July 11th, x778

If someone were to insinuate that Jose missed his punching bag, that would be a lie, and he would eviscerate the fool who implied such a thing.

"How boring..."

However, if they were to say that Jose preferred his punching bag to the trash he had just cleaned up, then he might let them live with an arm or two.

"Even the rodent did better..."

It just wasn't the same, unfortunately.

"Is this all you have to offer?"

Jose asked with a disappointed drawl as he floated next to his shade balloon, with a cup of tea and a newspaper. The 'dark guild' set up in the forests of Oak Town laid out around his feet, some breathing, some not, most wearing some form of blue attire to identify their guild members. It also helped hide the blood, so that was good planning on their part if that was their reason for choosing such a bland color.

"Well?"

There were maybe thirty of forty; Jose wasn't sure; he didn't bother to count, and the guild leader was a hothead with long blond hair, black eyes, a scar along his jaw, and a broken arm. The defeated man's eyes trained on the ground, and his jaw wired shut like an 'act of defiance.' It was a useless act that didn't earn any respect from Jose; it was just a sore loser's petty attempt at revenge.

"How pitiful."

Jose scowled as he sipped his tea, flipping the paper before glancing at the guild leader of...

The guild leader of...

"What did you mongrels call yourselves again?"

Jose didn't remember the guild's name when he thought about it. They just didn't interest him; another no-name dark guild was trying to impress the underworld by setting up near the number one guild in Fiore. Idiots like these popped up every few years, just like those who wanted to set up near Crocus. They all blurred together at some point for Jose since they eventually learned the same lesson.

"HOW DARE YOU MOCK US!"

Insolence has a heavy price.

"WE'RE THE ROARING-"

'SPLAT'

"Never mind," Jose muttered as his shade's giant fist swung down and ruthlessly crushed the groveling guild leader like a bug. A moment later, his shadow moved its bloody fist up, revealing the crumpled red body on the ground that had once been the leader of the roaring-whatever, "I've lost interest."

Jose finished his tea before putting it in his requip space, flipping the last page of his newspaper before doing the same. His eyes quirked as he heard the airs moving and tilted his head back to see Aria appear behind him, his ace tilting his head with a small greeting, "Hello guild master, I see you've been busy while I was away."

"Hardly," Jose said with a sarcastic drawl, glancing back to see Aria scanning the battlegrounds with a slight murmur, "Only 12 are still alive if we don't count the ones that will succumb to their injuries."

"That will be enough," Jose said with an uncaring tone as he dispersed his shade and floated towards the guild hall, with Aria right on his heels, "I'll send for the Rune Knights later; I'm sure they'll be able to squeeze something useful out of them."

Jose heard Aria hum in response, a second or two passing before Jose heard Aria ask the question of genuine curiosity, "Was that level of brutality necessary?"

Aria didn't mean it as an accusation; he had always made it a point not to push his suffocating view of life into others, but this felt overkill. Aria knew well that Jose only used lethal force of that caliber on guilds that he thought could become dangerous in the future or were unforgivably evil; that particular guild didn't seem to fit either circumstance.

"No, it wasn't," Jose said with a plain response, flying over the edge of Oak Town as he answered any follow-up questions Aria may have been about to voice, "Those imbeciles were waiting for me to leave for Clover in a few hours to attack Oak Town while I was away."

Jose tilted his head down at the passing houses of Oak Town, barely giving a thought to the few residents who waved and greeted him as he passed overhead, "I needed to make an example out of them in case there are others that wish to do the same."

Aria let out an 'ah' of understanding as the two landed in front of the guild hall. Jose entered with a swing of the doors that froze the noise and chatter in its place. Jose only glanced at the guild members as he floated towards the second floor and left to go to his office, "You may continue."

Jose heard the noise slowly revive as he floated down the hall, Aria close behind him. The two reached his office, where Jose entered, and Aria closed the door behind them. Jose hummed as he sat in his chair and asked with a slight wave of his hand, "So, since you're back, I can assume the mission went well."

"Yes, guild master," Aria said as he sat on the couch, his head tilted as Jose took out a pen and paper to write notes on what Aria would say. Aria took Jose's small cue as a sign to recount his past few days: "The guild called Trench's Wrath was located in Bosco near the Fiore Border. I dismantled them with zero casualties-"

"Shocker."

"Then," Aria said as he ignored the slight smirk on Jose's face and continued with his explanation, "I got the guild leader, Mariana, to tell me what guild they worked for," Aria watched as Jose's pen stalled for a second, the unsaid interest of his guild master settled as Aria spoke with a blunt report, "A dark guild called the Oracion Seis."

