“So, what happens now?” Smith asked, a lot more subdued than before.
“Now,” Hinode said, “we attempt to figure out who deleted Lord M.”
“What about the dead man… NPC, in the bathroom?”
Hinode shrugged. “That’s none of our business. It’s a diversion of sorts, made by the Case, to unsettle us or lead us onto another path. Our mission is to find the killer of Lord M, not consort with NPCs in an attempt to find the killer of another murder.”
“The two definitely aren’t related by anything?”
“Yes.”
“How can you tell?”
“Experience.”
Smith obviously wanted to say something, but quickly bit her tongue. Good. He didn’t need her blabbering. Not now. He sighed, rubbing at his face. “I’m going to put the barrier down now. If you find something… don’t act by yourself. That’s how you get killed on Cases like this.”
***
The Case seemed impossible. That was what Unsolved Cases—which this one would be if they didn’t hurry the fuck up—specialized in. To make things even more complicated, they’d even sprinkle in elements of supernatural sometimes.
“This is impossible. Can’t we just… give up? Call it quits? They’d understand, right?” Smith asked. “You said it yourself, this Case is evolving into an ‘Unsolved’ Case.”
“You can go if you want. I’m staying.” Hinode stared blankly at the altar. A slow, hysterical kind of grin climbed over his face. “This is the most fun I’ve had in years.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Sweetie, I’ve been crazy ever since my sister stabbed me in the back like the fucking coward she is.”
Smith paused because, that. That was a lot to unpack. “Sister?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Lw? Yt, sfjt. Vlrafg. P xliifv tfg. Jbwf bc cbk, kf’nf uba atlcur ab vb. Jtbq-mtbq! Qtja vb sbe cbalmf?”
“Ktfgf’r jc jiajg,” Vwlat rjlv oijais, vfolclafis eclwqgfrrfv. “Vb flatfg Obgv Z kjr gfilulber, bg tf yfibcur lc j meia. Yg tf’r lcrjcf. Tbe’v yf regqglrfv ab gfjilhf pera tbk wjcs meiar atf F.M.J tjnf mbwf jmgbrr yfobgf.”
“Hm.”
Hinode peered around Lord M’s room. In reality, it was supposed to be off-limits, but what were rules if not made to be broken?
Lord M had been deleted brutally, even by Case standards. Its guts had littered the floors, blood painted the walls and brain matter was on the ceiling. Even now, after the cleanup crew had scrubbed the walls and stripped the carpets, one could see the faint stains and patches of other things that came from bodies.
Lord M had, quite literally judging from the photographs, exploded in its room. Blood and guts everywhere.
“The killer is amongst the detectives,” Hinode said aloud. “And yet this kind of thing could not be done by a human NPC. A possession?”
“Is this seriously happening?” Smith sounded dead inside. “Why is this turning into a goddamn supernatural detective story?”
Hinode rolled his eyes at her and continued examining the room, tilting books back and forth and even taking the giant portrait hanging above the bed off of its wall. Finally, Smith seemed as if she couldn’t take his wandering anymore and asked, “What are you doing?”
“Searching for a hidden room.”
“Would there really be a hidden room? Not everything is like in the movies, you know.”
Hinode scoffed. “You forget that I’m an Investigator—of course I know that. No, it’s because the flooring plan doesn’t match up. There’s a hidden room here somewhere.”
“What if it’s a red herring?”
“It’s not. Now help me look.”
Smith was obviously discontent, but she sighed and ended up searching alongside Hinode. Call it luck, irony, or sheer hilarity, it was Smith who found the switch to the hidden room, much to Hinode’s chagrin. They’d torn through the entire room, and she’d been leaning against the wall, ready to give up, when she’d slipped on a piece of paper one of them had thrown off the table and hit the light switch. The switch had come off the wall with a click and the area beneath the desk had split apart with a rumble.
Hinode stared blankly at the open door, and then looked to an awe-struck Smith, and then at the switch hanging on a cord. He sighed.
“Let’s go.”
