There were moments in time where Chie had to question if she really should be comparing her life to movies and TV shows. After all, it was one thing to see someone disappear and see it on the news and completely different thing to see it happen to her best friend.
In terms of how the situation was panning out though, the steak loving girl liked to think that she got a pretty fair deal out of this: a master who would teach her stuff and find her friend and it didn't really seem like she had to do much more than be present for the adventure. Though she might be lying a little if she said that there wasn't anything scary about the situation, her master was an intense person.
If a bit gloomy, it was kinda like being around someone who wasn't sure how to treat something but did honestly, if nothing else. And it definitely seemed like he didn't really want to be in Inaba.
Was that out of some sense of duty?
Shishou's oddities aside, it did seem like he was genuinely trying, despite not really knowing the area, but Chie supposed that was what she was there for. They would search some of the more unvisited areas for hours when they weren't training. It was kinda getting to the point that he was recognized by some of the older population.
Though they never really had anything nice to say. The brunette found herself dragging her teacher rather often through some of those areas.
It was hard to be the plucky sidekick that would inevitably get her own adventures after being exposed to the cool secret underside the world.
But she had to persevere… "For the Trial of The Dragon!"
…
Chie realized she had the attention of the twins as she
"Huh? What's the trial of the dragon? Is it a local ritual?" The girl in the black and gold leotard said as she tilted her head.
"It's nothing, ignore me! I said nothing!" Looking down immediately, the girl wanted to crawl into a hole but at the same time she was just too excited.
Soon she could be just as cool as the lead of Trial of The Dragon!
No, Cooler!
If she consistently trained like Shishou showed her, then she could learn to run on water!
They definitely couldn't do that in the movie!
After all, before training with him, she couldn't train nearly as long. Or sprint half as fast, she was pretty sure they held 25 kmph jogging pace when she was allowed to run.
Not to mention she had abs now, they weren't very visible, but they were there! Training with Shishou once had to be like four weeks of training by herself!
So yeah, while he could be intimidating, just a little tiny bit, Shishou was definitely the greatest!
That's not to mention that he had this energy about him… not his actual energy, but this energy that she found herself so easily wrapped up in. Like things we just move around him.
Even if it seemed like in some ways, he wasn't paying any attention to the people around him. Even her.
She had been the one that interacted with him most. And even though Chie didn't really understand the relationship between him and that fairy it definitely wasn't a form of friendship that she was familiar with.
Faer didn't ask that fairy for anything, he didn't rely on her or talk to her unless she forced an appearance. Chie couldn't say that it was much different between them (besides her knowing the area), and knew Faer didn't take their master student bond as seriously as she did but…
….
But what…?
As the brunette watched her master interrogate the burned man, she had to wonder what exactly led up to this.
He said something about burning alive to be a terrible experience… Did that mean he saw his master get burned alive?
Ah… if so, Chie wasn't sure how to react to that… it wasn't like Faer tried to set him on fire with those blasts so it must've just been something related the nature of his energy attack.
Carefully turning her head the martial art aspirant took in the two women who had been there before them.
The duet stood still, and Chie supposed that despite the longer haired girl's metallic appearance, that she was human too, if only because how could a robot have such a human face?
The red eyes of the girl in the black leotard no longer focused on her, taking in her master earnestly. In a way the look kinda reminded her of something between seeing girls getting ready to gossip or getting ready to confess to a crush.
"Are you our Contact, Mr. Stranger?" Her excitement won out as Shishou had turned and walked away from the fallen man who had turned to ashes.
On one hand, she didn't want that to happen to her, but on the other, Chie had to learn that. After all, if some of the stuff she saw on Friday Evening Anime was real then there was no reason why she shouldn't try to learn that stuff.
But then again… Shishou said something about two years before she might find herself in a situation where she was going on a revenge quest right? Was learning itself the cause for it or would it be some terrible act of karma that would do her newly found master in?
"Grmm." Grumbling as she shook her head, Chie tried to get a better grasp of the situation at hand.
"Mah, names Labrys. And this heyre is Metis, mah imouto. A darlin' when she ain't runnin her mouth. And someone who'll spit out all yer secrets when they need ta stay quiet." The long haired girl said as she moved her ax to her back in a graceful motion that was definitely an abrupt change from how she moved while she was fighting.
The young brunette noted that something about what the girl said caused her master's face to twitch but over what she couldn't say.
