Chapter 8
Elementary


"What do you mean you don't need my help!?"

My job at the moment was a very simple one: Find the Myth hiding in KFP. Yet somehow, this task was getting more and more complicated the further I was working on it.

"What's not to want from me?! I'm a detective, you're looking for someone, a perfect match!"

I expected a clue, such as Gura's tail, that someone in the building wasn't human. Unfortunately, luck refused to ever be on my side as everyone entering the place simply looked like regular people. Combine this with the fact that I had no access to any intel or tools that would help me on my quest, this seemed hopeless.

"Stop ignoring meeee!"

I sighed, sending a deadpan expression at the woman whining next to me. Her sky eyes twisted in what would've looked like a terrifying glare...if it wasn't for the fact that she was pouting while crossing her arms like a child.

"Sooo…someone you know?" The Atlantean in the seat in front of me decided that it was the perfect moment to ask this question, having finished eating and choking on her food, in that order. I turned my gaze toward Gura, my features not changing in the slightest as I picked up my cup of soda.

"Nope, I don't hang around whiny people." I curtly replied as I shoved the straw to my lips, sucking in the bubbly liquid from the cup.

"Hey, I'm not whiny! I'm simply persuading you to change your mind on my offer!" The girl with the blonde locks spoke up once more, uncrossing her arms to bash one of her fists on the table.

"Nice persuasion skills you've got there." I rolled my eyes at her statement, receiving a growl in response. From the corner of my sight, I could see Gura scowling at me with a questioning look, as if to ask me why I was so mean to the newcomer. I could only shrug while avoiding her gaze.

I wasn't anti-social by any means, but actively communicating with other people wasn't my favorite pastime. Obviously I knew how to socialize properly, it was simply a question of much energy I wanted to spend on a person. A normal life needs precise and exact calculation on the energy spent in a day. I couldn't waste it all on something that could be dealt with a certain amount in a smarter way. Simply put, I do not have that resource.

The girl beside me was a risk to my precious resource. She was someone I had never seen in the streets of New York, a private detective dressed up ala Sherlock Holmes, and was currently almost begging me to let her work on my secret job that could get me killed if I revealed it to anyone.

She was what I liked to call a " battery killer".

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this energy murderer wouldn't leave without stealing my precious resource. With a relenting exhale of despair, I finally turned toward the so-called detective and shot her a questioning glare.

"Alright, how much can you help us and how long are you gonna stay?" I instantly went straight to the point. I had a job to do and my time wasn't going to be spent playing around with someone that could be playing around like a delusional cosplayer. The blondie blinked a few times in what I can assume is confusion, before shooting a smirk at me as she grabbed a golden pocket watch from her hips. It eluded me how I hadn't noticed the shiny object dangling on her character, especially when it had a mustache on the cover.

"I only need 5 minutes to convince ya that I'm the real deal! Since you don't seem to believe me." She confidently exclaimed, opening the watch with a bit of pressure from her thumb, the elusive item opening its cover to reveal the time. I fully turned my body toward her, placing my half-finished drink on the table.

"That still doesn't answer my ques-" I started, preparing to admonish the stranger from ignoring my question. Instead, Gura interrupted me by slamming a hand on my face, grinning at the girl beside me.

"5 minutes heh? I'll take ya on that bet!" Gura yelled out. I swiftly pushed her limb away from me, scowling at the midget with irritation.

"Oi, Shrimp, we can't just shove anyone in this case." I attempted to scold, making sure to not say too much about Cover Corp and the Myths. My response was an eye roll from the shark girl, a very pretentious one at that.

"Don't worry, I'll be sure to not say anything too serious~" She waved off my concern with a literal wave of the hand. I could only grumble in annoyance once again as I switched focus on the Sherlock wannabe beside me.

"5 minutes...no more, no less."

"You won't be disappointed!" She winked while holding her hand forward in a peace sign, her other hand closing the cover on her pocket watch. "Now, I'm assuming you are looking for someone inside this restaurant."

