8 EIGHT

At the station, Miu, Matsuda, Alto, and Officer Flute go to one of the office rooms and take their seats wherever they feel like. Officer Flute goes to one of the cabinets and grabs large tablets for the group.

MIU

"What are these for?"

FLUTE

"Officer Kosuke wanted to get your application started for the online courses. But he didn't tell me where you wanted to study or what for. So I thought you could get started on the online applications for your academy of choice."

MIU/MATSUDA

"The Negatori Police Academy, Of course."

MATSUDA

"Where else are we gonna go?"

ALTO

"Really? You too, Miu?"

MIU

"Well, yeah. My mom was a specialist in the Tech department. I wanted to be right by her when I graduated. Being the detective, gathering evidence for her, helping her with crazies of mysteries. The ones she wanted to uncover before they got closed after… after she passed."

OFFICER FLUTE

"Yeah. I heard about Specialist Mi. She was the top of her game and the best at what she did? I was never told what actually happened to her by the others here. But then again it isn't my business. If it's too sensitive, we can just drop it, but I'm just curious as to what happened."

Miu looks at officer Flute for a moment lost in thought of her past memories. Flashes of an accident and a fire on a broken road while a largely built man was hauled away in the guarded tank trunks of the mass control unit as he cried her name. She blinks a few times and her expression falls to a resting state that frightens everyone. Matsuda slaps his leg and goes to comfort her with a hug, burying her face into his shoulder. The shade of his body didn't hide the glow of her golden eyes that were slowly dilating.

MATSUDA

"Let's hold off on that topic for now. Hey, Miu! Let's get those applications going. Okay?"

Miu suddenly hums in approval and slips out of Matusda's grip and opens the tablet to start on her application. Officer Flute opens one of his own still looking at Miu curiously and worried but lets go of his thoughts and pulls up a document.

OFFICER FLUTE

"... I'm sending you two the applications now."

ALTO

"What about me?"

OFFICER FLUTE

"You need to finish your extracurricular first, mr."

ALTO

"Geh! Eh hehe… Right."

OFFICER FLUTE

"Also, I need your help setting up that place Mr. Plutos told us about. Said he had a way to help house the troublemakers."

ALTO

"Ah. Sure thing."

Everyone gets their paperwork started.

Outside of the eastern city, out to the north where Namekians lived abundant lives in the warm climate, one of the "outsiders" starts gathering the others around him after defeating their leader. The "outsider" hands the Namekian leader the body of the leader and dusts off his shoulders of the dust and broken bullets.

NAMEKIAN LEADER

"T-thank you so much, eastern outsider. But, I don't understand what you gain from this."

THERMO

"... I need a few hands to help me work on something that would take too long on my own. A group of spineless ingrates that won't go against my word will do just fine for this so long as they're smart."

Thermo rolls his fingers into a fist as they crackle all together from the tension. He looks at the leader and the other namekians around him as they watch him in awe. He looks up at the building he just desecrated and scratches his chin a bit puzzled. He remembered there was a place that Plutos told him about in Mozu near a school that just lost its land lord.

THERMO

"Get them ready to fix this place up. I have somewhere I need to be, but…"

LEADER

"... s-sir?"

THERMO

"Where should I go to get documentation of ownership for a building on this planet. I'm sure there is some official tedious nonsense I need to go through for it."

LEADER

"AH!! Yes we can get that for you here right away! What place do you have in mind?"

THERMO

"A place in Mozu, I believe it was. It should have been recently relinquished to the government with now official ownership. Some old dormitory."

LEADER

"Ah… if it's that place then… Let us see what we can do."

THERMO

"So, you can do something?"

LEADER

"Yes, sir. We handle all those forms after all. Mozu and Conto if the easern cliffline is under the jurisdiction of Dragoon, which is here, sir. The government officials do all of their works here for places like that."

THERMO

"Places like that? … Explain."

LEADER

"W-well you see! … Sometimes fugitives from the southern district, Palska, find their was past the borders and cause trouble there in Mozu. as well as some other outsiders that may have a record of sorts somewhere, so we place them in places like the Dormitory Just outside of Mozu for the safety of the citizens. Though recently, we just found out that the previous landlord was the cause of the problem so he has been removed from his station and arrested for his crimes. We were actually just looking to house some of our own in that building to help them socialize with the other beings there and go to the school. We just recently sent a family there not too long ago to get it set up for a settlement."

THERMO

"Find the documents for that place and give it to me. Now."

LEADER

"Y-y-yes, sir!! Right away!!"

The leader scurries off to his office, while the other namekians drag the beaten group of gangster away from the area. Thermo patiently waits for the documents when he suddenly gets a call on his small device on his chest. He presses the center button and answers it.

THERMO

"What now, Plutos?"

PLUTOS

"Now, now. Don't give me that. I just got all of the information you asked for downloaded. I'm sending it to you now. As well as some juicy secrets about the darker side of this place. It's almost as bad as back home."

THERMO

"... eugh… that kai isn't gonna like this. Anything about that location I sent you too?"

PLUTOS

"It appears to be a mine of sorts. That drone you sent in is very handy, wouldn't you say?"

THERMO

"Well, you are the one who made the damn things. Now out with it. What is making them avoid it? If its something stupid, then its a waist of time."

