Part IV - Old Habits That Just Won't Quit
"Anything yet?" Finn's voice broke through the silence of the bedroom that Riveria worked in. Having entered the room after being guided by Aiz and Tiona some time ago, he stood patiently waiting on an update for the key witness.
"Nothing yet. He's in pretty bad shape. It'd be a miracle if he woke up before we left." Riveria noted, giving the bad news.
"Very well, do what you can within your limits for the mission." Finn said gently reminding her to be conscious of her mind usage. It was something that she already was, after Aiz found Tiona, they arrived shortly with various potions that could aid in the healing process to where she only needed to use her healing magic once. That was the most ideal situation.
"It wouldn't be the first time he pulled one off." The owner, Jai, said from the hallway having just returned from the main floor of his shop.
"Hmm?" Riveria shot him another confused glare. For whatever reason she couldn't make sense of the man.
"Nothing." Jai said giving up as he headed downstairs.
"The meeting starts in five minutes." Finn said as he began to head out of the room.
"Got it." Riveria said wrapping up. Washing her hands clean with a rag soaked with water and sanitizing agents, she stared upon the man. The swelling in his face had gone down, revealing defined cheekbones and sculpted symmetrical face. The dried and clotted blood in his hair was washed and removed, with the shortly cut sides of his head being easier to clean than the long hair on the top of his head that dangled and fell to the sides.
To say that he looked like an adventurer seemed wrong, more like a noble of some village or some sort of royalty. If that was the case she couldn't help but wonder why he'd give that up. Was it or fortune or fame? Wouldn't he have both of that as a noble or being of royalty? Or was it the thrill of hunt?
She didn't know. From what she followed, it seemed that he was the last one left of his group. Betting his life on getting the people of Rivira out. It was that, that she couldn't help but take pity on him. Betting his
"For you to have come so far only to lose it all. If only I knew where you began. But I suppose wondering does me no good.."
Riveria turned and headed towards the door giving the man one last glance before she closed the door so carefully.
Riveria's steps were light as she made her way down the steps. In the main room of the smith's shop, the two familia's began to trickle in. Some went out for resources in preparation for specifics roles but were sent messages to hold off until after the meeting. Finn having gave the reasoning, that it's better to know what plan they were preparing for than spending money on items that were marked up drastically.
Slowly the members of the two familia's began to trickle in. Everytime Jai said the same thing before opening the door.
"You don't have to knock." Everytime his expression would change into pure surprise as each member would enter his domain. Surprised to the point that he almost uttered each and every one of their levels. Before he knew it, the main room of his shop was filled with some of the most experienced and adept fighters in the city.
"Alright, Imma leave you to your meeting, just don't ruin my shop or anything, ok?" Jai said throwing both of his hands up in surrender before marching up the stairs. On his way up he nervously reached for the collar of his shirt to try and help him breathe. "Dear gods, there's just too many ways this can go wrong."
Jai left them, both nervous and excited at the honor of having such people in his domain. But still realizing that insurance for a small business operating in the dungeon isn't a thing if anything were to happen.
There was a knock at the door.
"You don't have to knock!" The muffled voice of Jai shouted through the closed door.
"You don't have to knock, come on in!" Welf shouted, relaying the message.
The door opened and the two people arrived. Bell and Aiz. The two joined their familias, sitting on the chairs provided for them thanks to Jai. In a circle, Bell sat across from Finn, and Riveria. With Aiz on his left, and Welf on his right. Ryuu sat next to Gareth at the far end of the Hestia familia team. It was as if the group was split evenly in half.
"Now that we're all here, let's get started." Finn began as he gave everyone a glance. "As we know so far thanks to the patrons of Rivira, and this humble shop owner, there is indeed something that lurks in the lower and deep floors. A key witness, currently incapacitated, is the only one who has made it out to Rivira alive. Which means until he wakes up, we are still operating with very limited information. Gareth, would like to share what you gathered?"
