"So," Kris took a deep breath while leaning up against the dumpster holding Jay, "what do we do now?" She asked just as the cultist kicked against the metal and shouted.
"Uh, well..." Kagami trailed off. She still felt exhausted. Jay wasn't letting up with his semblance which left everyone in a standstill. They were too tired to think of a way to pull him out without letting him escape and he was completely stuck inside the dumpster. "I don't know." She lowered her head.
"Okay, great. So if we're not going to do anything," Elise yawned. She closed her eyes and slowly leaned onto Cheyenne's shoulder. "I'm taking a quick nap."
With a small sigh, the Faunus reached up and gently patted her head. "We need to figure out a way to detain him."
"No shit, Sharon." Kris mumbled while reaching up to rub her face.
Blinking, all of her friends eyed her with a raised eyebrow.
"What in the gods name did you just say?" Jay asked from inside the dumpster.
He then suddenly let out a sharp grunt as a bladed staff was thrown through the top of the dumpster.
Kagami's eyes shot wide and she pushed herself to her feet. Still dazed, she stumbled back and fell to the ground.
"You're welcome." Jayde jumped down from the roof and into the dark alley the girls were in. "Since you weren't going to do it."
"Hey!" Kris snapped while feeling her strength returning. She quickly pushed herself up to her feet and glared. "That was uncalled for!!"
"Oh quiet, shortie." The Huntress in green brushed by her while retrieving her weapon. "It's not like he was a good person anyway." She collapsed her staff and slid it away. "What were you going to do with him anyway?" She raised an eyebrow.
"We were working on it." Cheyenne narrowed her eyes while getting up onto her feet. She then helped Elise stand.
"Not fast enough." She then gestured towards the rusted latch.
The Faunus sighed as she stepped over. With the help of her semblance the metal became brand new.
"This isn't a game of Huntsmen and Robbers. You kids are going up against a group of people who will not hesitate to throw you into the mouth of a Grimm." She opened up the dumpster and leaned inside.
The smell of iron washed over Kagami and made her clench her teeth. "I thought you were looking into Uva and Shoku?" She crossed her arms.
"I was. And then you took too long." The Huntress pulled herself out and flipped Jay's scroll around. "So I assumed you needed help." She pointed with the device before tossing it towards Kris.
"Yeah, yeah." The redhead caught it and opened it up. "I'll search every corner of it." She then slid it closed and put it inside her coat. "Once it's connected to some power. It's almost dead." She rolled her eyes.
"Now isn't that easy?" Jayde raised an eyebrow as she started heading out of the alley and towards the night market. "One down, ten to go." She held out her arms with a smile behind her mask. "I'll call up some friends to take care of Jay's-"
"Don't." Kagami narrowed her eyes with a small exhale. "Don't say it." She took a deep breath. "You don't need to say it."
Team MACE left the night market a few hours before the shops closed up. They were all exhausted but rather than going to Jayde's they went to Billy's bar.
"So what am I doing?" Cheynne asked while holding a billiards stick. She stared across the table with multi-colored balls and tilted her head.
"Okay, first, fix your hands." Elise set a much smaller mug of lager down before helping the Faunus readjust. "Now you're trying to hit the five." She slipped around the table with narrowed eyes before pointing at a spot on the wall. "So you'll want to hit it here that way it'll bounce off and hit it."
She blinked. "How's the white ball going to hit the five from there?"
"Just trust me!" She waved her arms.
She gave a shrug.
Sitting at a table, Kagami and Kris watched as Cheyenne sank the five ball.
Shaking her head, Kagami eyed the other girl. "Any luck?" She asked.
"There's a lot on here." Kris shrugged while swiping through the scroll. She had a margarita that she hadn't touched yet. "Some very... explicit stuff. Even for me." She gestured towards herself.
"You know you're younger than me, right?" She flashed a smile.
"And you know you lived in the woods in the middle of nowhere completely isolated from normal functioning society, right?" She raised an eyebrow with a cocky grin.
The jadette fell silent. "Okay." She exhaled and placed her elbow on the table and pointed. "That's... shut up." She sighed in defeat.
"Heh." Kris stuck her tongue out as she went back to searching through the device. "It looks like Jay was talking to Malachi recently though. I think Malachi might be a banker in Vacuo. Or well, that's at least the front of his business. Jay was needing help transferring funds."
"Hm." Kagami leaned back with a hand under her chin. "There's only so many banks in the Kingdom. I bet most of the people here don't even trust the banks. Probably for good reasons. It shouldn't be too hard to find which one Malachi works at. We just need some lien to 'deposit' while we look around."
"Which we don't have." She slumped over the scroll. "Gods, this man really liked to blackmail women." She frowned.
"Excuse me." A slim woman suddenly spoke while walking up.
Both girls jumped slightly before looking over.
"Um, yes?" Kagami raised an eyebrow.
"You're Kaito's cousin, right?" She quietly asked while tightly holding onto her purse.
"Yeah." The jadette nodded cautiously.
Reaching into her bag, the woman then placed a pouch on the table. Her eyes narrowed a bit. "Thank you. Pithaya mentioned you. This is from all of us."
"Um, what?" Her brow knitted and her head tilted. "All of who?"
"Kagami." Kris let out a small breath of disbelief.
She blinked and quickly looked over. "What?"
"Look." Sliding the top of the pouch down, the redhead showed off the large stack of the highest currency lien cards there was.
"What?" The jadette's eyes widened and she sat up straight. "What?" She let out a sharp breath before looking over towards the woman.
She was gone.
She quickly glanced around the bar before dropping her shoulders. "Who was that?" She looked back at her friend.