"Brilliant deduction, Einstein." I mumbled off with a snort, a snort that suddenly morphed into a grunt of pain as the damn shrimp decided to kick my shin with her tiny leg. How the hell could someone so short be so damn powerful?!

"What makes you sure that this person is in KFP?" Watson immediately loaded another question, catching me off guard. Her eyes didn't have the childish, playful stars in them anymore. Confidence and precision were painted in them instead.

"Well, can't tell you exactly how, but we've got a trusted source that confirms that the person we're looking for is in this building everyday." I answered, unconsciously correcting my slouched state.

"You've got a time or date that they show up?" The detective interrogated once more, the color of the sky staring at me with such intensity that my mind reeled back from the sheer focus.

"6 Am to 5 Pm, seven days a week." Gura answered this time, reading off the document in her hands.

"Then we can safely eliminate all the clients and regulars from the list of suspects." Watson stated with no hesitation, shrugging to no one in particular.

"W-wait, how can-" I tried to formulate a question of my own, but didn't manage to speak it out in time as the detective had already figured out what I wanted to ask.

"Well, this is a fast food restaurant based on fried food. Right now, I don't see any elderly in the place, and the younger folks aren't too interested in staying inside a place like this, especially when they don't even serve coffee. A regular customer doesn't have any reason to stay for more than 3 hours inside KFP." She explained with a newfound professionalism, her eyes scanning the room. Gura's eyes were sparkling in awe, her face stuck in what seemed like a permanent smile.

"Yeah...but those are assumptions." I muttered weakly in protest, berating myself mentally for being so meek in my words.

"Got a better theory? Sure, mine could be wrong, but it's more plausible than anything else. You know just as much as me that no one will stay here for so long...unless they work here. It's too obvious. Think Hunter, think!" She easily countered with a grin, my eyes widening at her response.

I wasn't a prideful person, therefore, I could recognize when I made a mistake. But that didn't mean I liked to admit it or took pleasure in being in the wrong, in fact, I absolutely despised what I was feeling right now.

Because right now, I had underestimated Amelia Watson like an idiot, and was paying the price by having my mouth wide open like a gaping fish in front of her.

"That's still a big list of suspects though." The Atlantean moaned in defeat as her entire body slumped on the table, deflating with fatigue thanks to the future work of finding out the mysterious Myth. I could understand, and sadly, sympathize with her pain.

"Who said I was done, I've still got two minutes." The blonde girl huffed with overconfidence, her arms crossed as her eyes were fixing Gura. "Just with the time your mysterious suspect shows up, you can easily remove any part timers or workers that don't fit the bills."

"So...we are left with the full time employees?" I asked with a hint of uncertainty shaking the foundation of my voice. I was still swallowing the bitter pill of having to accept that I had been wrong about this girl, which made my mind hard to operate at the moment.

"Ever seen a normal full time worker working more than 8 hours shift everyday of the week?" Watson decided to answer my question with another one, one eyebrow raised as her face oozed with smugness.

"That would mean our person is the manager of this place." I finalized the puzzle with ease, trying my best to ignore the detective clapping in congratulations. Even if I had accepted that I had been an idiot about her abilities, she still grated my nerves in other ways.

Even with that, I was still baffled at how quickly she had found her potential suspect. She did base her theories on assumptions, but said assumptions were solid and logical enough to stand on their own thanks to her arguments. The girl was indeed a genius investigator.

Which made it even more curious on how the hell hadn't I heard of her before. I wasn't the type of person to know everything about New York, but when you work in an office job, rumors and gossip are something you absorb whether you like it or not. Yet, not a single sign of her existence anywhere until now.

"Bravo! And with that, time is up! So, now that you have a taste of what I'm capable of, are you ready to hire me?" The girl proposed her service once more, handing me a card of business. I couldn't help but smile as I took the card, pocketing it immediately. I had a feeling I would need her service once more in the future.

"Wait...why would we hire you? You already solved our problem." Gura pondered out loud as she tilted her head to the side, gaining the attention of Watson.

"...what?" was the only sound that came out of the brilliant, genius detective Watson.

"I mean, now that we know who our potential suspect is, there's no reason to hire you anymore. It'd be kinda pointless, don't you think?" The white haired shark continued with her thought process, having no idea what kind of damage she was causing on the other girl.

