Chapter 200: Number 1 Fan

His modified windbreaker flapped wildly at the speed he was going. If a person looked up at the rooftops all they would see was a black blur.

'How far did you get...' Adryan pondered as he took a long leap towards another roof.

He had been following the girl's trail for a while now and the more he ran the more worried he became.

He was now in Dead Rose's territory. One of the last two gangs specialized in kidnapping people.

If Jerry wasn't careful she may fall into the gang's clutches and considering her state of mind. Careful was the least of her worries.

'In the little that I saw of her, she proved to be careful and cunning and I never would have thought that she would run here but considering what happened... She is not in her right mind.' The redhead thought heavily as he moved.

"With how small and skinny she is, I would never think she could run so much" Flora admitted, somewhat impressed by the resistance shown by the young girl.

"Short answer; Adrenaline. Long answer; Seeing your father's crushed remains in front of your house is a very good reason to run and run and not look back." Adryan said as he followed Jerry's tracks.

After a few more minutes, Adryan jumped into an alley and began to look around with sharp eyes.

Jerry's trail cut off here.

Looking around, the redhead searched for any sign of the little girl but didn't see a hair of her.

'There must be something here...'

Adryan's nose wrinkled a little. This alley like any other in the East Borough smelled horrible but the masked man didn't care about this and kept looking.

A few minutes later, Adryan dropped to one knee and among the mud and dirt, he pulled out a workman's hat.

Wiping the dirt off the hat, Adryan recognized it by the little scent that still lingered on it.

This is Jerry's hat!

Adryan looked at the hat in his hands with a blank expression, more specifically, a few brown spots on it.

Running a finger through them and bringing it to his nose and taking a slight sniff, the redhead's eyes turned cold.

"Blood..." He murmured under his breath as he held up the hat.

The blood wasn't Tom's... It was Jerry's.

Looking at the place where the hat had been and thanks to his hunter's eyes, Adryan could see that there was a small fight there.

The details were subtle but he could still 'see' them.

There were several footprints on the ground. Two pairs of large soles and one small. The little girl seems to have tried to run away to the opposite side but was quickly caught.

'At least two adults and one child. There was a struggle and signs of a fight. The child didn't manage to escape and judging by the depth of the footsteps she was carried away from here by one of the adults...' The redhead thought heavily as he stood up slowly.

Jerry had been kidnapped!

'If I hurry, maybe there's still time and I can...' Adryan didn't finish that thought as he took a step, he didn't want to get his hopes up.

The track was from yesterday.

Just as he was going to chase Jerry's trail, something in the corner of his eyes caught his attention.

Slightly buried in the mud and sticking out a bit was a piece of paper.

He felt that this paper was familiar to him...

Crouching down and dropping to one knee, Adryan grabbed the paper and carefully lifted it.

It turns out that it was not a piece of paper but a piece of newspaper.

With an emotionless expression beneath his mask, he gently cleaned the paper as best he could.

The newspaper had gotten wet causing the ink to ruin it considerably, making it difficult to read but Adryan still managed to recognize the remains of a drawing of him as Holmes and what was left of some words.

<T y Nmber 1 an>

The red heart that he had drawn had been completely ruined, remaining as just a stain that covered the mask of his drawing.

"..."

Sigh...

A soft, almost inaudible sigh left his lips. It sounded more like the sigh of an old man who had been through a lot than the young man that Adryan is.

With his gloved hand, he cleaned the newspaper as best he could, taking great care not to damage it further, and put it in his jacket pocket.

Done that and not wanting to waste more time. The redhead took off at full speed following the trail of the people who had taken Jerry, his red eyes glowing.

...

"How's the cargo?" A man with greasy black hair asked entering a room that was barely lit by a gas lamp on the wall.

There were three men standing guard and one of them, a man with dirty blond hair, was startled by this sudden question and quickly turned around, pointing his revolver but seeing that it was his friend, he lowered it.

"Fuck Tomas! Don't do that!" He said anxiously as his hands trembled slightly.

Tomas looked at the man in front of him and snarling, walked over to him and yanked the gun from his hands.

"Are you crazy bastard? Never point a gun at me again."

The blond looked fearfully at the man in front of him and nodded nervously.

"It's just that I'm scared you know? How long do you think we can keep doing this? It's only a matter of time before Mr. Holmes comes and-" The man tried to say something else but a powerful punch sank into his stomach cutting him off.

Blurgg!!

Falling to his knees and emptying his lunch, the blond was nearly knocked out.

"Remember what the boss said? Never mention that name." Tomas said coldly as he raised his leg and stepped on the blond's head forcing him to face his vomit.

"Forgive me Tomas please!" The man cried and Tomas snorted before stomping on the man's head planting his face on the ground.

The other guards that were there did nothing to help but either walked away or looked the other way.

"Don't call me Tomas again, Cronet." The man said angrily and Cronet nodded fearfully.

"Yes sir!"

Nodding in satisfaction, Tomas raised his leg freeing Cronet who stood up with his face covered in vomit and his nose bleeding.

Looking at what he had done, a feeling of dark satisfaction grew in his heart and Tomas had no problem smiling to show that he wasn't in the least bit sorry.

Cronet trembled more at this and wanting to get out of the room as quickly as possible, he answered the previous question.

"W-we have 20 this time. 16 men, 3 women, and 1 child."

Tomas's smile disappeared, being replaced by an annoyed expression.

"We're supposed to send 40 new people. How can you be so useless?"

Cronet trembled but didn't say anything out of fear and another of the men opened his mouth trying to save his butt.