Aria watched Jose raise an eyebrow before writing the guild's name down and tossing his pen in the requip space. Jose put his hand on his chin as he looked at the guild name he had written on his page, "Oracion Seis, huh..."

Jose was more in tune with the workings of the underworld than most; two of his primary professions required him to be, after all. Oracion Seis was a familiar name, but it was a recent one; it would also be a quickly growing guild if he went off the rumors floating around Fiore. An impressive number of dark guilds had already fallen in line with them, and that number would only continue to grow. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but are they the guild searching for some kind of weapon?"

"Yes, that's correct, guild master," Aria said, adding on as an afterthought, "Although I have heard just as many rumors that they're using that as a cover."

"Yes, that's a possibility as well," Jose said with a murmur, tapping his desk before putting the paper in his requip space and leaning back in his chair. The second rumor was likely true, but being careful would always be good. Besides, true or not, the Oracion Seis had been growing a little too quickly for his tastes; it was better to slow them down now than wait until it was too late, "From now on, we'll make it an unwritten protocol to prioritize dark guilds under the Oracion Seis."

Jose thinned his lips, tapping his finger on the desk as he added on as an afterthought, "Do not share this with anyone but S class, as they will be the only ones this rule applies to."

"Yes, guild master," Aria said with a nod; it didn't matter much to him which dark guilds he targeted. All of them were good practices for what he needed to accomplish, "Do you wish me to inform Totamaru and Sol of this development?"

"You can do it when they get back," Jose said with a dismissive wave as he leaned back in his chair with a bored drawl, "The second they were healed, they took up another mission, spouting about redemption or something like that."

Jose thought it wasn't tactical to start picking fights right after being healed, but it was funny to watch. He would also never be discouraged by a bit of revenge from his S-class mages as it helped foster their ruthlessness; Phantom Lord could always benefit from more of that, "They should be back in a few days."

Aria only hummed in answer; his head scanned the room as a golden light escaped behind his blindfold. Aria did a full circle before glancing back to Jose with the golden light dissipating from behind his blindfold. "I don't see Vera and Siegrain."

Aria tilted his head at Jose, who only shrugged in response, "The rodent's on a couple of missions, and the runt's still with the ghosts."

Jose had gotten the letter from the chief ghost that morning asking for Siegrain to take a mission while in Cait Shelter, and Jose had sent back his approval quickly. He had already sent the rodent on a few missions; he might as well ensure the blue-haired runt kept up with his black-haired partner. "They'll probably be back in a couple of weeks."

Jose watched as Aria nodded in response, the giant furrowing his brow a second later as he asked, "They went separately?"

Aria raised an eyebrow, his disbelief wafting through the room as Jose gave a dry chuckle, "I know, I didn't believe it either," Jose leaned back in his chair, flicking dead energy between his fingers to pass the time as he commented dryly, "They got into a little spat and decided to split up for a while."

Jose shot a mini purple firework into the air while waiting for Aria's response. His eyes furrowed as a few moments of silence passed, and nothing was spoken. Jose spared a glance at Aria, who made the little paroled tricks he was practicing fade from his mind because Jose realized he'd made a mistake.

"Aria-"

"They fought..."

Jose clicked his tongue as he realized it was too late and summoned a few shades and molded them into an umbrella, his scowl prominent as he saw the tears pouring down Aria's face.

"HOW SAD!"

Jose scowled as he watched a river of tears wash away the papers on his desk and challenge the durability of his umbrella, "Aria quit-"

"ITS SO SAD!"

"Aria, I won't tolerate-"

"I'M SO SAD!"

"Last warning."

"HOW TRAGIC," Aria's cries were muffled as he felt a shaded hand gripping his mouth shut. Aria's muffled crying filled the room as Jose rubbed his temple with his finger. A newly formed shade balloon holding Aria's mouth shut as Jose glanced at all the paperwork that had drowned.

Goddamn crying...

Jose felt his eyes twitch in anger as he looked up and saw Aria continue to sob; the only difference was that the shade balloon was stopping it from being loud. Normality, sure, but today Jose wasn't in the mood to let it slide, "You know what, Aria..."

Jose watched as the venom in his words reached Aria's ears. Jose idly noted that his ace's crying died down slightly, enough to allow Jose to dissipate his umbrella, which Jose did immediately, opting to lean his elbow on his desk and his chin on his palm as he stared down his ace, "I think you need a little reminder about respect..."

Jose usually wouldn't care, especially since he was leaving for Clover in a few hours, and Aria would have to be the one to clean up the soppy mess he made, but the earlier dark guild had been so disappointing, "Since the runts are already preoccupied..."