PLUTOS

"It would actually be very good for all of us, financially if we took hold of it for ourselves. According to the details docked about it, this place was abandoned some time ago due to the large death count from it. The government on the human side that was operating it at the time shut down and all the records of the mine were lost with it. The same said company is now located out at the west end of the world on a remote manmade island called Dogum. The island's residents are nothing but fugitive men spending their time doing hard labor. This is supposed to be a secret only a select few people knew since the loss of this mine you found. And since the documents to it are lost, it's technically free gain. It sound like your area hasn't bothered to claim it."

THERMO

"Huh. some you're saying it's worth a fortune to sell?"

PLUTOS

"Essentially, yes."

THERMO

"Good. so, how is that friend of yours doing?"

PLUTOS

"That's actually the juicy part…"

THERMO

"Oh?"

PLUTOS

"That island I mentioned earlier. Her father is there as a prisoner. He is someone know as an ancestor on this planet. An old human with extraordinary power that could probably rival your power."

THERMO

"And pray tell, what does that have to do with anything being interesting?"

PLUTOS

"Because he is the only one left. And the mystery is how that even came to be. Turns out that our parking lot was where the few last one's lived as well as in the southern area where Hypo is. They're not there anymore though. In the official records of the police force, I was able to dig into the government system and found a lot of vague intel on their disappearance. According to them, they had some kind of quiet war break out between them and they mostly wiped themselves out."

THERMO

"I highly doubt that."

PLUTOS

"Pfft! That's what I said. So I got the truth out of one of the more informed commanders of the force who happened to be involved in the battle that led to their near extinction. Thanks to a little fluke his son pulled that nearly got him fired, I was able to get some very interesting details out of him."

THERMO

"Your lazy ass? Really? Talk about dumb luck."

PLUTOS

"Oh, hush up and let me finish. According to his side of the story, the father was set up by the high ups in the government because he and his family weren't present during the top secret wipe out they did to clear the ancient humans out and make way for the next line of weaker humans. They basically decided to purge them out of nowhere. Now the prisoner and his only daughter, who is currently my friend, Miu, are the last remaining ancient ones on this planet. The only thing this officer I spoke to could think of the reason why this purge happened is that they were an old, and powerful breed of humans. He believed the government was afraid they might end up taking over the world with their power."

THERMO

"Bullshit. They just don't like the idea of some weak minded bunch of people being stronger than them and decided if they couldn't control them, they would destroy them."

PLUTOS

"That's what I thought too, but the thing he told me after was baffling enough to believe half of his speculation. He said a small group of humanoids with money tails were leading the purge. All arrogant, muscle heads with enough strength to rival the ancients power."

THERMO

"Monkey tails?"

PLUTOS

"Yes. Those monkeys. The detestable saiyan race of war apes."

THERMO

"... well this became a bit more complicated than expected. What will you do?"

PLUTOS

"For now I'm keeping this from my friend because of a funny deal I made with the officer. He allows me to do as I please and is putting me in charge of any mysterious cases that may appear in their system. I'll be sharing everything I find with you and Hypo from now on."

THERMO

"Shit… more spiteful nonsense. Don't we have enough with our own race being here?"

PLUTOS

"Oh? You've met the others? How did that go?"

THERMO

"Let's just say their welcome expired today and I decided to take care of them since they were causing me trouble with the locals."

PLUTOS

"Is that what that mess I say was before?"

THERMO

"Yeah. They were giving me a headache as well. I can't believe we're in the same race with how weak they all were even in their final forms."

PLUTOS

"You're kidding?"

THERMO

"Nope. I decided to have fun with them for a bit to relieve some boredom and they didn't even account for that just from teasing. What a waste of time, but at least I was able to relieve a bit of stress on them.

The old namekian returns with a thin folder of paperwork and hands it to Thermo with a ninety degree bow. Thermo takes the folder and skims through the documents.

THERMO

"So what do you want me to do with this paper work… haah? You can't be serious. Urgh alright. Alright, fine, I'll do it. You own me for this one. Get me a pen."

One of the younger namekians gives him a fresh, large pen in a neat case. Thermo takes it and and flips through the papers signing his name where it's needed.

THERMO

"Why do you want me to do this anyway? I don't want to deal with all this paperwork… feh! You really owe me for this, you know."

PLUTOS

"Oh, relax. I can get you as many strong fighters as you want to challenge you. Just make sure there are some other beings living in the area. It's the only way I can think of at the moment to have my friend in a safer environment. If she gets thrown into a rut, I won't be able to hold much against the authorities here. She's the best ticket I have to getting more clues without getting into trouble. You know how much I hate complicated problems like that. That's more Hypos territory."

THERMO

"Yeah. yeah. And he is terrible with numbers anyway, I get it. So what now?"

PLUTOS

"Well, according to the laws of this place, you'll need to maintain a stable income for this place to stay out of the government's radar. As well as make regular visits to the location if you don't live nearby. Otherwise, you'd have to move here."

THERMO

"Hmm~..."

LEADER

"Um… sir. Do you plan to go to this location??"

THERMO

"I might as well. There's almost nothing useful to understand here except for that mine, but I'll leave that for you to manage."

LEADER

"Well… actually…"