17 The Uninvited

The Deepcut, Yomi — 01:43 AM. Mura walked through the winding lower chambers of the guild headquarters accompanied by his Thrall. They approached the room where all deceased bounties were held under lock and key until disposal.

"Are we even allowed to be here," Lilith murmured, not taking her eyes off the door.

There was security throughout the building, but mostly posted at places of interest. Any would-be thieves certainly wouldn't break into the most prestigious guildhall in Yomi only to loot a morgue.

"Technically no. Still, I have a hunch regarding something I saw earlier today at the outpost, I just didn't know it until Naraka sparked my memory," Mura said, making the first bold step to inspect the door.

—Great, sealed. A busted lock is going to look pretty suspicious.

To his surprise, Lilith pushed him aside and procured a set of small tools from her boot. Inserting a lock pick into the keyhole, she fumbled with the tumblers inside.

"You stick to the fighting, big guy. I know my way around a few locks."

"Good thing I have you then, burglary was never in my repertoire," he said back with a smile.

With a barely audible click, the door was unlocked and Lilith proceeded to open it without delay.

"Open Sesame," she chimed.

Mura and Lilith walked into the sterile room, immediately feeling a chill in the air as the scent of disinfectant hit their nostrils. Most of the subjects had been documented and were going to be disposed of come morning; incinerated into ash.

—Where are you hiding?

"Hey! I found our luskrats! They smell slightly better somehow… But that's still not saying much," Lilith said while pinching her nose.

"We aren't looking for those. We're after those mangled bodies smashed into a pulp. That could only have been the handy work of our favorite lumbering idiot."

In the far corner of the long rectangular room, laid out perfectly on metal slabs were the obliterated cadavers Mura had been after. He rushed over, excited to see they were still there.

"I knew it," Mura said, nodding his head.

"You mind cluing me in, Sherlock?"

"Look at these corpses. Every single one has its head smashed beyond recognition. Conveniently, that helps hide the identity of these victims."

"Okay, so Behemoth likes his victims to remain anonymous. You really made me climb all those stupid stairs up to the Deepcut for this?"

Mura grabbed hold of the cadaver's arm, turning it over to inspect the underside. As he did, his blood ran cold as hairs pricked up on the back of his neck.

"The black branches I saw in my vision… they were veins. Blackened veins," Mura thought aloud.

"They also smell really bad. Like the ocean or something," she added.

Mura nodded, manually inspecting each one himself.

"Blackened veins, they're a common symptom only seen in soul addicts. We saw plenty of them in the slums growing up. But this, this is really bad," Mura said.

"Soul addicts… Like that Shitidama we fought in the tournament," Lilith uttered surreally.

"Yeah… That's what it points to. The blotches on the skin too, jaundice tone. Everything concludes with these folks being Shitidama."

The pieces of the puzzle were beginning to take shape in Mura's mind as he closed his eyes and concentrated like Naraka had taught him. All of Behemoth's targets were soul addicts, Shitidama and mutilated to hide their appearances. Something was missing however.

—Could it just be coincidence? Maybe he got all these people in a den of some sort?

"Lilith, could you fetch me the coroner's report?"

"Uh… sure!" She said, searching for a few moments before locating it.

Mura thanked her and looked it over. All the reports had unknown identities and the same causes of death. But one thing was odd, a consistency with every account. One small but vital scrap of forensic evidence that had been ignored entirely until now.

"Lilith… Nearly every report has bruising marks around the wrists and ankles."

—Luckily Behemoth is more brawn than brain. He left behind a treasure trove of evidence.

"These people weren't just ordinary addicts. They were being held captive, might have even been victims of demon trafficking for all we know."

"Oh my god…" Lilith exclaimed, holding her hands to her mouth in shock.

"Didn't you all say they smelt like the ocean?" Mura said, inhaling the scent from the decaying skin.

"There's a strong trace of brine on their bodies. Might have been transported via ship," he continued.

"Does that mean they'd be at the harbor?" Lilith added with enthusiasm.

"Possibly. We should check the docks in Gakidō; there's little in terms of security so it's a good place for smuggling.

—Thanks Belial. At least your criminal know-how amounted to something in the end.

Mura and Lilith returned everything to its proper place before leaving the morgue and locking the door behind them. If they wanted to catch these people, they needed to act quickly.