Clover was dreadfully boring, and the guild masters meeting in less than a week was a snoozefest. Jose might as well make some fun for himself before he left, "Why don't I make good on our little deal right now." Jose smirked as his shade balloon was popped effortlessly, lazily glancing up at Aria, who stood stone-cold before his desk. There were no more tears, only a bright light that flowed from under Aria's blindfold, the air trembling in his office as if reacting to Aria's sudden shift in tone, "You can not take back your words, Guild Master."

Jose felt his grin widen as Aria leaned forward, towering over his desk with his unnatural height and speaking with a tone that held the weight of the sky behind them, "I will not allow you to."

Jose watched with a silent anticipation that was rare these days as his ace reached for his blindfold, pulling it down and showing the pink X irises hidden underneath. Their orientation twitched into place as they locked onto Jose's signature and refused to let it go, a feat Jose knew they were capable of.

"I will wait at the mountains."

Then Aria dissipated into a stream of air, flowing out of the room with a silent rush that made Jose laugh. A loud and booming laugh came from his stomach and lasted for minutes. His cackles filled the room before he quieted his laughs, stood up, and floated towards the door, "Allow me?"

Jose had trouble containing himself as his magic flooded the castle, the roar of his shades bursting from the walls and the floorboards. Their cries of agony were now replaced with cackles of ghastly eagerness that may have reflected his. The residents who looked towards the castle on the hill probably saw a sight reminiscent of a violent and hungry haunting.

"How brazen..."

Jose smirked as he let his shades run rampant for a few moments before he forced them back. His eyes were glowing purple as he floated into the guild hall, past the few guild members who hadn't passed out from his magical pressure, and outside the building. The worried and scared murmurs of the nearby citizens barely gave Jose pause as he shot up to the sky and flew towards the mountains in the distance, "He must have learned it from the rodent."

Jose chuckled slightly at the thought before he spotted his target, the giant man with a green cloak hovering in the air in front of the mountain range. Jose's sides erupted with shades, and his hands flooded with dead energy as he flew like a bullet toward his target with a gleeful cackle echoed by his shades.

"Try not to fall to earth too quickly this time, Aria!"

Jose viciously grinned as he sent his shades like a raging swarm of locusts, officially starting their 'spar' as Phantom Lord's ace released a roar of wind. Aria's eyes were brimming with stars as he condensed the air before him and blew a hole into the horde of shades. Only to tilt his head as a laser of purple, ghastly energy cut past his cheek and carved a hole into the mountain behind him. Aria narrowed his pink irises on Jose, who stood behind his army of shades with glowing violet eyes, a maniacal smile, and a sadistic laugh.

"I'll kill you if you disappoint me!"

Aria would be in for a long day, it seemed.

July 12th, x778

The town of Ashanti was silent at dawn; most were asleep, and the few that weren't were busy. That's why most didn't notice the bloodied and bruised man who hobbled in from the surrounding forests. His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep, and one of his arms was broken; every limp he took courtesy of his sprained ankle that was screaming for mercy.

There it is...

Shin limped into the Viola, a small and shabby bar on the edge of town. It looked empty, but Shin decided to take his chances as he pushed the door open, the small bell above the door announcing his arrival as he lumbered inside.

A glance showed Shin was the only one in the establishment, barring the bored-looking bartender in a clean suit. He was a middle-aged man with caramel skin, a bodyguard build, and a shaved head leaning against the countertop with a rag and a shot glass in hand. The man did not even look up, "Welcome to Viola."

Shin narrowed his eyes on the bartender, hobbling over to the counter before he pulled out a black envelope with an inky blood-red E on its surface. Shin watched as the man glanced at the letter with a slight smirk before speaking more attentively, "Well, I apologize; I should have been more considerate with my introduction."

Shin watched with narrowed eyes as the man plucked the letter from his tired grip before opening it and taking out the ruby-encrusted necklace. The man weighed it before nodding, "My name's Treble. Who do you want dead?"

Treble glanced at Shin, who gnashed his teeth. Shin's bloodshot eyes bulged as he spoke with a thinly veiled rage, "Demons..."

Shin's bones ached at the thought of them; he needed them dead, "4 of them."

"That sounds like a higher-paying task than what you've given me," Treble said with narrowed eyes, watching the man shake his head. Stifling the previously pungent rage with a sharp glance before speaking seamlessly, "Only two have any powers, the one with a demonic arm and the one with black hair."

Shin watched with a firm gaze as Treble considered his words, sighing before he nodded begrudgingly, "Usually, I'd charge you extra, but this time, I'll let it slide."

Treble opened a cabinet under the counter, tossing the letter and ruby necklace before shutting it. Treble turned back to the man, who looked like absolute shit, before deciding to be a little charitable and placing a shot glass in front of the man, "I'll get your request down the pipeline in a minute, but first, let's get you a drink; on the house."

