leaving the Lawless City.
"Now where is the nearest bakery store?" Cid wondered in his thought. He kind of wanting to eat some breads. "Did Gamma open a McRonald store here? Properly not yet."
In one jump, Cid launched himself high into the sky for a better view of the streets.
Once he's done, the final arc of the silent masked warrior identity will begin.
...
...
"I wonder what Beatrix's doing."
Caressing the long platinum hair with a brush, she drew a breath in delight. The jewel-adorned hairband hugged her head and checked her reflection in the water. '
Thanks to the guidance of the forest spirits, who resided near the ruins, Beatrix'd found herself a small lake to take an early morning shower. With the mind and body refreshed, she put back on the gray robe and strapped the scabbard of her long sword to the attire.
By the makeshift bonfire, some McRonald burgers were heated up for breakfast. She bought them before catching a carriage for the trip from Midgar. Beatrix enjoyed the bliss as she took a bite.
Beyond these tree lines, the statue of a beast-kin hero was not that far ahead. There, she would find the entrance to Mad Finger's hideout.
The legendary swordswoman was ready for the next step in her quest. Asides from the primary goal, sooner or later, she will cross path with the masked warrior again.
Beatrix knew she could look forward to that moment.
A pigeon soared its wing above the clear sky of Midgar capital city.
A tiny scroll attached to its leg as the bird was heading towards Mitsugoshi Company main building.
From the research lab, it carried an important message to the leader of Shadow Garden.
The content of the scroll read as follows.
Analysis Completed. V!
Signed.
Eta.
/