Chapter 101, Cloud Nine

"Are you done with the call?" Will asked.

"Yeah. It seems that Seiji wanted to know about the Chimeras, Lost Beasts and thier nests." I answered. "I don't know why, but I told him most of what I knew. I doubt he'll find any Chimeras left in the worlds though."

"More importantly, we're halfway through the southrrn mainland." Van stated. "However, I've heard an interesting rumor in town earlier."

We're currently traveling to the east to get to Coral Island where we hope to find the Vermillion Bird, we've been passing through town to town for over five days now and as we pass by each town, we gather what information we can get. We were pretty deep into the mainland right now and dravelling a bright, treeline, mountain road after leaving the previous town.

"What is it?" Andrew asked as he sat on the sofa opposite of us.

"There's a rumor that a certain material is circling the market." He said and I raised my eyebrow. "Cloud Nine."

"Cloud Nine?" I asked.

"It's an illegal drug, it causes whoever takes it to gain a large boost of energy." Alexis answered. "It was originally used to help with boosting work pwoer but it was discovered that the drug causes high levels of ecstasy eventually leading to death."

"It was banned and use of the drug in any of the continents leads to life imprisonment." Alistar added. "Even so, the drug still circulates in the black market. The main reason it was banned was one of its after effects."

"What after effects?" I asked.

"If you add the blood of a person while making the drug, the ones that take the drug become servants of whoever the blood mixed into the srug belonged to." Ethan stated. "Meaning, you could make servants by simply adding your blood to the drug. This led to many incidents one after another that eventually added to the reasons why the drug was banned."

"Why would you tell us this exactly?" Theo asked. "It's common knowledge that there are some who still use said drug."

"Because it seems that Coral Island is a hub for the black market and underground world." He stated. "I just wanted to warn you. Don't eat anything they sell. They might be drugged and we can't trust anything anyone else cooks for now."

"I'm with Van, it's better to be safe. The Sacred Flowers aren't immune to drugs and sicknesses." I answered. "Everyone, evoid eating anything they sell over there. Isn't there a way to know of the food is drugged or not?"

"From what I heard, the food drugged has a reaction to Vi. Pass a bit of Vi to everything they sell you." Van answered. "I just wanted to tell you to be careful. After all, we can't have you falling into the hands of someone potentially dangerous."

"What do you mean?" Lia asked.

"From what I heard, the seller has some powerful backers." Van added. "The police can't touch them, and it seems they've been hard at work spreading the drug everywhere in the south."

"Van, can you gather more information about this?" I asked him.

"Sure." He nodded.

Cloud Nine begins to circulate, there's something I can't quite understand. There's also a ominous feeling looming inside me. Like something feels wrong. What ever it is, could it be related to the recent string of events as well?

----

"Master, we've begun to circulate the Cloud Nine." Eddy said. "It seems the next puppet is ready to be harvested."

"Watch him carefully, we can't have our next performer breaking now can we?" I smiled.

"Master, there's something you should know." Addy said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"There seems to be movement from the Vermillion Bird and its Magician." She answered. "What shall we do?"

"Supress them without anyone noticing. We can't have them disturb our wonderful stage now can we?" I smiled.

"Very well." They answered and disappeared into the shadows.

-----

I yawned as I opened my eyes to a sunnt morning before getting up from the bed I was on. I stand up and get my blood flowing with some exercises. I can't slack off while I'm searching for the Le Fleur now can I?

"Sir, would you like to have breakfast?" A knock came at the door of the room.

"Yes please." I answered.

"Then, please wait shortly. I'll be back with your meal." The voice of the woman answered.

I got back to my exercise and as I finished, a woman came knocking at my door so I allowed her to open it. For a minute she freezes when she sees me, I wonder why? I'm currently doing sit ups.

"Here's you breakfast, sir." She said and placed my meal on the table before bowing her head and leaving.

I finish my routine and sit down to eat when I notice there's something wrong with the meal. There's something I can't recognize in it. I take a minute to analyze the meal and what I find is that it's Cloud Nine.

Hmm... this drug is illegal and should be difficult to obtain by normal means. Could this hotel be a black market? If so, then who's the boss behind them?

I better investigate this. As for the food, let's feed it to my familiar. They shouldn't be affected by the drug as they aren't living creatures in a sense.

I should be careful of any meals and foods they sell here as well. What ever they're doing, it's gonna be big. This hotel has good reputation and high standards, if they're drugging their guests, this means they've either been drugged themselves, there's a powerful person forcing them into this or their producing and selling the drug themselves.

"Truth." I summoned my little slug friend. "Go and investigate the building without being seen. Check the other guests' rooms as well."

Could Nine, the drug of hysteria, euphoria and madness, whatever the reason is, it's begun to circulate again. However, I won't allow it to spread, judgement upon all who have brought disorder.