Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 394: Arc 6, - 10: New Plan of Action
"Is aunty fighting with Aunty Spauky-Eyes?" Kineko tugged on Hotaru’s dress to ask.
The redhead had the morning paper out and a cup of tea at the dining table. She raised a brow to the girl and leaned down a little, "No? Why would you think that?"
Kineko muttered a sound and stood on the tips of her toes to glance at Jotou at the end of the table—her eyes dark and scowl present as she forked and sliced the omelette on her plate. "No weason..."
Hotaru’s ears folded down. "Why don’t you go play with the radio channels for a bit," she forced a smile.
Kineko nodded, "I think I have homewourk." She then proceeded to dart off to the living room.
"Sure, lie to the kid, that’ll end up well," Fumeko, who sat beside, whispered.
The wolf-girl’s ears bristled, "Shut up," she gave a leer in response before she flapped the newspaper and closed it. "So, is anyone gonna tell me what you all discovered last night without me?" the paper displayed the wreckage in question on the front page. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚
Asobi, sitting across from her, held her wand in both hands, "What’s wrong? Are you okay...?"
An annoyed inhale came from the redhead, before a sigh of fake relief, "No Sobi, I’m not okay. But nothing can be done about it, so let’s just move on."
"Okay... Well, the police palace was pretty much destroyed and it sorta looked like what happened at the courthouse. We went in invisibly and looked around, but I don’t think we found anything special?" her jade-green eyes darted between the blonde and Hotaru constantly.
"Is that true Ms detective?" Hotaru tried to avoid looking in Jotou’s direction.
Fumeko poured more coffee for herself, "Not much at the scene of the crime other than blood, rubble and police tape. It’s easy to figure out what happened considering the shapeshifter.
There’s not much the police could’ve done if a fly on the wall turns into a dragon the size of ten walls. Though the method of exit would suggest that the shapeshifter started from underground—the affinity cells.
They got the Poison Feather, alongside I don’t know how many other affinity users. But there were also a bunch of those criminals who’re dead, if the broken bits of affinity-locks in the rubble are anything to go by."
"It’s hard to believe they’d leave any evidence," Hotaru replied and arranged her used utensils on a plate.
"If there is, I’m sure my dad will find something. Hence why he left as early as he did."
"If that many magical criminals escaped, the cult’s only become even more dangerous," Asobi remarked.
"Assuming any of them cooperate," the redhead tilted her head. "I’m sure an affinity-lock off their necks would go a long way, but even so."
Fumeko held a hand to her chin, "Whatever enchantment on the glass in those cells must’ve been wrecked by the walls coming down. The brute force of a dragon, possibly a new god, would’ve been too much for it to handle.
Another question though, what do you know about affinity-locks?" she turned to Hotaru.
"Me? Not much at all. It’s affixed to your neck and stops an affinity from functioning, that’s about it."
"An affinity-lock’s connected to your brainstem via the neck and continues down the spine, presumably till the tailbone. There’s two injection points that stab into the nape of the neck and stay injected while worn, making it the main uncomfortable part.
It runs on mana dust, which like any magi-technology, needs only a command to activate after the initial spell’s casted on it. The mana dust in an affinity-lock’s enchanted to stop mana output and mana regeneration.
Depending on the length, an affinity-lock can stay functioning for up to a decade without maintenance and can be refuelled by a latch at the back of the neck.
Refuelling’s done with purified mana dust making contact with pre-existing spelled mana dust. Whatever spell’s on the mana dust will transfer over, copying it, making it a convenient automatic way to keep an affinity-lock running for a long time," Jotou answered.
The blonde’s gaze was fixated on her food as she spouted and the other three turned to her. Hotaru side-eyed her, "How do you know all that?"
Jotou’s eyes sparked a little and she side-eyed the redhead as well, "I thought to look into them back in Tamara Palace, with Niah. Plus, the countess was wearing one for the majority of our time there."