As for Amelia Watson, her entire confidence, smugness and overall attitude had been completely vacuumed and killed by the blissful ignorant words of Gura. Her face had lost all the previous sparkles it had, her grin shaky as her eyes stared at the shark with realization. Realizing the mistake she just made.

"Aaaaaaah! I did it again! Dammit, I completely forgot about my reason for talking to you!" The brilliant, genius detective Watson was now grasping her head in complete panic, crying and whining about her own failure. The Atlantean immediately burst out in uncontrollable laughter, holding her stomach as her body was wracked with wheezes and short giggles.

In her little magic show in demonstrating how good of a detective she was, she had accidentally solved the entire thing without charging a single dime on her investigation. A part of me felt pity for the poor gal, considering she had been an amazing help to our search for the KFP Myth. Without her, we would've been in this crowded place for days.

Unfortunately...free service was free, and I wasn't going to complain about it~

"Detective Watson, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't bother the other customers with your investigation!" A new voice appeared in the fray, shutting up the entire table. All our eyes were drawn to the sudden newcomer that had once again joined Gura and I.

The bright shade of orange greeted our sight with a powerful show of confidence. A woman with pale skin stood in front of our table with an outfit that had the same colors as the building, probably an employee of KFP if I had to guess. Her clothes consisted of an orange buttoned top with no sleeves and a white collar, linked to a short skirt of the same color thanks to two blue straps that were parkouring on her exposed toned stomach. To compliment the revealing outfit were some baggy white arm sleeves alongside similar thigh highs, a black belt to her hips and a cyan colored string attached to her neck completing her entire look.

Even though her outfit was quite unique and attracted many eyes for all kind of reasons, the part that my eyes could not stray away from was her facial features. She was definitely attractive, so much so that if it weren't for the choice of clothing, I would've mistaken her for a model. Her hair was a shade lighter than her outfit, cascading down her shoulders into a lovely shade of aqua. She had a pair of earrings made of feathers, the tone being very similar to the tip of her hair. She even wore a cute little chef hat on the top of her head.

However, I was too focused on her eyes to care about anything else. They say that you can know a lot about someone through eye contact alone, and most of the time I tend to agree with that statement. Yet, this time, I found myself doubting it. Her eyes were a mysterious pink hue that reflected an emotion I couldn't decipher, no matter how long I would stare into them.

When I met Gura, sapphires demonstrated loneliness. With the detective, sky shades hinted at a playfulness yet hid a freezing precision.

This woman's eyes held wisdom, experience, and something else that my brain could not figure out in the slightest.

"Ah, Miss Kiara, I'm not bothering your clientele, I'm simply...uhh, helping them out, yeah!" The blonde girl beside me took me out of my current mental struggle, patting my shoulder as if displaying evidence to prove her innocence. All I could muster was to share a look with the Atlantean, the two of us shrugging our shoulders at the same time.

"Oh, I'm sure you are. Remember though, I won't hesitate to kick you out if you keep bringing trouble." The woman known as Kiara responded with a threat, crossing her arms under her large chest. A huff of what seemed like arrogance escaped the lips of detective Watson, copying the gesture of the KFP employee.

"Ha! I'd like to see you try!"


"This is bullshit! Is this how ya gonna treat a fine lady like me?!"

The Atlantean, the KFP employee and myself all watched with deadpan expression as one of the male workers from KFP grabbed the good detective like a sack of potato and proceeded to drag her person outside, all while the blonde girl was screaming and hissing like a child. The professional and confident woman was now looking like…

"...gremlin energy…" I heard the shark girl whisper under her breath. A snort bubbled from my nose as I covered my mouth, my body shaking with laughter. A gremlin! It was a perfect analogy for Watson! I wish I had thought of it.

"Pffft, shut up~" I mumbled as I lightly pushed Gura in a playful manner, getting one back from her as she smirked at me. The orange-themed woman glanced at us with a small smile adorning her face, putting a hand on her hips.