❇ ❇ ❇

Stygian Harbor, Gakidō — 03:26 AM. In this lapse of time, Mura and Lilith had taken a taxi to the harbor and procured information with the assistance of a well-placed bribe regarding frequented smuggler stops in the boatyard. Their investigation led them to a large rundown boathouse, seemingly abandoned after the structure became unfit for use.

The wood had rotted from centuries of squalls and seawater, neglected in favor of better shipyards in the bigger cities. The duo walked along the wooden docks as the damp planks creaked slightly with each step. Mura and Lilith hid behind a barrel and a few piles of well-placed rope, set with the suspicious boathouse in sight.

Outside the structure were two large, muscular men. In their hands were black rifles, loaded and ready to be used against any prying trespassers.

"Now, what do they have in there that they need armed guards for?" Lilith whispered to her comrade.

"Hopefully the answers we're looking for," he replied back.

It just crossed his mind as he was formulating a plan that they were both currently unarmed. Luckily after the many grueling hours of unarmed combat practice given to them by Naraka, he had nothing to fear. These men wouldn't get the best of him like Grimm had. He certainly wouldn't allow Behemoth to ever get the drop on him again either.

"We need to be stealthy. There's no telling who's in there right now or what they have cooking inside. But if there's captives we need to save them," Mura instructed.

Lilith nodded, procuring a cellphone she had purchased earlier that day using their newfound and newly spent reward money.

"If anything happens, we'll phone the police and get back-up here," she said confidently.

They both shook hands in agreement, fusing together at the same time in a small flash of light.

Across the docks, one of the two armed men spotted the flash.

"Hey Bud, go check that out." one of the men said.

"Aww, alright. But when I get back, don't think I'm gonna stop bitching about my mother-in law."

The guard slowly walked over across the dock, pointing the gun at the barrel half-raised, his finger on the trigger. His heart was pumping and the adrenaline was flowing; he was just a hired hand, but this was pretty much the only excitement he'd had all night.

As he neared closer to the barrel, he failed to notice the darting shadow that was dashing from cover to cover behind him. By the time he peaked around the container and found nothing, the other guard was busy being choked into unconsciousness by Mura.

"Shit, guess it was just a Lumosnap. Hate those things this time of year, you know? Merv?" the guard asked, turning around.

As he looked across the docks to spot his friend, he saw a glass bottle containing a delicious pale ale hurtling at a high speed directly at him. The bottle collided with his head, shattering as he instantly blacked out and collapsed onto the wooden planks.

"Direct hit! Nice aim!" Lilith spoke within Mura's soul.

"Well, it was pretty much like training scenario number seven. Naraka had us run through that so many times…"

Mura climbed on top of several of the numerous crates pressed against the side of the boathouse until he could see into a small hatch located near the roof of the building.

Within the boathouse was a man in a long black buttoned-up coat. He had tanned skin with a punk taper-fade haircut on the sides. The remaining hair on top of his head were netted braids tied together at the back to form a short ponytail. Even from far away, Mura could see his diamond stud earrings and his thin, black mustache.

"This one is a real beauty, boss. You sure you wanna use her too?" the man said to someone unseen.

The man paced, eventually making it visible he was on the phone with his client. He stretched his face into a smile and exposed slightly yellowed teeth. reflected from the dim light-bulbs inside.

—What the hell is he talking about?

As if the man had read Mura's mind, he walked over to an elevated slab of metal that was restraining a half-naked woman by her hands and feet. The woman was barely recognizable as humanoid anymore. Her veins were black and her eyes a bright, glowing yellow. She lethargically squirmed against the restraints as the man approached her, caressing her cheek with a gloved hand.

"Fine, I know you don't like those Shitidama ladies but something about a feral woman just makes the blood start flowing!"

The man paused, his smile fading as the boss's voice was audible from the speaker all the way across the room.

"Yeah, gotcha. This one should fetch a good price in the end. Mhm, we'll get on it straight away. See ya."

The man hung up, slipping his phone back into his coat pocket. Mura watched horrified as the man reached into an opened crate within the boathouse and removed a polished, shining cylinder the size and shape of a thermos. He opened the cap as a pale blue light escaped briefly. Several needles sprung from the capsule as he plunged it into the writhing woman's chest.

She gasped in pain, then moaned from the rush as the blue light faded from the capsule and into her body; causing her veins to shine a bright neon blue. She babbled unintelligibly, unaware of everything besides another rush.