"I can do that." Gareth said as he crossed his arm and took a deep breath in. "While Riveria has been providing care to the witness, there was something that Jai here was able to share with us. That shadow mist in the passageway leading to the next floor down is poisonous. His words say that it's how they lost a man without even knowing in their escape to Rivira. Now I don't care what your falna says whether you got abnormal resistance or what have ya, but be like this young lady over here."
Gareth swung his chubby thumb in the direction of the masked elf sitting right next to him, where all eyes drawn to her. The sudden attention sent her gaze adrift and away from everyone.
"We need everyone to take that preventive measure. So when we're all done here, be sure to add that to your list of necessary items. And yes they are necessary."
A hand rose from the other side of the room, belonging to Mikoto, her gaze fixed solely on Gareth.
"Yes?"
"Did anyone ascertain what the source of the shadow mist is?" Mikoto asked, like a soldier in the military. Her voice concise and formal.
"As of right now, no. We only know that one thing." Gareth added firmly as a point to move onto the next topic.
"Huh.. That's reassuring." Welf chimed in faintly, where Bete's ear perked up and shook his head in agreement as he hunched over.
"Finn?" Gareth said trading off to him.
"Thank you, Gareth. Bell, I'd like for you to share with what exactly you think we may expect down there." Finn's eyes went from to Ryuu to Bell, and kindly gestured for him to begin. Where Bell nodded and suddenly felt all eyes on him.
"There's a monster that the Guild doesn't want adventurers to know about. And with the gag order given from the Guild, I haven't been able to say anything up until now. So I want your word that nothing leaves this room. From all of you."
Bell gave them all a glance, a silent obligation that he saw everyone in this room and that he needed their trust. As his eyes went around the group they nodded back, some saying "you got it," others "of course." Round circle, he came to a stop at Aiz who spoke firmly.
"You have my word."
"Alright then…" Bell explained only the relevant parts of the horrors that he witnessed. The information that could aid them if they had to go to battle with this thing. From time to time, he'd stop, take a breath as his breath grew tight and he gripped his left arm tight as the phantom pain returned like a dull blade digging into his arm. Before he knew it, he said everything he needed to say. Everything that could give them a fighting chance.
"So they got a name for this thing or what?" Bete growled in annoyance.
"Yeah.." Bell trailed off.
"It's called the Juggernaut." Ryuu said quietly.
"The what?" Bete asked with his ears perked up.
"You know you can take that thing off in here. Just cuz you got some new colors, that doesn't mean we're not gonna recognize ya. Nor do we intend to fight an ally." Gareth said softly trying to reassure the young lady hellbent on keeping up the facade.
"I'd rather not."
"Suit yourself. At least you're consistent." Gareth added.
"The Juggernaut." Bell confirmed. "It's a name we can only use on this mission. Once it's done, the name doesn't exist."
"Yeah but why does it spawn again?" Tiona asked with her hand halfway raised.
"Huh?" Bell didn't quite know how to answer as he turned his head to Ryuu.
"I mean, it doesn't sound like other monsters in the dungeon. So what brought it?"
"It's the dungeon's self defense mechanism." Ryuu said flatly. "You do enough damage to the dungeon, it'll release that thing to kill you and everything other thing that's human and alike."
"Ohh.." Tiona's one word faded into a mumble. Ultimately deciding that is the one thing she wasn't going to do. And immediately began looking back at all of the times she caused a massive amount of damage with her fights and to digging through the dungeon with Gareth.
"Huh.. We could've died.." She thought to herself with her hand to her chin. In truth she would've needed to destroy a larger portion that she could currently think of. In the end, she began to teeter on the side of safety first.
"So really it sounds like a worst case scenario if we run into this thing." Tione reaffirmed.
"You don't run into it, it's not some friend that you haven't seen in while, it hunts you. And you're dead before you know it. That's the truth of it. That's what it's designed to do. As of right now, this is the worst case scenario. All of the events today line up with the last two times it's showed up." Ryuu's voice was bitter and matter of factly as she said the cold hard truth of it. It'd be three times that she'd have to bear witness to it if she saw it today. That would be three times too many for her liking.