"I apologize about the detective, she has been a rather troublesome problem lately." She spoke with sincerity, giving a subtle and small bow toward us. My mind immediately fixated on her previous sentence, my eyes slightly narrowing in thoughts.

Now, I wasn't a genius investigator like Amelia Watson. However, common sense and logical thinking were concepts I was extremely familiar with. If the detective was hunting for clues in the restaurant, then that must have meant something or someone had piqued her curiosity. The fact that we were also looking for someone in the same building wasn't a coincidence.

"If you don't mind me asking, what has she been doing to annoy you folks?" I questioned with the most polite tone I could afford, trying to hide my craving for intel. Kiara raised an eyebrow, putting her weight on one side as she stared at the two of us.

"Then before I answer, you don't mind me asking why you want to know?" She replied cheekily with a perky grin, pink scanning us like criminals. Her features seemed to speak of casualness, yet her eyes were telling a tale of cautiousness.

"Ah, well, my assistant and I are journalists, and lately we've been hearing stories about this place about unusual...supernatural events happening in this building. Having a private investigator such as Miss Watson kinda confirms that those rumors might be true." I lied through my teeth like someone who had practiced for years, Gura deciding to simply nod beside me.

I wasn't a terrible liar, but I realized I wasn't the best at it. The only reason why I could decently do it was because of my previous job. If you couldn't sell something to a client without lying a tad, you'd never make a buck. I could've told them the truth, but then my boss would've fired me a long time ago.

"Oh? Supernatural events? And what would those be?" Kiara asked with curiosity hiding in the shadow of her words. My brain quickly rummaged for another fake story to throw at her before she became suspicious.

"That's what we're here to find out!" my fake assistant decided to save me from my inescapable fate, pumping her arm in the air as she pretended to cheer. The woman in front of us smiled sweetly, patting Gura's head in a motherly fashion.

"Oh my, aren't you a cute one~ Well, I can't promise to contribute to those rumors, but as the manager of the KFP, I can help disprove some of those rumors. How does that sound?" She proposed as her free hand guided us to one of the free tables, her other one still patting Gura who seemed to be enjoying the affection.

Both Gura and I exchanged a look of realization. This woman was the manager that Watson had directed her suspicions at, our possible elusive Myth.

"I'll gladly take the offer. After all, we're looking for the truth." I shrugged with a light chuckle, sitting down at the table we were at before. My so-called assistant quickly joined my side as the manager took a seat on the other side. "So, care to start with the reason for Miss Watson's...frequent visits?"

"Ugh, I guess you could call them that. She has been waltzing in here for the past 2 weeks, constantly interrogating my employees about seeing some 'mystical beings' or something." Kiara started with a whine of despair as she crashed down on the table, her usual high pitched voice turning low and moody. I couldn't help the sympathy rising from my chest. Being a manager must be quite the ordeal, especially when you have to deal with strange characters such as the detective.

"Mystical beings? What would make her believe that? This is just a fast food restaurant, isn't it?" I asked with great interest, signaling to Gura to start taking notes. Cover Corp had the tools to know if a Myth was here, but as far as my knowledge went, detective Watson was just a normal human being. Could she have an interest in the occult?

"Your guess is as good as mine." The orange-themed woman sighed to herself as she straightened herself in her seat, rubbing her temples at the sheer stupidity of the situation she was dealing with. A feeling I could unfortunately share with her. "What about you? What brought you two here Mr and Miss…?"

"Ah, I'm sorry, My name is Hunter Bell and this is my assistant, Gawr Gura. Pleasure to meet you." I introduced the two of us as I extended a hand forward, the shark girl beside me saluting like the dork she was.

"Gawr...Gura? You don't hear that one everyday, and I work here." She snickered as she grabbed my hand, shaking it with one swing. "Pleased to meet you. Takanashi Kiara, at your service! I am the manager of this place, so you can call me Miss Kiara."

"Had a hunch that you had a special position, since your outfit is quite different from the others." I said, nodding my head toward the counter to mention the other workers. Kiara pretended to cover herself, all of a sudden acting bashful as she peaked at me with shy eyes.