"It's so despicable. Luckily, she doesn't look fully feral yet so reversal therapy should be possible."

"I hope so! Let's take this bastard down, Mura!"

Mura had enough waiting around, this was all the proof he needed. He snuck down the crates and around to the entrance of the boathouse. Knocking innocently on the moldy wooden door, the man spoke from behind.

"What's the matter, Bud? Need something—"

The man didn't get a chance to finish. As soon as he unlocked the bolt fastening the door shut, Mura kicked it in. The result of this caused the door to fly off its hinges and soar like a projectile into the man's body, knocking him onto the floor.

"Who the hell are you?!" he yelled at the headband-wearing intruder, reaching for a pistol hidden in his coat.

Mura kicked him in the face, disorienting him long enough for Mura to reach into the coat, retrieve the firearm and toss it out the doorless frame. He grabbed the bloodied man by the coat, looming over him menacingly as Mura's inverted eyes flashed.

"O-Oh shit, you a bounty hunter? Listen, the name's Ziz! We're friends now! B-But you won't get anything from me dead, okay? I got names, you want names??" he squealed weakly.

"I want your boss! Who are you working for?" Mura said menacingly, covertly activating the recorder on Lilith's phone that she left for him.

"N-No! Please, he'll murder me! You have to understand how this shit works, brother—"

Mura punched him in the jaw, causing Ziz to sputter.

"Fine… It's B-Behemoth, he's the leader of our gang…" Ziz stated, spitting out a fair amount of dark blood.

"Your gang? Behemoth's a Jikininki now, so talk. What's your deal here with the Shitidama?" Mura stated.

"Well we had a good thing going, before the tournament. After the boss won, he invested. Big time. The plan was to get him higher and higher in rank with e-easy bounties!"

"Explain."

"O-Okay! So we'd get shipments in of these folks from trafficking ships. Like the girl over there! After that, we would keep them here and turn them into Shitidama by injecting them with human souls! The good stuff! After that, well, we'd have some of the other boys from the gang cause some chaos in the villages east of here. After that all we had to do was submit a complaint, the government made a handful bounties for 'Shitidama on the prowl' and Behemoth came by the boathouse to finish the poor bastards off."

"Where is he now?"

"Some promotional party, down at that drinking hall in Castle Town… Tel Megiddo—"

Mura had heard enough. He knocked Ziz out cold, slamming his head back into the floor with one hand. Mura saved the confession and phoned police to take the criminals into custody.

He stood up and unfused from Lilith. As she rematerialized next to him again, Mura looked at the struggling restrained girl. She had little sanity left, but he spotted some semblance of it remaining as tears rolled down her cheeks. She stared at Mura and Lilith, babbling like a child. Despite not understanding her words, there was no mistaking the gratitude portrayed through her thankful eyes.

❇ ❇ ❇

Tel Megiddo, Castle Town — The Viking-themed feasting hall reserved for only the most wealthy and elite. The location was located in a lustrous garden sector of the castle town. All throughout the night Behemoth, high-ranking Odokuro and a few of the other Jikininki drank and partied to celebrate Behemoth's official promotion to the rank of Tenth.

The grand hall was filled to bursting with the sounds of drunkenness and merriment. Grendel sat on a chair, surrounded by beautiful women. Kishin had his feet up on the table, greedily feasting and laughing raucously. At the head of the table was Behemoth; resting his chin on his fist while Suzu sat beside him, her hand on his thigh.

"You've done it, boss. From here, everything's coming up aces for us." Suzu smiled, sipping from a chalice of wine as the gargantuan fireplace crackled behind her.

"Indeed, I couldn't agree more—" Behemoth agreed before the doors to the establishment burst open.

All the laughing, singing and mirth ceased within seconds as Mura stood in the frame. His eyes glowing as his fists were clenched.

"Ahhh, if it isn't Bloodstrider Mura! You came to join the party, pal?" Behemoth sneered sarcastically.

Mura rushed across the long room, and to everyone's shock, jumped onto the dining table. Behemoth stood up from his wooden throne as Mura ran across the table with a rising shout of ferocity. Reaching the end of his platform, Mura leaped up and crashed his fist into Behemoth's amused face with every amount of might he could assemble.

Bent over while standing atop the table, Mura straightened out his back; taking a moment to crack his knuckles.

"Party's over, Tenth."