"But, Ah suppose yer here ta do something about the odd concentration of Shadows in the location heyre too, right?" There was a bit of an expectant expression on the robo-lady's face that Chie wasn't sure how to explain, but she wasn't sure if she was happy with the way that she grinned at her master.
The other lady with her seemed just happy to be there, watching.
"Ugh." Creepy.
"Not quite, there was a trail of kidnappings that led to the area. The Apathy Syndrome Cases. No one was investigating, so I did. Came across Shiki and a few of his acquaintances." The dark skinned man explained and standing across from them made Chie realize something.
…
…The spirit detective route was the real one this whole time!? Now she would have to change her title for the man… And it did make sense considering the guns…
Scratching the back of her neck, Chie moved to stand by her master's (partner?) side. From her new position the girl felt whatever green energy her master had used on her had worn off, feeling a little stiff the girl decided to start stretching. It wouldn't do any good if she wasn't ready to fight these two that were clearly from a rival company.
"I guess that makes sense, Shadows tend to feed on them too right?" The short haired girl said swaying back and forth as she held her hand to her chin in a thinking pose.
"Maybe, Metis." The other girl says briefly looking at "Metis", before crossing her arms beneath her chest. "So if you aren't really here with the Kirijo Group, then I guess you're our enemy then, right?"
Suddenly Chie had sweat going down her back. The duo standing in front of her master hadn't moved a centimeter and to the young girl it was as if she was already feeling how they would attack.
"Not quite." Her master said, shaking his head negatively. "I am an outside Contractor, here to deal with the Dark Hour in its entirety. That would include kidnappings as well." A Contractor? Does that mean he wasn't really a detective either? But then again, being a Contractor could mean being almost anything.
Though the two lady's expressions didn't change either in retaliation to what he said, the young girl was pretty sure that they had some kind of silent communication method between the two of them.
"Oh, so this was the kind of experience that Onee-Sama was talking about right? He definitely seems like the kind to find himself in all types of situations huh? How are you going to handle that?" The younger sister(?), Metis said. It was hard to tell whether or not she intended to undermine her sister's authority, but Chie didn't really want to find out.
And more than that, she wished that she had more time to train with Shishou. It'd be super useful if she had a super move like that blast attack that he did.
Clenching her jaw Chie looked to her master, who as always, was unflappably intense.
"Metis, shut yer' trap." Ah, she could definitely feel some type of killing intent in that line. "Listen her' Mr. Contractor, yer' presence here, was in mah intel so I'm gonna assume that I ain't gotta flat line ya. So why don't we try ta pool together what we know."
So they weren't going to fight?
Ah… huh, today has definitely been an odd one for her. Chie wasn't really expecting to learn so much about Shishou today, let alone see him disintegrate someone. Or for him to not be a spirit detective or a student trying to avenge their master. But she definitely would continue to call him that since he was teaching her how to fight still.
Actually now that she thought about it, until she learned his full back story, there was still a chance that either one of those stories could be true.
Not to mention that the kung fu enthusiast wasn't going to give up on learning how to do energy blasts just because her master's intentions had been obscure to her when they first met.
"Sure. I don't mind. Maybe you know more than I do." Her master stated simply. "Where do you want to talk?"
Her stomach chose that time to announce its presence and with it everyone's attention fell to her…
Faer looked around the food court of the department store Chie had guided him too, Junes (jeunesse), while she ate a cheap steak with ravenous gusto that was rather appropriate considering he had her running for hours earlier. It was about mid afternoon by now at least after all that.
The name of the store kinda bothered him.
"Chie, what do you think of those two girls that we encountered earlier?" The young adult forced out as he stretched his upper back using the back of the chair, forcing out a long series of pops.
"Ah the super fighting robot twins, partner?" The girl said as testing the word partner carefully to see how she liked it. Settling her face with a small frown as she sipped on a soda "Er I guess the one with longer hair seemed pretty graceful, Shishou, but I am not sure how. Her sister was creepy though." The girl seemed to be thinking rather hard about it.
Wonder what that partner was thing about.
"Labrys seems like she's done some pretty intense stuff before too. I don't think I've ever seen anyone deliver a threat like that before…"
He had noticed that too, Labrys and Metis, something about their names made him think he was on the edge of something, but what he couldn't say.
"Could you see their movements?"
"I guess, I could see the general movement pretty easily but they were moving too fast for me to fight if that is what you mean. But there should be no problem for you Shishou, you took that one guy out way faster than either of them were moving."
"Hm…" That wasn't entirely true. Maybe he would have to run another simulation with Chie, she seemed to be growing at a decent rate despite not having an enhanced physique.