"Kyaa~ Where have you been staring?~" She questioned with a girly tone, her eyes dancing with the energy of a prankster. Even if I was aware of her obvious joking behavior, my cheeks still couldn't help but flush red.

"I knew it, you truly are an old man." The midget decided to add insult to injury, not even sparing a look at me as she was busy taking notes in a notepad. I scowled at her, holding the urge to kick her under the table.

"S-shut it, shrimp…" I muttered out under my breath, cursing my stutter as Kiara guffawed for everyone to hear. I wasn't a shy person, but getting teased like a child was utterly embarrassing.

"A-aaaah, it's been a while since I had a good laugh like that." Kiara wheezed out as she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, a few chuckles slipping through from time to time. I rolled my eyes at her statement, the blush slowly fading from my cheeks.

"Glad I helped in some way or another…" I grumbled with a bit of shame lying in my words.

"Now, to come back to our conversation, what brought you here?" She swiftly resumed to the previous topic, propping up her chin on the back of her hand. Gura and I, once again, shared a glance as we tried to come up with a believable excuse for our twisting lie.

"Uhh, to tell you the truth, strange rumors are also the reason why we're here." The shark girl slowly answered apologetically, trying to hide behind her notepad. I didn't have the fortune to have something to cower behind, therefore, I had to suffer the disappointing look of the manager.

"I guess it's what I get huh? Destiny has its ways of repaying me…" Kiara whispered to herself in a barely audible decibel, a miniscule drop of sorrow and frustration permeating through. I squinted at the sudden shift in emotions, but before I could react to it, she quickly put on the mask of professionalism as she shined a smile at me. "Sorry, it's a saying that the founder of this place had. Either way, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but there's no such thing as a mythical being hiding here."

"I figured as much. A shame, it could've made for an interesting story." I shrugged at her statement, noting the way she abruptly ended the conversation. It's almost as if we had reached a point where secrets could be unleashed...and clearly, Miss Kiara didn't wish for that.

"Now, if you excuse me, I have a restaurant to manage. I hope you have a great day, , ." The manager suddenly concluded, getting up from her seat as she walked away from our table, before turning back to us for a moment. "By the way, next time, you probably shouldn't lie about your occupation. Could get you two in big trouble in the future. After all, you only get one chance to make a first impression."

With that, she swiftly returned back to her work, leaving the two of us with our jaws hanging on the floor. Either we had made a mistake at the last moment...or she knew all along that we were lying. I should've known better than to lie to someone with eyes like her. Eyes that spoke of years of experience.

I sighed to myself as I rose up from my own seat, motioning to the Atlantean to follow me as I pinched the bridge of my nose. The day was barely over and I was already tired of all the speaking and listening I had to do. This was my first day at the job. I couldn't imagine what the other days would look like.

"Anything noteworthy on that notepad of yours?" I absently asked the shrimp beside me, opening the doors of the restaurant. Her razor-like teeth held guilt as she smiled with shame, showing me the paper filled with mindless doodles. "Yeah...I expected as much."

"I-I mean, it's not like she said something that had a big huge reveal, ya know?" Gura defended herself, throwing the notepad in the nearest garbage bin as we both stepped outside. I took the time to light up a cigarette, immediately breathing in the smoke.

Just like Gura had said, she didn't say anything that would indicate that a Myth was here...but she also didn't say enough. As soon as we mentioned the same rumors as the detective, Miss Kiara completely shut us off, denying every possibility in one giant swoop. She may have known that we had been lying...but she didn't know my actual occupation.

At this point, detective Watson's hunch wasn't just a simple hunch anymore. It was a lead, and a lead I would track down.


"How come you get the laptop, and I get the stinky books?"

My vision shifted toward the tiny girl who had decided to complain about our situation. We were finally back home, able to rest our weary minds from all this outside activity. Except, instead of resting, we were both doing research about the KFP establishment.

Gura was laid down on her stomach on the floor, piles of different books laid around in multiple stacks. Apparently, Enma had been kind enough to bring those to help us in our search. As for me, I had my trusty laptop with me on the couch to dig around the internet for some intel.