***
The stairs heading down were long and steep and old. Hinode was half-afraid one wrong step would make the steps crumble and give way beneath him; that’s how old they looked. Adding to the pressure, Smith was almost right behind which Hinode really didn’t need. If she slipped and fell on the grimy, stained stairs, it would mean Hinode would fall too, and he really didn’t need that either.
The stairs went on for a long, long time until they were left unsure of how much time had passed.
At the bottom of the staircase lay two grand doors. Smith looked at Hinode uncertainly. He ignored her and pushed forward after a brief glance over the doors. He shoved them open and came to a stop.
The room beyond the doors was large and circular. Their footsteps echoed with every step they took. At the center of the room, a complex circle drawn in red chalk decorated the floor. At each point of North, South, East, and West, stood a half-melted white candle. The walls dripped with still-wet blood and the humid air of the room was at odds with the chilly atmosphere.
“…a cult?” Smith asked, suppressing a flinch when her voice echoed loudly in the chamber.
“A ritual,” Hinode corrected. “And an unsuccessful one, if we go by what happened to Lord M upstairs.”
“What was he… it trying to even do?”
Hinode pointed at the large eye in the center of the chalk circle. “That, in Cases, stands for ‘all-seeing.’ The hands cupped around it is ‘all-powerful.’ Further adding the other symbols and patterns, the circle is a commonly used device in Cases. It was trying to summon a demon.”
“…so we’re veering into supernatural territory, now?” Smith sounded extremely dubious.
Hinode shrugged. “Seems like it. Let’s split up. Touch nothing in here without my approval. Keep your distance from the circle. If you hear someone coming down, alert me or hide.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere. Behind one of the pillars, inside that chest—though it probably isn’t the wisest option, or against the walls while staying absolutely still. You’d be surprised at what the NPCs are willing to ignore.”
“Why?”
“Why what?” Hinode asked a little absently, ignoring how Smith wasn’t doing anything to help him study the intricate carvings on the walls.
“Why do they ignore it?”
Hinode paused at the question, almost ready to snap at her for mentioning one of the most taboo topics in the Investigator’s environment. He had to remind himself that Smith wasn’t asking for the sake of seeing him squirm and that she actually didn’t know anything about Cases apart from what the Arcane community had been willing to indulge.
He said slowly, “When an Investigator dies in a Case… their… souls, as you would call it, linger. It can’t pass. Slowly, the Energy Condensation—as we call it—is absorbed into the Case… and the Energy become… a NPCs or monsters. Something inside them still remembers… still wants the Arcane to win.
“The reason we call them ‘it’ is because we can’t afford to remember they were one of us. Many good Arcane have succumbed to madness because they lingered too long on it.”
Hinode didn’t have to turn to know that Smith was horrified. Humans were so horribly sentimental at time, with a too-strong moral compass and strange views on life, death, the soul, and what came after.
He took no heed of her silence and instead wiped away a bit of the blood covering a picture on the wall with a thumb after making sure it wouldn’t kill him. It was… strangely familiar.
He stopped cold. A chill sped down his spine and suddenly, Hinode was too aware of everything. Smith was talking; he couldn’t make out her words.
“We need to leave,” he said hoarsely. Then louder, “We need to leave!”
“Why? I thought this was all ‘fun’ for you?” Smith’s tone was scathing but Hinode ignored it because he didn’t have time for this.
“It was,” he hissed, pulling out the emergency exit button he’d never once had to use in his entire career, “until my sister got involved.”
A/N:
Hey, so. I’ll keep this short: my family is going through a bit of a rough patch so updates will be messy at best and non-existent at worst. Sorry. Thank you for the understanding!
Things are getting interesting…
Good luck, welcome back and thank you for the chapter!! ❤️❤️
Thank you for the update despite your situation. Hope everything goes well for you and you family.
His evil sister is showing up! If her soul is in the case it might end up being a total mess. Good instinct to just run away.
👍
Take care and thanks for the update ❤
Hope everything works out with family. Take care.
Thank you for making time for this chapter
thanks for the chapter! I hope things get better for you soon <3