Stress ate at me as I worked my way through Blue Crusade’s headquarters. Why was he calling me so urgently? I could think of dozens of reasons, and none of them were good. Has someone figured me out? Was my cover blown? Should I flee the city? Try to get away from the Blue Crusade? I could go to a city aligned with the Golden Spine Consortium.
Or was it something else? Had the Neo-Jokers found out it was me and turned me in? It would be just my luck to be arrested because a gang turned me in. Or was it some other kind of bullshit? Maybe even the Jade Fangs? They’d been quite recently- er, at least quieter than usual. I hadn’t heard from Ishimaru in a while.
My hands were shaky as I trekked through the hallways to the Inquisitor’s office. My every step, I had to remind myself to calm down and I was just under the effects of the various Crusader’s masks. The crushing paranoia wasn’t even my own to begin with.
I stopped at the doorway. This was the last chance to flee. Nah, c’mon Shiro. Don’t wimp out. It's probably nothing. Hell, it might even be something in your favor for once. Maybe you won’t get shot in the foot just by interacting with the Inquisitor for once. I lightly wrapped on the door.
The Inquisitor’s icey cold voice called from beyond the door. “Enter!”
I took a stabilizing breath and wrapped my hand around the cold handle of the door. It was frigid and yet felt searing at the same time as I opened the door and stepped in.
The Inquisitor sat at his desk, as per usual. Hope sat across the desk in a chair, peacefully dozing off. Or at least she was dozing off. She snapped to attention as the door’s hinges squeaked. She rapidly blinked at me, rubbing at thick bags under her eyes. “Hah…”
She actually looked in much better shape than the last couple times I’d seen her. The thick bags were slightly less thick as if she managed to get at least thirty minutes of sleep. Her arm was also free of her sling for the first time since I’d met her.
I stepped just behind the chairs in front of his desk. “Sir?”
“Good, you’re here… take a sheat.” Inquisitor Ligh nodded to the chair next to Hope.
Take a what- ah, take a seat. Right, that’s what he meant. I slid in across from him, taking the opportunity to glance at what he was working on. It looked like ledgers of some kind. His hands blocked the majority of the page, so I couldn’t tell what exactly they were for.
The Inquisitor shifted his head between the two of us, pausing longer on my face than on Hope’s. Then he pulled out a device from below his desk and activated it. It looked like a hockey puck, though with plenty of wires and thorn-like protrusions sticking out of it. Maybe a Scrambler? It looked like Shinobu’s from oh so long ago, though this one seemed far more high-tech. The shield and wreath symbol of the Blue Crusade sat on top of it.
The guy’s next words immediately set me on edge. “What I’m about to shay doesn’t leave thish room, clear?”
“Sir.” I nodded, feeling my muscles tense up. I had a bad feeling I was about to hate what he had to say.
“Sure, whatever.” Hope leaned down onto her palms, resting her head gently.
“Good.” The Inquisitor leaned back in his chair. “Vio was found flatlined in his cell this morning, hanging from the rafters. The coroner’s first guess was suicide.”
Suicide, eh? Didn’t think the guy had it in him. Guess facing prison would be too much for the maniac who ruined so many lives at SPS. Though, the timing was a bit-
“It’s suspicious, Inquisitor. He was like a rat when we took him in, even taking his own subordinate hostage.” Hope slung her shoulders into a half-hearted shrug. “No way he’d ice himself.”
The guy hummed. “My thoughtsh exactly. High chancesh we have a parasite amongsht us. The cameras just happened to short out during Vio’s ‘suicide’.”
“Do you want us to root them out?” I asked, feeling a sense of trepidation. It would be difficult to root out one amongst the hundreds of people who could’ve had access to Vio. Not impossible, but definitely time-consuming. Hell, it could’ve even been El Soga. I doubt it, but it did match his MO mostly. He liked to do things far more publicly though.
“No. I have a different mission in mind.” The man reached into his trench coat and pulled out a piece of paper. “I managed to extract some info from Vio before his untimely demishe. I’ve got the location of a safehoushe. You two will raid it without me, hopefully throwing our little worm off as I run dishtraction.”
The thought of raiding a base of our mystery group sounded just delightful. Hope sat up straighter as I felt my soul leak out of my body. “What are we expecting?”
“Heavy defenshes, but should be moshtly abandoned. From what I could tell, it’s a central gathering point left largely alone outshide of a defender or two.” Inquisitor Ligh’s voice seemed to drop several degrees. “Lethal force ish authorized.”
Hope’s face drooped slightly. I couldn’t quite tell if it was just sleepiness or something else. “Backup? The other squires could help us out.”
The Inquisitor’s shiny silver mask flashed in the light as he shook his head. “They’re both running important jobs for me… Zuku should be all the help you need.”
I’m sure my expression turned sour as I heard the guy. But what was I going to say? That I sucked at combat? I was supposed to be an actual squire who received training and everything as an aspirant before I was promoted. Sure, my records showed I was only trained briefly, but still.
I shifted focus. “Where’s it even at?”