"I don't know," Kris exhaled, "but I think I might have an idea." She slid Jay's scroll over. He had a saved nude picture of her.
Kagami took a few deep breaths before eying the pouch of lien. It ached deep within her core that his life was only worth that much. Even if he was a horrible person. She quickly reached over and snatched it up. "Don't think about spending it." She tied it closed and slid it away. "It's not ours. We didn't do it. It's Jayde's."
"Whaaat?" Kris' eyes widened. "Kagami! Come on! Think of all we could buy! We could easily slip in and out of every single bank in Vacuo with that much!"
"It's not ours." She crossed her arms. "And I'd rather not make enemies out of Jayde and her friends. The lien is hers."
"But..." She trailed off and sighed. She was right. If Kasune learned they stole the money from an unofficial contract from Jayde there would be big trouble. And Melony would definitely kill them. "Okay. Fine." She slumped again. "So how do we find out which bank Malachi works at without being suspicious?"
"I guess the old fashioned way." Kagami yawned. "We'll stake out each bank until we find him."
"Sounds time consuming." Kris lowered her head.
"Yep." She let her head fall between her shoulders. "It'll be great."
Once the sun was high overhead, team MACE finally went to sleep. Nobody wanted to be outside in the heat and Jayde's house was air conditioned well enough so they didn't feel like dying. It felt like the best time for them to rest before going back out into the Kingdom.
Sitting at the table, Melony grinned behind her mask as she counted through the stack of lien cards Kagami had given her. "You know, maybe I was too hard on these kids. I kind of like them now. You brought home some good lien because of them." She chuckled quietly.
Jayde scoffed and softly shook her head. She was preparing some flatbread to make. "Well I wouldn't have helped some dumb kid. I never would have found Jay without their help. So give them some credit."
"No." She gave her a side look before sliding the stack of lien back into the sack they came in. "I don't like them. They're traveling scum who only came here because of an accident." She stood up and took the lien with her to place in their stash. "They should have stayed in Vale."
After she left, Kasune approached Jayde from behind. She placed her chin on her childhood friend's right shoulder and reached up with her left hand around her body to pull her green mask down. "Aren't you done playing this game with them?"
Eyeing her, Jayde flashed a small smile and pulled her blue mask down with a single finger. "It's not a game. We have eyes and ears all over this Kingdom and the wastelands outside of the walls. I want to know how this cult managed to remain undetected by our informants."
"But why can't we just let it be?" She slipped away from her and held out her arms. "Jayde. You don't need to know everything."
"To keep you safe I do." She said rather bluntly while setting a rolled out piece of dough into a pan.
"Jayde..." Her shoulders lowered. She stepped close again and placed her chin back on her shoulder. She watched the flatbread cook. "Curiosity killed the cat."
"And knowledge was one of four gifts given to us by the gods."
"And so was choice. So choose not to concern yourself with all of this."
Jayde gave her a cocky smile. "What do you care about the other gifts? You don't even believe in the Brothers."
"Neither do you!" She stepped back and held out her arms.
Her smile grew as she flipped the piece of flatbread with her bare fingers. "You're flustered."
With the heat rising to her face, Kasune quickly brought her mask back up and over her nose. After a few seconds of glaring, she sighed. "Could we at least kick them out? They could stay with Kaito and Pithaya and you could still scheme with them at Billy's."
"I suppose." Jayde smiled while pulling her mask back up. "But I'm pretty sure they have a better chance with Melony rather than Pithaya." She pulled out the fully cooked piece of flatbread before laying another piece of raw dough down.
Sitting in her home with her hands folded in front of her face, Pithaya glared at Kaito.
Said man was arm wrestling with Kagami on their table.
Struggling with all her might and putting everything she had into trying to pin his hand, Kagami let out a quiet shout.
Kaito grinned. "Come on? Are you even trying?" He raised an eyebrow with a toothy grin. He wasn't struggling but he still had to put effort into keeping his arm in place.
"Quiet, mister I eat as much protein as my own body weight everyday!" She bared her teeth.
"What? These?" He eyed his large toned biceps. "Sorry, are you jealous?"
"No! I'm annoyed!" She spoke through clenched teeth.
"Aren't you don't yet, dear?" Pithaya gave a bored look.
Kaito exhaled. Slowly he started pushing Kagami's hand down. Once she felt the back of her hand being pinned, she exhaled in defeat and sat back.
"Don't worry. I'm sure there's something you can beat me at." Kaito reached over and patted her shoulder. "Like this whole detective thing you got going with your friends. I couldn't do that. I'm a Grimm hunting kind of guy."
"That doesn't count." Kagami leaned across the table and propped her head up. "How fast can you run?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Okay!" Elise interjected this time with a smile. "How about you help us make dinner since they very kindly let us stay here?"
"But-" Kagami was cut off as her ear was snatched.
"That wasn't a question!" Elise pulled her towards the kitchen. "Besides, you need to eat! We have a long night ahead of us and if you burn all your energy now you'll be tired!"
Kaito grinned as he watched the two of them. He then slowly turned toward Pithaya. "Remind you of anyone?" He raised an eyebrow before grunting as his head was smacked. "Ow! Hey!" He reached up to aggressively rub where he had been hit.
Dang, no update on February 1st. Very unlike me. But I have finally started teaching myself to draw. There was a really rough learning process within the last month but I think I've gotten thought it. I should be able to balance writing and drawing better now. If you want to follow my progress I post my daily updates on Bluesky. Same username.
Anyway, it's day 302 of the hiatus (February 18th) and we have tangible hope again.