Treble turned back to his alcohol racks and pulled out some liquor, turning to Shin, who was watching his every movement with the utmost suspicion. Treble laughed as he poured the drink and held a hand up as a sign of good faith, saying, "Relax, man! You've helped out a client of mine a lot with this."

It had been months since the magic council banned light guilds from accepting assassination requests.

"Good jobs have been hard to find as of late."

How lucky for business that dark guilds had no such restraints.

July 13th, x778

Jobs were getting harder to find recently.

"Who keeps taking them?"

For the life of him, Siegrain couldn't figure out why.

"Cait Shelter's the only other guild near here," Siegrain muttered as he looked at the local request board of Deer Run, the only guild in Devi, and a minor one at that. Deer Run was more of a local task kind of guild; the few capable people in Devi could help out when needed and get paid for it in an orderly manner.

"Is it a freelancer..."

Most of the smaller towns in Fiore had something similar, so he went here to pick up a job request. Since the city and, by extension, the guild was small, they only cared about nonmembers taking some of their job requests; as long as the jobs got done, Devi would benefit. The fewer jobs that Deer Run had on their board, the better.

"This is bad..."

Siegrain, on the other hand, wanted the board to remain at least a little full. He still needed to pick a request for him and Wendy, but as his eyes furrowed and he looked at the row of C through A rank missions taken from the board, he accepted that all that was left were D ranks.

I need a mission soon.

Siegrain had already promised to take Wendy on a mission; by his standards, at least, the deadline was coming up. He needed to find a new mission with at least a C rank and one fast; the problem was someone had already taken all of them and left him with scraps.

Should I go to another town and-

"You're still looking, kid?"

The voice of the woman who ran the guild, Bertha, called out to him from behind the small counter. Siegrain looked away from the board and towards the big lady with orange hair and a cigarette in her mouth, "You've been staring there for half an hour, kid; the board ain't gonna change."

"I know that," Siegrain mumbled with a small sigh, glancing at the woman before he asked with a thinly veiled interest, "I'm just curious as to who could have taken all of them."

"No idea, kid; I was asleep when they collected them." The woman said with a shrug as the boy just glanced at her in disappointment before turning to leave; he still had to get back to Cait Shelter and find another mission he could take Wendy on-

"Oh, relax, kid. I'm messing with you," The woman said, stalling Siegrain in his escape as he turned and saw Bertha chuckling. She puffed her cigarette before pulling a flier from under the counter and holding it out for him, "Here, C rank mission. Just came in this morning, so Mr. Privacy hasn't had a chance to steal it yet."

Bertha watched with a smirk as the boy glanced at the flier suspiciously before he reached out and graciously took the flier regardless. Siegrain took a few moments to scan the flier with an analytical eye. It was a high-level C-rank monster extermination request in the forests surrounding Cait Shelter, it would be a perfect first mission for Wendy.

C-Rank Elachy Extermination Request

Elachies were snake-like monsters with slightly acidic scales about the size of a horse and were usually considered high C-Rank monsters. They could eat meat, but they almost exclusively targeted eggs; the main reason to have them exterminated was because they shed a lot, and their scales were dangerous if left alone in the wilderness.

This says the hunters of Devi want their hunting grounds back... yeah that makes sense.

Siegrain wouldn't want to deal with the chance of stepping on acidic scales either; the request was logical and not egregiously tricky. The only problem Siegrain could see them running into was that the Elachies only came out at night, but that wasn't a horrible thing for Wendy to experience. Not all missions were promised to happen in the daytime; he could teach Wendy that before she learned the hard way.

I'll be careful to keep her close by, but worse comes to worse; I can handle these monsters myself.

Siegrain was well within the range of handling high-level C rank requests independently, even without his usual partner. If it became too much for Wendy, he would exterminate the monsters and take Wendy back to Cait Shelter.

"Thank you."

It was the perfect mission.

"No problem, kid."

Bertha snickered as she watched the blue-haired kid bluntly nod before leaving Deer Run and heading who knows where. Bertha only sighed as she saw him leave with the last available job request in Deer Run; barring the D-Rank ones that could be done at any time, "He seems like a decent kid."

Fucking weird tattoo, though.

Bertha hummed at the thought as she moved to close shop, idly mumbling along as she got ready to go home and go the fuck to sleep.

"Damn sleeping spells..."

Ever since that hooded guy cast a spell on the guild, her sleep schedule had been fucked up.

A/N: Sorry bout this but Midterms & Internships coming up. See ya in Feb/March :)

Lol nevermind...