“Underground, underneath Oldtown.” The Inquisitor passed me a map. “Roughly in between the FSA bashe and the Corporate Quarter.”
I looked at the paper, mentally marking down the exact address. I pulled out my phone, quickly pulling the area up in the city archives. Unfortunately, the archives were typically barren of anything related to the Underground, and that little fact proved to be true this time as well. It would be quite a bit of guesswork to find the place.
Hope looked over my shoulder at the piece of paper. “We’re going to need supplies. Masks, at least.”
”Got it covered.” The Inquisitor pulled two masks from below his desk. They looked like typical gas masks, though less bulky. “Don’t head to the armory and requesht anything for thish. We want as little trail as posshible. Ask me directly if you need something.”
That sucked. Hmm… maybe I could get equipment out of this still? “I’m low on equipment though. I never got fully kitted thanks to supply shortages back when I was promoted.”
Hope frowned. “I could’ve sworn you had a vest though.”
”Had. It’s got holes in it. I could probably wear it and be fine, but…”
Inquisitor Ligh rifled through his desk, pulling out a mostly blank piece of paper. ”That’sh fine. I’ll write up a requesht. Just getting the base equipment we give to shquires shouldn’t be problematic.”
“Won’t that take a while though?” Hope shifted in her seat, her eyebrows pulled tightly in concentration. Probably trying to piece together a time frame, if I had to guess.
The Inquisitor remained silent for a few seconds as he started writing on the paper. “Go in three daysh. They may have bumped up the security since Vio was caught, but if we don’t make a move immediately, they might calm down. The Crusade isn’t known for taking things shlow.”
We discussed the particulars of the raid over the next hour, though my mind was only half present. Hope already had a plan to get down there, which was nice. Plans of my own were starting to form in the back of my mind over how I wanted to approach this. I had three days to prepare.
As soon as we were done speaking, I headed home. There were three things I wanted to do at least. Read the Mystical Agriculture book, make Molotovs if possible, and cash in the final Perk Point for Firearms. Not in that order.
I tossed my stuff off to the side, locked up my apartment, and headed for bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was transferred to the pavilion. I wasted no time heading for the Firearms shelf.
Just like First Aid, this was the first time this particular shelf was present here, so I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what to expect.
「Marksman’s Endurance」
There were a lot of interesting Perks for Firearms. For instance, Killer would grant twenty times experience gain for all Skills, but I could only gain experience through killing. An incredibly powerful Perk, but the drawback was too much for me. That, and it would lock me into a path I didn't really want to follow.
Quiet Killer was the same thing as Silence for First-Aid, which was interesting. Basically, if I hurt someone with the intent to kill them, all of their actions would turn dead silent. I wasn't sure what all it entailed though. Like, what if they knocked something over? Would that make noise? Or if they shot a gun, would the gunfire make a noise?
Or even Ancient Firearms was super interesting. It was solely dedicated to muskets and the like from way back when. It was focused on boosting their effectiveness to compete with modern weapons through magical means as well as granting me intimate knowledge of them. Extremely tempting, but I doubt I’d be able to buy a musket or flintlock anywhere. I’d have to make my own, and at that point why not make something better?
I looked through the list, but nothing spoke to me. I sat there for who knows how long just reading each of them over and over. Eventually, I decided to go back through the rest of the scrolls just in case I missed something I would like. Eventually, I found one.
「Dexterity - Increases weapon handling and movement speed while wielding a firearm.」
It seemed a bit out of place at first glance. It was one of those Perks, like Death Stalker or Ancient Firearms that had dual requirements. In this case, it was Sleight of Hand and Firearms to level four.
I immediately grabbed it and moved to the easel. I wanted it purely for the amp to move speed. If there was one thing I noticed during my rare fights since I got the interface, it's that I was far too slow. Insight gave me warnings every time I was about to get shot, but I was just too slow to dodge them. Hopefully, this one would help.
I tossed the scroll onto the easel, revealing a beautiful painting of someone in the midst of reloading. They were on a massive battlefield somewhere, and there were dead soldiers all around. It was so realistic, I could even make out sweat peeking out of the person's skin.
I braced myself, expecting to be thrown out onto the battlefield at any moment. Dexterity seemed like one of those that needed to be trained after all.
Instead, I was tossed out of the interface and back onto my bed. I only had a few seconds of stunned confusion before I first felt it. Fire seeped into my skin, scorching my insides. A reactionary scream ripped from my throat.
I felt my nerves ignite, but that wasn’t even the worst of it. My brain seemed to be the central point of the Perk as my blood felt like magma pumping through me. I desperately tried to resist the agony. It was the worst kind of pain, one that ate at my very being. I curled into a ball, trying to get away even as the burning torture worked its way deeper into every part of me.
I tried to distract myself by looking out the window. It didn’t work. My senses pulsed, causing bile to creep up my throat as I stared at the falling rain. In one moment, the rain fell at a normal rate. Then it slowed to a crawl, gravity seeming to stop as the fire scorching me turned even hotter. Then it sped up well past its normal pace as I skipped in and out of awareness. Eventually, the pain grew too much as I passed out.