Searching
It barely took Tanya two days to reach the Low-Key Bar. She stepped into the bar, the doors swinging on squeaky hinges, announcing the arrival of the pub's namesake.
"Guess who's back, bitches!" Tanya crowed. If the doors hadn't caused heads to turn, her call did. Ruffians and scoundrels eyed her as she waltzed to the bar with a pep in her step. Hopping into a bar stool, she leaned over the bar, seeing if the owner was trying to fix the sink again. "Biggs! Where are ya?"
The panda was nowhere in sight. Must in the back making food. She wasn't in a hurry, so Tanya decided it was best to get comfy. Well, as comfy as you could get sitting at a bar full of splinters. Out of the corner of her eye, a silky furred weasel took the stool next to her.
"I never thought you'd return," she said, her voice was shrill and high pitched, almost grating. "The shamed Bounty Hunter hobbles back.
"Veronica," Tanya finally acknowledged the English accented weasel. "How nice of you to greet me home."
Veronica was... well... nobody could really nail down what Veronica was. She always seemed to list from one thing to the next, as sporadic and unpredictable as her emotions. Some days she would take down big name criminals, and others she would try to overthrow kingdoms. She's the origin of the term "wild card".
"Word's been buzzing about it has," she said, craning her head to look into Tanya's eyes when she didn't move to look at her. "Supposedly, the great Tanya has gone softy wofty."
"Is that what they say?" Tanya said, bored already with this conversation. 'Such a cliche,' Tanya thought. 'Next Veronica will talk about how I fell from being amazing and is something less now.
"Indeed it has, there were a numbah of witnesses who confirmed it," Veronica continued. "You used to be somebody, and now you're getting your assed wiped by some no name from off the street!"
'Called it,' Tanya thought to herself. "I may be a little soft, but I'm still tough enough to break your nose."
Veronica barked a laugh. "Can you back it u-", Veronica's head slammed into the table, Tanya gripping her by the fur.
"What's that?" Tanya's voice hardened, became cold. "You seem to have your mouth full of wood." Tanya pulled Veronica off the bar top, bringing her elbow to give her mouth a violent kiss. Veronica twirled before hitting the ground, a few teeth fell from her mouth, sent clattering over the floorboards. Tanya waited to see if Veronica would get up, when it came apparent Veronica was out for the count, she whirled on the other clients of the bar. "Anyone else got something to say?" No one spoke. "I didn't think so."
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't threaten my customers, Keyes." Biggs exited from the kitchen door, a couple of steaming plate balanced on his palms.
"Biggs!" Tanya threw her arms out to either side. "How've you been?" Biggs didn't seem as pleased as he usually did to see her. Setting down the plates at a table, he turned on her, his massive stature dwarfing hers.
"My office. Now." He mumbled to her.
Biggs' bar wasn't just a bar, it also acted as go between for people who wanted something, and the people who got it for them. For Tanya, it was high ranking officials who wanted criminals behind bars, and she would put them there. He crunched numbers in his office, and made underhanded deals with shifty characters.
Setting down in his chair, the furniture and floorboards creaked under his weight.
"Did you put on a few pounds since I've been gone?" Tanya snarked.
"Cut the shit, Tanya," Biggs barked shutting down her sarcasm. "What did you do to get involved with Dusk?" Biggs glared at the tanuki sitting on the other side of the desk. However, Tanya didn't shift under his gaze, relaxed as she usually was.
"As much as I wish I could take credit, I'm not the one who's involved with them."
"Well, whoever is involved with Dusk, you need to keep your distance from them," Biggs said, jabbing his finger at her.
"You still haven't told me why these people are so bad."
Biggs took in a deep breath. A few seconds passed, and he breathed out. "Dusk is the lowest of the low, a crime syndicate so organized, they make the mafia look sloppy by comparison."
Tanya scoffed. "I've heard this before. Everyone thinks they're the best on the block, and nobody ever has what it takes to back it up."
"Well these guys do," Biggs pushed the matter. "Out of their entire syndicate, the number of bounties they have is in the single digits, all of them are low ranking members. And for good reason, nobody is crazy enough to fight them, or so I thought."
Tanya cocked her head to the side. "Well for a syndicate I've never heard about, you seem to know a lot."
"It's my job to know," Biggs answered slamming his fist on the desk. "So that you don't go looking!"