"Sir, we tried to do the best we could but with 'Him' out there it's almost impossible for us to meet the demand." Bryan said and received a sharp glare from Tomas.

Bryan flinched and braced himself for a blow but Tomas just blew out a sharp breath.

"As long as you idiots avoid being followed and keep this place hidden, this can be tolerated."

Looking at the three men, Tomas spoke.

"The next one has to be at least 30, you understand?"

Everyone quickly nodded in fear and Tomas couldn't help but smile at that.

"Good."

The man didn't say anything else, he just turned around but before leaving the room he put the revolver he took from Cronet in the table.

The rest of the men didn't say anything, they just waited 20 seconds until they were sure that Tomas wouldn't come back.

Upon reaching the second number 20, the first to do something was Cronet who grabbed a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his face as best he could while muttering indignantly.

"30 for next time? Do you want to kill us son of a bitch..."

Bryan nodded in agreement at Cronet's words.

Truman, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke.

"Catching 20 people is already too risky, but 30? That's already begging the heavens for Mr. Holmes to come and kill us."

At the mention of the name, Jason and Cronet trembled and turned pale.

"I'd rather take a beating from Tomas than even hear that damn name..." Cronet muttered fearfully.

Bryan didn't say anything but swallowed hard.

Red Skeleton had fallen a few days ago and this only made their Boss even more nervous.

Dead Rose had once been a gang to respect and fear, but now?

They no longer have the same base and their numbers had been greatly reduced.

All because no one wanted to run into the Fire Mage.

Truman, who did not want to continue talking about the subject, turned to look at Bryan and ordered.

"Check how the cargo is."

Bryan just nodded and adjusting his vest and the revolver on his belt, he left the room.

Going down some stairs he reached the basement.

Like the room where they were, the basement was barely lit by a few gas lamps.

In one corner was a table and around it were several chairs. In a better time, it was used by the guards to play cards and bet but now things were different.

The guards who had once played cards to pass the time now stood on guard, watching the shadows for any sudden movement.

If well this image could be somewhat intimidating, the fear and anguish that was noticeable in them ruined that quite a bit.

Bryan sympathized with that.

He shifted his gaze to the other part of the basement. Where there was a sizeable cage. The cage looked like it had been designed to fit more people but it was only half full so the people in it could lie down or sit with room to spare.

Several of them had cuts and bruises but although a small part was scared the other part looked at him with hatred in their eyes.

Bryan clicked his tongue in annoyance at this and walked over and kicked the bars of the cage.

"What are you looking at!"

One of the men in the cage backed away a bit at this but the hate in his eyes didn't lessen.

"When the Fire Mage comes, all of you are going to die."

Bryan bristled at this as did the guards present.

This provoked laughter from the man in the cage.

"Mr. Holmes will show no mercy to you bastards." One of the only women there said.

Bryan's face turned red with anger and he hit the cage bar again in fury.

"Shut up Bitch! When we sell you to a brothel we'll see if you're so daring when you're getting fucked by a fat old man!"

The woman at the threat only smiled even more.

This only angered Bryan even more and he was about to put his arm in the cage to choke her but the sudden words of the woman froze him.

"I was in the Cave."

"Huh?" The man blurted out unconsciously.

"The Cave where I was forced to sleep with all kinds of men to live, where I had to put up with all kinds of shit. I thought that would be how I would die, at the hands of a drunk who couldn't control himself." She counted with a somewhat sad expression before smiling brightly.

"But he came. Mr. Holmes came and saved me. He saved me along with many other women in my same situation."

She looked into Bryan's eyes with such emotion that the man couldn't help but take a step back.

"And do you know what he did with the ones that hurt us so much? He burned them alive along with the Cave!"

Bryan paled even more. Everyone knew what Holmes had done that night.

Not wanting to hear anymore, he yelled trying to silence the woman.

"SHUP UP!" There was a lot of fear in his voice and this only further motivated the woman who screamed with even more energy.

"The same way he burned The Creed, The Cave, Dead Shot, and Red Skeleton! He will burn you too!"

"SHUT UP!" He yelled louder, hitting the bar, the fear in his voice much more noticeable.

The man who had spoken earlier joined the woman and shouted.

"Mr. Holmes will burn you and your pathetic gang!"

"No one will remember you!"

"You are going to rot in hell!"

One by one almost everyone in the cage began to shout. Some even got up and lunged at the cage and stretched out their arms trying to grab the man.

Bryan looked at this stunned and tried to step away but his right leg was grabbed.

This made him scream as he tried to escape.

"Idiots! Don't just stand there! Help me!" He shouted towards the guards who quickly reacted and grabbing sticks they began to hit the arms coming out of the cage.

As the guards tried to free Bryan from the people's iron grip, a girl watched all this with empty gray eyes.

She was sitting in the corner of the cage with her knees drawn up to her chest. Her face had several bruises and one of her eyes was black and swollen. Her lip was split and there was dried blood on her dirty cheeks.

But despite her injuries, what struck the most was her vacant expression. As if she wasn't aware of where she was.

Losing all interest in the fight that was going on, she lowered her gaze to the ground and buried her head on her knees.

Her eyes reddened again and she began to cry silently.

"Daddy..." She murmured weakly.

In the corner of the basement, a small black rat saw all this.

The rat's reddish-orange eyes were focused on the girl.

...

In a city covered in yellowish smoke, sitting on the outskirts of it and looking at the screen on his forearm that displayed the girl's image, Adryan breathed a sigh of relief.

"Found you"