It's been a relatively low stakes investigation with her tagging along so far but the battle tested young man would be careless if he thought that would last forever.
Maybe he could start with teaching her that kick. And if possible see if she can learn some form of magic.
Lost in his thoughts and plans for potential battle, Faer was drawn out of revere as the sound of heavy footsteps grew close to the table.
It was the dynamic duo.
As they approached the tables Faer couldn't help but notice that they seemed to be carrying instrument cases. If he had to guess it wasn't because they weren't in a band.
Metis sitting down first, with a flourish to smooth out carmine red pleated skirt that went to her knees sat with a poise that reminded Faer of Ms. Kirijo. And with the white blouse and black ribbon combo, Faer wouldn't be surprised if she took the outfit right from her closet.
Perfectly still in a way that went beyond practice, despite the life that the girl had, in some ways she was still very doll-like.
A trait that the more mechanical of the two, Labrys didn't share with her sister.
Striding with practiced gait, Labrys gingerly pulled back a seat at the table as she slowly set herself down. Which was a rather large contrast to how she was dressed. Decked out in red and white riding leathers that mimicked her armor's paint job, the more mature sister placed her helmet beneath her arm onto the table as she then carefully took off her instrument case, placing it on her right hand side.
The long haired girl slowly reclined back with a human-like boneless movement into the chair with a sigh that Faer didn't expect.
It was a bit odd..
His apprentice yawned as their guests slowly made themselves comfortable, and Labrys upon seeing it yawned in turn.
Was she actually tired?
Placing her hand to her cheek in a manner that felt as synthetic as the rest of her mannerisms the younger sister gasped, "Ah, Onee-sama, your batteries are draining faster in your old age aren't they?"
"Shaddup, Metis…"
What was with these two?
"Alright, Mr. Contractor, we're here, let's talk business." Labrys setting the tone said trying to move past the moment.
With the way her sister acted, Faer wasn't surprised. Extending courtesy, the green eyed young man gave each sister a measured look."If we are doing business then it's only polite for you to know my name, Faer Jaecar."
"Wandering Hunter? Ominous name, but it's fitting. You know they say that Death is not a hunter unannounced to its prey. Faer Jaecar, is that actually or name or is it a title?" Metis questioned as her eyes seemed to roil with some type of expression that Faer wasn't sure how to interpret.
And while her sister gave her a reprimanding stare she did not actually condemn what it was that she was saying. Maybe they were trying to present a united front. Maybe it was how tired she appeared to be. But the issue with that was Faer already knew that they weren't really united, Metis had authority issues and loved to pipe up. And Labrys was definitely used to wrangling her in based on their last encounter.
They were missing someone important. Who or what Faer couldn't say but without them the two were off balance.
On another note it was nice to finally meet another person who would say his name right.
"Depends on the situation." There that should be ominous enough to leave an open ended threat. "But we didn't come here to talk about the origins of ominous names and titles, did we, we came here to talk about war. You of all people should know that War and Wisdom go hand in hand Metis, so why show it?"
Or at least that was the operating assumption Faer was going with. He still had an entire lifetime's worth of knowledge in his head but without memories to tell him what he knew it was like searching for a specific object in a dark room without orientation.
That said, their names did spark recognition in his head.
Metis and Labrys. Two names of Greek origin that Faer ever so loosely remembered, if Metis was supposed to hint as Wisdom as her name implied then it was probably best to see who "wise" she was or if the naming was an ironic scheme.
Belching, Chie drew attention from the twins, the younger of the two seemingly interested in the action while the older looked at her with a flash of disgust.
"...Excuse me…" the brunette meekly said, trying to lose the attention.
Chie's stomach let out another monstrous growl, killing the endeavor before it could start. Additionally this causes Metis to lean forward with fascination.
"Fascinating! I've never heard such a sound from a human before. Is it some kind of mating call?" Metis asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.
Chie's face flushed a deep crimson as she sputtered, "Wh-what!? No! It's just my stomach growling because I'm hungry!"
Maybe he should get her more
Labrys rolled her eyes, a small smirk playing on her lips. "Ignore her, she's still learning about human customs. Though I gotta say, that's one impressive appetite you've got there, kid."
Chie puffed out her chest with pride. "Well, a true martial artist needs plenty of fuel to keep up with their training! Right, Shishou?"
Faer simply nodded, his expression stoic as ever. "Indeed. A warrior must nourish their body as well as their mind and spirit."