The wolf-woman rolled her eyes.
Jotou glared as the yellow sparks grew more intense.
"Easy," Fumeko warned to the two.
’So much for remain stable.’
"So why d’you ask?" Asobi shifted her head to the brunette.
"I was just wondering about how an affinity-lock can be used on a new god. If it worked on one; it’ll work on anyone it seems. The problem is the time needed to actually put the thing on."
"I do know that getting one’s not so easy. It’s regulated by the Ordinate or in Burnetrout’s case, the government. I doubt they’ll give us one," Hotaru replied.
"It’s just a thought," Fumeko looked up to face all of them, "Besides, we need a plan of action. We can’t be sitting on our asses while we wait for another museum or city hall or something gets wrecked."
"My sentiments exactly," the redhead agreed. "But it’s not like we can find them and confront them."
"Then what?" Asobi tilted her head.
"We need to work with what we do know and leads that we do have," Fumeko pondered.
"Yeah we don’t have anything Meko, that’s kinda the problem we keep running into a wall with," the elf admitted.
The brunette raised a brow, "Or do we?"
"Do we?"
"I meant we do."
"Do what?"
"For the love of-" Hotaru looked at the blonde, "Can you talk, please?"
"I assume you’re talking about Ambrose," Jotou’s gaze shot past to the other end of the table, to the brunette. "That’s a lead we sorta have."
Fumeko glanced at her, "He must hold some significance as a new god; one of them disguised as him, being at court, there has to be a reason we keep seeing him even though we know nothing about him. He could even be the current head of the cult."
"The best way is to start the trail from where it began," Jotou set her empty plate aside. "South End. Namely, the case involving him there that got solved by the Molten Inferno or whatever."
"The Scorching Inferno," Fumeko corrected. "You have a point there."
"We’re going all the way there? What if, well," Asobi leaned in close and hushed, looking back to make sure Kineko was away from earshot, "If the cult comes to attack your house and steal your dad?"
"You’re saying that as if they can’t do that already," Fumeko scoffed and turned her eyes away, trying to ignore that possibility.
"We’re at the mercy and whims of the cult. In other words, we’re not safe anywhere unless we’re outside of Burnetrout," the blonde watched as Kineko began doodling in the living room.
"Also," Hotaru’s tail began to pick up and move a little, "There’s the Burntish Adventurers Guild we can check into. They might also have further information."
Fumeko finished her coffee, "If we go to South End directly and deal with the guild, we might be able to glean more or maybe there’s something others easily missed about that case we can find.
Otherwise, the only other option is to sit and wait here for when the cult springs their plan back into action, which we don’t know when will happen, or how or what; there’s too many variables we can’t get a lead on and we’d be open to surprise."
"I’m always up for a trip! But it does mean no school anymore," Asobi stated. "I’m somehow happy and disappointed. Oh well! Schools give breaks don’t they?" she cheerily put.
Hotaru let a small chuckle break, "You can continue once we get back."
"It’s an adventure!" sparkles burst out of her wand.
"To South End then," Fumeko puffed out a breath.
The wolf-girl turned, "I guess since this is more so your endeavour; I should ask, are you okay with this? Leaving home, your dad, your sister."
"Home. Hm." Fumeko murmured. "Like I said, we’re better suited for an adventurer than whatever we can do here. Here is just covered up leads, paper trails and other investigations.
There’s my dad, Mrs Aetherton, Alicia—there’s more than enough competent people here who are a lot more equipped for that type of work than the four of us," she confessed with a squint. "So, let’s go stick our noses elsewhere."
"Great, to Tourenshire, South End it is. I think some exploration will do all of us some good," Hotaru hummed as she got up from her seat. "I’ll start making plans."
"There’s people we’ve got to tell first. Let’s say our goodbyes then and hope hell doesn’t break loose in Dolpool," Fumeko glanced at her sister in the living room, who was clearly eavesdropping and stealing glances when she could...