"Because, need I remind you that you don't even know how to navigate the web?" I argued as I mindlessly typed away at the keyboard, seeing Gura's cheeks puff in annoyance from the corner of my eyes.

"Didn't you say you would teach me?"

"Yeah, and I will, but right now, I have to find this Myth." I responded as I took my eyes away from the screen to peek at the shark girl, giving her a reassuring smile. Gura's response was to sigh.

"What are we even gonna do when we find proof, tell Enma?" The Atlantean inquired as she closed the book in her hands, casually throwing it behind her. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the sudden question.

"Well, what else are we supposed to do?"

"I mean, with me, it made sense to join Cover Corp since I had nowhere to go...but that manager lady seems to have her life in control...wouldn't we be taking that away from her?"

Realization struck my brain with a hard impact. During my first day as a caretaker, I had been so focused on doing my job properly by finding out the mysterious Myth. Somehow, I never stopped and took the time to think about the consequences that my actions would bring upon said Myth.

Gura had been picked up in the street by me, therefore, when Cover Corp told her the deal, she wasn't losing, nor gaining anything in particular.

Takanashi Kiara was the manager at KFP though. She had an important job at a pretty big fast food restaurant, she most certainly had a place to come back to and call home. Hell, maybe she even had a family to take care of. Yet, here I was, hunting her down to then offer her on a golden platter to Cover Corp, the company that I was a slave to.

While I did make my choice and I don't regret it, I still hadn't built a trustworthy relationship with the enterprise. Their ways of working, their past mistakes, and their annoying habit of keeping everything under cover didn't inspire trust in me.

On top of that, even if I did promise myself to make Kiara's life tolerable by being the best caretaker possible, it wasn't guaranteed that I was gonna be her caretaker. Just like Enma said, my job was to find Myths and then tell her about it. The rest was out of my hands.

Gura's question played on loop in my mind, taunting me endlessly. I could play the mindless slave card and simply do my job, telling myself that it's my survival in play. Sadly, this card wouldn't be effective, as my conscience and morals are highly acute of what I'm doing:

Robbing a living person of their freedom.

What could I do…?

"Did I fry your brain or something? You okay in there buddy?" Gura's voice brought me to current reality, my eyelid blinking a few times to refocus. The shrimp was now slouched over the laptop in front of me, staring me down with worry plaguing sapphires.

"S-sorry...I guess we'll have to figure this out when we'll cross that bridge." I dismissed the question, waving off her concern with a shake of the head. The Atlantean exhaled in irritation, before sitting down right beside me on the couch. "Anyway, I managed to find a picture of the old KFP crew."

"Wow, you can find that kind of stuff?" Gura tilted forward to see better, my hand moving the laptop to the side to allow her a better view. On the monitor was an old picture that had been uploaded to the net thanks to modern technology. It was quite the contrast to see a colorless photograph inside a laptop's screen.

"Heh, took a while, but someone had their great grandfather or something like that work at KFP back in their days on a forum. Asked for some pictures by pretending to not believe it and boom, got the result right here." I explained to the Myth beside me with pride seeping through my words. I wasn't someone who needed approval, but it was nice to succeed through unconventional means at a task.

"Geez, how old is this picture?"

"Uhhh, around 1927?"

"Yeah, that's older than you." Gura giggled out. I narrowed my eyes toward her, scoffing at that statement.

"Nice one, grandma." I muttered back, ignoring the yell of indignity from her. My eyes darted around the pictures of any clue I could find, noting every face in my mental folder...until one of them struck me as...too familiar. "Hey...do I have a medical condition that affects my eyes or does this look like-"

"I think it's contagious because I'm also seeing it." The Atlantean commented as she stared at the screen intensively, her eyes as wide as mine. Either we both had eyesight problems...or this was definitely real. "Humans...can't do that...right? I mean, when they grow old, they're all...wrinkly and gross looking...so why is she…?"

I wanted to say that they couldn't...but at this point, I wasn't sure anymore. Because in front of us was the picture of the KFP crew back in 1927…

...With the manager looking exactly like the Takanashi Kiara we had seen today.