"See? Shishou gets it!" Chie grinned, reaching for another steak skewer.
Metis tilted her head, processing this new information. "I see... so consuming large quantities of meat is essential for developing combat prowess in humans? Fascinating! Perhaps we should incorporate this into our training regimen, sister."
Labrys chuckled, shaking her head. "I think we'll stick to our usual maintenance, Metis. But hey, if it works for them, more power to 'em."
Faer and Labrys shared a look as they knew that anymore and they would lose the plot.
"Right, well, seeing as we both knew of Shiki, in some capacity, I'll begin." Damn it Chie, he wanted to hear what they had to present first, but for the sake of his student he would have to break the mold.
"Shortly after my arrival to Tatsumi Port Island, I noticed the wanderings of people that had little to no sense or will. Victims of Apathy Syndrome, after I read up on it I noticed that despite most people avoiding them and having seemingly no will to even take care of themselves it made me wonder where all the bodies went."
There should have been more and as far as Faer knew only a few demons bothered physically eating the bodies and he honestly wasn't too sure what shadows did with their victims. But it was those innocuous set clothes left neatly folded that had tipped him off.
"After all, why would a demon or shadow leave behind folded clothes when kidnapping someone? Why would anyone? I'm still not sure about the "why" that goes into it but I came across Shiki and a few others dressed like him before the dark hour a few weeks ago. I tried to stop them. I lost their trail, I picked it up and here I am."
There was no reason to spill the beans on anything else so far, Faer figured, not until he actually had a plan to beat these two. The element of surprise had worked in his favor when he was able to speed blitz Shiki since it was only a straight line he needed to travel to get to him.
With these two the Contractor doubted it would be so easy.
"Interesting, I suppose that you were working with the heiress too, since she briefly had made a note during' our brief." That kinda explained why they knew about him, but at the same time it didn't quite fit. "At first, I was sure she just didn't like ya but I guess the boss lady is just bad at making friends."
…
"So then. What have you learned?"
A smug look came across the sister's faces.
"Well, ya see, we've been staying at the Amagi's and have reason to conclude with 80% certainty that they are being mentally altered. I knew that before coming here that they had a daughter but besides making a passing comment about being at some type of school program they don't bring her up. I am reasonably sure that neither have stepped foot into her room as of lately." The long haired mechanical maiden explained.
Eager to follow up with enthusiasm the younger pair chimes in, "The hostile, designated as Shiki appears to have had powers correlating with the demon Shiki-ougi, a mid tier shikigami, meaning that there is likely an exorcist presence nearby. We encountered the hostile when he was fleeing the scene of a gas station on the outskirts of town. So we pursued him to ask him questions about his denomination, he then became hostile towards us."
That was surprisingly comprehensive.
"Wait, you guys are staying at the Amagi's? How does that work, Labrys, you're built like a super fighting robot!?" Chie exclaimed and being honest Faer had a similar question but assumed the answer had to do with people assuming it was cosplay or prosthesis.
"Ah, well. Officially we are wards of the Kirijo Group. Sent here to do some trial runs for a new prosthesis line to ensure that people that need them can still go into humid environments and be exposed to saltwater without losing functionality of the limb. So most people assume that it's me that is doing the primary testing due to my visual differences."
"So the Amagi's are just sponsoring us for now."
"Right, then, do you have any leads on the Shadow situation? Its probable that these situations are connected so if you have anything now would be a good time."
"Uhh, no. Most over time investigating has been during the dark hour trying to see if our instruments can detect the presence of shadows. And well, they seem to be everywhere and nowhere at once."
All that for nothing then. Shiki and his masters were still running around doing who knows what. And there was no way to really know what the sisters hadn't mentioned and Faer wasn't going to mention Ayame. Not yet anyways.
"You guys said something about um, there being exorcists right? Well, Shishou had mentioned that he sensed something when we went to the sea? But it was too far out for us to really do anything about."
God damn it, Chie…
"We can get a boat pretty easily, right big sis?"
A look of annoyance crossed Labrys's face and for a moment I knew that we were on the same page. It did appear to be that Metis' name was ironic. Either that or she did not care for letting things go on the slow and steady side.
"So a boat…"
"Yeah, I guess I can see about getting one delivered out here, shouldn't take any longer than three days to get here, faster if I make mention of it being time critical."
Well, if there was only so much time to try to get the sisters off balance, Faer would need to work quickly. Unlike SEES or UNDIT, Faer wasn't entirely sure of the reason that they were non hostile towards him.