Tanya's demeanor changed. Leaning forward, resting her arms on the desk, she met Biggs' glare with her own. "They're this bad?"
"It couldn't get any worse. These guys move in the shadows, the constantly move their base of operations, never settle down in the same place twice."
"What else?"
Biggs opened his mouth to say more, before realizing what Tanya was doing. "Oh no, your not actually thinking of fighting them! Are you?"
Tanya laughed. "Of course not, I don't pick fights without a reason. I just want to know what kind of shit Mitten's family is in."
"That brat with the golden sword? I should've known. I would distance myself if I were you."
"What are you? My father?" Tanya growled. Her eyes went wide, immediately regretting what she said.
Biggs let out a sigh. "No, I'm not. Do what you want. Don't expect me to mourn you for not listening to my advice."
With that, Tanya pushed herself up from her seat, and walked out. Sitting down in her truck, she took inventory of what she knew. Dusk is a big name crime syndicate, they have their fingers dipped into numerous forms of communication, and they seem to have messed with the Mao family at some point in the past.
Tanya slammed her fist on the wheel of her truck. This was so frustrating, having the pieces, unable to figure out how they fit together.
The breeze pulled at Minori's gi as she sat atop the tree, her hand roofed over her squinted eyes. Nothing but greenery as far as the eye could see.
Ashaki had surmised that it would probably be less than a week for the Queen to replenish the wasps numbers. So before they could launch another siege, they would locate the nest, and burn it to the ground. Minori and Violet searched the west, Badgerclops and Adorabat the east, the north, and Mao Mao to the south. The teams took turns heading out to search, so as the kingdom was always defended; just in case Ashaki's estimate was off.
Minori dove down beneath the canopy, swinging from branch to branch, coming to the lowest hanging one. Minori threw caution to the wind and jumped the rest of the way, before using her claws to dig into the trunk and slow her descent. Violet sat at the trunk of the tree, a manga gripped between fingers.
"And I'm the irresponsible one?" Minori shot, walking past, she took a peek to see Violet was reading One Piece.
"What did you see up there?" Violet stowed the manga away in her hat, pushing herself up to her full height. Minori felt pissed, she hated having to crane her neck just to look her sister in the eye.
"Leaves," Minori answered, "it's nothing but leaves and sky above the canopy."
"This doesn't bode well," Violet rested her chin in her hand. "We don't have a lot of time."
"We still have some time before the swarm," Minori brought her hands behind her head, leaning back to look up at the speckled dots of light scattered in the canopy.
"There's no way for us to know that," Violet said. Turning back to the village, she looked back at Minori. "You can be so immature."
Minori rolled her eyes, following her sister back to the village.
Mao Mao unrolled a map at his desk, the map was topographic, with series of lines and circles surrounding the kingdom, showing the height of which the mountains rise. Mao Mao marked another x on the chart, taking another location off their "possible nest locations" list.
Mao Mao combed his fingers over his head, heaving a sigh. There aren't a lot of places in the valley suitable for a nest location, so they had to be close to locating it.
"Hey Mao Mao!" Badgerclops called from the living room, holding up a controller, "you want to play a round?"
"Not right now, Badgerclops," Mao Mao replied. "I'm waiting for Minori and Violet to radio in."
Badgerclops merely shrugged. "Your loss man. Maybe Ashaki likes video games! Where is she?"
Adorabat looked at Badgerclops, confused. "What do you mean? She's right there!" Adorabat pointed across the room, where Badgerclops looked over and saw nothing but a wall.
"Are you okay, Adorabat?" Badgerclops asked concerned. "Do you need glasses?"
"No! She's right there!" Adorabat pointed to the wall again.
Mao Mao, unable to ignore the ruckus from his office, stepped in. "What's going on?"
"Do you know where Ashaki is?" Badgerclops asked.
"Yeah," Mao Mao jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. "She's meditating in the dojo, so don't disturb her."
"Why not?" Badgerclops whined.
"Ask Minori, she can tell you 'why not'."
Badgerclops collapsed back into the couch, heaving a depressed sigh. "Fine~, guess I'll play single player."
"She's right there!"
The sentence caught Ashaki off guard, swiveling midair to see Adorabat's wing pointed right at her. She went to the dojo to concentrate, entering her astral form, she could search the valley without leaving the village undefended.