Welf leaned in to Ryuu from nearly the other side of the circle.
"You're scaring the children." He said in a hushed voice as he gestured over to Haruhime and Mikoto.
"I'm not scared." Mikoto says sharply to Welf.
"Which brings us to the plan. Now I want all of you to listen carefully. Because all questions will be saved for the end. But first in order to finalize things, I have to know what I'm working with." Finn said.
"You want us to tell you our abilities? Isn't that taboo to share between familias?" Haruhime said, putting the dots together.
"It is, and can likely be used against us later on if we get into a conflict with them. But..." Mikoto said, obviously wary of Finn's request but still considering it being a valid request.
"By knowing and acknowledging our abilities we can orchestrate with one another a combative strategy that would lessen the likelihood of their being someone caught in the crossfire." Finn said aptly.
"So what you're saying is, we either do this or you'll kill us?" Welf said with a raised eyebrow.
"Please don't be ridiculous." Riveria said to him gently, her tone contrasted her usual behavior of being stone cold, knowing that would incite even more antagonistic comments. "In an operation, a mission, there is always the assumption that we are going to have to operate with one less person whether we like it or not. If one of our's, myself, Bete, or even Aiz gets put out of commission, we need to know what resources we have available to strategize and form a proper defense and offense to end the scenario as fast as possible. Nobody wants to fight a battle of attrition, and certainly nobody wants to go through that knowing they had an opportunity to avoid it coming to that in the first place."
Having decided that it's come to that point, Finn stood up before the two familia's. One his own, the other a rival familia. And though they may not share as intense of a rivalry as the Loki familia does with the Freya familia. What maybe an ally today, may become an enemy tomorrow. That is the unbearable future. That at some point connections and relations may break down.
"If you're concerned about us using this as leverage against you at some point later on, I can't promise any of you that. We don't know what will happen in the future. But if we work together here and now, I can tell you what will happen. We will succeed in completing this mission. We will be able to go home. Isn't that right Bell?"
Bell sat silently, with his eyes locked on Finn.
Lili who sat a person away from Bell shot him a glance and spoke in a hurried whisper despite everyone being in earshot.
"Bell, you can't seriously be considering what he's saying?"
"Hey, Bell. We're talking about an entire team that's practically level six, they could easily wipe us off of the map if they knew all the in's and out's." Welf said desperately trying to convince Bell from fully agreeing.
"I'm with Bell in whatever he choses." Mikoto said firmly. "But we don't know if there'll be a tomorrow for us if we don't tell them. I believe we should tell them."
"Mikoto.." Haruhime looked at her friend in surprise. At a time like this she felt conflicted, between wanting to keep the familia together and safe and believing that they had a chance to work together without it all falling to pieces.
Ryuu's eyes carefully watched Bell, watching his face with a stern expression as he weighs the scales. An expression so unlike him to adorn. For the sake of today or tomorrow? Wondering if he would make a decision in this one vital that would lead to his familia's downfall. She waited. Hanging onto the silence that followed once everyone voiced their opinions
"I think I've come to a decision." Bell said with all eyes focused on him. It was as if time stopped. Not only was the sake of the mission resting on this answer in this very moment, but also the livelihood of the Hestia Familia.
His answer left a faint smile on Ryuu's face. A smile hidden by the mask she wore. And inside she couldn't help but poke at him.
"Look at you Bell Cranel, always getting into trouble."
Author's Note: Thanks everyone for making it this far. Things maybe a little rough, and that was expected initially, but I wanted to let you all know that my initial intention with this story was for it to be a first draft sort of release. And after a while, I realized that's a disservice for you all. So in order to ensure quality I'll be taking a bit more time to polish things up(I usually post at night, but may leave it for morning to edit with a clear mind at a minimum. So expect maybe an extra day or two in-between the already sporadic release schedule), making sure it's presentable. So that way the plot follows true to characters to honestly and properly pay homage to the original work all the while creating something new and exciting that we all can enjoy. Or at least the majority of us. Until next time, you all take care.