"I couldn't help but notice that of the two of you, Labrys, you seem to be more human than Metis despite outside appearances."
A look of surprise appeared onto Labrys' face as she began to stammer, "O-oh, I-I appear to be more human? What makes you say that, Mr. Jaecar?" Even more surprising was that the girl had a built in blush reaction.
What was the tactical advantage of a robot being able to blush?
"You breathe and yawn even though its probably not necessary, you blink about 14 times a minute which is pretty close to human average. You're sister also seems to be a bit too balanced, not stiff, but calculated in her adjustment to minute movement, blinking about maybe 7 times a minute. How does that work?"
"Ah well ya see…" Her accent is back. "Um, well, I'm older doesn't it make more sense for me ta be better at being human?" And by now her blush was atomic and her behavior kinda reminded him of some of those girls he saw gossiping from time to time.
"Your design philosophies argue otherwise. Fascinating."
"Hueh!" Trailing off into a stream of incomprehensible babbles, Faer can tell whatever he said had given some sort of implication to Labrys.
Moving to rectify his mistake Faer is cut off by Metis, "Ah, Big Sis's strike zone has been hit!" Her what?
Some kind of weakness? If that was the case then Labrys had a rather crippling design flaw. But if the topic of designs were still on the table then…
"Metis' design parameters also interest me as well."
"Ah you're interested in my specs? Ah, I've never had to tell someone about them before. Odd, why is my Papillon Drive running hotter now? That feels quite nice. I wonder if Bis Sis has experience in this too." Trailing off the navy haired girl idly placing a hand over her chest were a heart would be found on a human.
"Shishou is a dangerous man…"
Looking at his apprentice, who had a look of shock on her face, the foreigner merely states, "Of course I am Chie."
"I concur with Contractor Faers' statement." Metis agrees with a grin that Faer wasn't quite sure how to classify. "If he were not a dangerous man then he would not be someone we would have been implicated to be aware of based on my sister's mission briefing. He is quite the specimen. I would like to be beneath his considerable might someday if the opportunity arises."
Yeah, there was definitely something to that grin that Faer wasn't picking up on.
"Ehem, Metis quit flirtin" The sky blue haired reprimanded her sister as she tried to recover her bearings. "We can't just go giving out confidential information like that, even to allies," Labrys said as she fought down her blush.
The younger sister didn't try to deny it. In fact she didn't even seem to move, again getting a sigh from Labrys.
"In any case, there is our next move. Would you ladies be opposed to a collaborative effort?" In truth Faer would prefer to not have any extra company but he's made a habit of asking others for their opinions up to this point. It'd be remiss of him to stop now.
"To scout out the island you discovered?" The long haired girl inquired as she made furtive glances back to her sister who still hadn't moved.
Was she out of power for today?
"Among other things. Now that I know that shadows are here as well, maybe I'll try my hand at finding some more coordinating leads."
"I guess having more hands is always better, but what about her?" Labrys says, pointing to the contractor's apprentice, who had almost looked lost. She must be getting tired. "Near as I can she isn't much more than an ordinary girl. Are you sure she needs to be involved in this?"
Did Chie need to be involved in this investigation? Well now that he had competent help, probably not. Every time he took her with him he ran the risk of getting her killed so in a lot of ways it wasn't really worth having her around. If he lost control he might accidentally reduce her to a smear on the ground.
However, Chie did have some kind of potential. Enough that he was sure she was roughly just as strong as he was when he first arrived. Maybe stronger. Not to mention his debt to her.
And the girl's own vested interest might have brought back the wrong type of attention if she got someone to entertain her long enough to see that there was something more to the situation.
"I wouldn't worry about her." The dark skinned boy said as he slowly met the eyes of the two girls.
By now the sun was starting to reach into the late evening… he should cut this short soon. There was something else that he needed to get to and he wouldn't have the chance to get it done if he spent much longer talking.
"Alright, ladies, it's been a treat. However Chie should be getting home soon, and I understand that you both have some level of preventative maintenance to get to."
Faer was almost certain Metis had shut down in the middle of their conversation, but he wasn't going to call Labrys out on it considering he only just made allies with the two.
"I'll see you around, Mr. Faer. We should do this again sometime."
"What? Me cutting in your dance or the little talk we had after?"
"Both, though I think it might be best to leave your understudy. I'll leave my brat sister behind too."
"Careful, we might be too effective if they don't balance out the shenanigans."