Normally people can perceive the astral form, but Ashaki, in her youth, was able to master a higher level of astral projection, so that her astral form is imperceivable. At least, that's how it was supposed to go, then this little bat was able to point her out as she was about to go searching.
Badgerclops slouched back into the couch, griping about having to play single player. Adorabat on the other hand, was still looking at the emerald green spectral form of Ashaki. Her form levitated to the left, then the right, Adorabat's eyes followed her.
She really can see me, Ashaki eyes widened in bewilderment. Ashaki levitated over to the couch, in response, Adorabat craned her tiny neck to look up. "Meet me in the dojo."
Ashaki flew through the air, phasing through support beams and walls, taking a literal straight line to her body. Her physical form floated a few inches off the ground, eyes closed, hands resting on her knees which were folded criss-cross. Ashaki lowered her astral form back into her physical form. Opening her eyes, she saw the small blue bat already standing before her.
"How did you do that?" Ashaki asked her. Adorabat just looked confused at the question. "Perceive me, how did you do it?"
"Umm," Adorabat looked up, trying to come up with an answer. Looking back at Ashaki she merely shrugged. "I don't know."
Ashaki let out a sigh. "Hold still for a second." Ashaki reached out for Adorabat, the claw on her forefinger glowing with her emerald green color. The claw gently tapped Adorabat's forehead, the light from Ashaki's claw spread over to Adorabat, taking on a new color: aquamarine blue. Ashaki ignored the color, instead she looked for where the color glowed brightest. Her contacts made it easy to find, the center was right between Adorabat's brows.
"I see, it would appear that your dominant chakra is Ajna. That would explain things."
"My do- chocies- and- wha-?" Adorabat plopped down on her rear, head aching with the big words that just got dumped on her.
"Well, everyone has 7 chakras, and it's those chakras that let me perform Mystic Arts," Ashaki explained. "For example, the third chakra, Munipura," she pointed to her solar plexus, "represents strength, power, and self-esteem, so any Mystic Art that let me perform great physical feats, needs me to pour chi through the third chakra. Is any of this sticking with you?"
"Kind of?" Adorabat said, rubbing her head.
"Well, your strongest chakra is the sixth," Ashaki tapped the space between Adorabat's brows. "It represents vision, perception, and intuition. So your chakra let you see me."
"Woah~" Adorabat eyes went wide with wonder. "What else can it do?"
"A few things, but your missing the point, Adorabat," Ashaki lowered herself from her hovering, knees on the ground. "You have an affinity for the Mystic Arts!"
At the sound of those words, Adorabat squealed, lifting off with his a flap of her wings. "You mean I can do magic?!"
"Mystic arts, yes. And this is special, the Mystic Arts is a dying art. Nowadays, the number of registered people who can use it number in the double digits."
"Can you teach me?" Adorabat asked, flinging herself onto Ashaki's knees.
Ashaki opened her mouth to say "yes", but stopped herself just short. Adorabat was Mao Mao's ward, his pupil, his protégé, what right did she have to start teaching the child. "I don't know, Mystic Art requires serious mental fortitude."
"I can do it, I totally can!" Adorabat begged.
Ashaki shifted to find a more comfortable position. "I'll tell you what, you ask for Mao Mao's permission, and we'll see what he says."
Adorabat's face lit up with glee, turning towards the door, she took off, screaming for Mao Mao. Ashaki let an ever so slight smile touch her face. A vibration in her sash broke her train of thought. Lifting a phone from her sash, she saw a new message had been sent to her.
How are things, Ash? The message said, a warm feel came to life in Ashaki's chest looking at the message.
Things are going okay, I guess. Ashaki typed back. Typing the message, Ashaki felt another wave of guilt at teaching Mao Mao's pupil.
It must've come across in the message, and how long it took to type it out, because the next message read, What's wrong?
Ashaki typed back quickly. It's just a lot that's happening is all. Looking at the position of the sun, Ashaki figured that the sun must be setting over there. Are you about to turn in?
I'm going to burn the midnight oil beforehand, do you want me tell Rae you said hi?
Ashaki rolled her eyes. Of course. Ashaki tucked the cellular device back in her sash. Pulling herself off the floor, Ashaki went over to the banister, gazing out over the valley.