CHAPTER 16: Buying A Cylinder From A Shady Guy In The Underworld

Alex snorted and began walking away. "I skipped over it when I was checking for my ranking. What's the point when we all know who it will be?"

"True," Agreed Alistair from behind me. "We all know it's going to be Sakura."

"Yeah, and I don't have time to look at that bitch's name." I said as I left the field.

"What do you even have against her?" Asked Agustin. "Since I've known you, you've always hated her guts. Did she do anything to you?"

I blanked out for a moment and began staring into the distance. 

Agustin shared a look with Alistair before walking in front of Alex, and as he leaned down began waving a hand in his face. "Hello....boss?"

Alex's eyes began to focus and when he saw Agustin standing directly in front of him a look of disgust passed across his face.

"Why are you so close to me?" He then pushed him away and spat on the ground. "Creep."

Alex then turned and began walking down the path. "Let's go, we have already missed the first train but if we hurry we'll catch the next one."

"I have somewhere to be tonight and I can't be late." Called Alex from over his shoulder.

Agustin and Alistair once again glanced at each other before looking back at Alex and following him down the path.

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"HAHAHA."

In the Underworld on a narrow street there was an obviously drunk, red faced man walking around while laughing boisterously. As he stumbled down the street he tripped and bumped into a hooded man who was walking in the opposite direction as him 

"HEY WATCH IT!" A red faced man turned around and grabbed the shoulder of the cloaked person who had bumped into him.

The man who's shoulder was grabbed slowly turned around to reveal a face that was covered by a lion mask.

The red faced man then squinted his eyes and leaned closer to the lion masked man.

"I know that mask from somewhere, yeah, I think I've seen it before." The man rubbed his chin and began thinking hard. 

The man then snapped his fingers and shouted in surprise. "Grise, that's it, you are Grise!"

The man then laughed out loud and grabbed both of the lion masked man's shoulders. 

"Where you been? I haven't seen you fight in a few days."

The red faced man then laughed again and began blabbering aimlessly about this and that, before he felt a hand touch his shoulder and squeeze hard.

"Shit!" Said the man as he hurriedly pulled away his hands and touched his squeezed shoulder in pain.

The lion masked man then continued walking and soon disappeared into an alley.

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"Sheesh, what was with that guy?" Grumbled Alex as he walked down the alley. "From the way he was shouting my name it was like he wanted the whole world to know that Grise is back in the Underworld."

I then sighed as I thought of the people who had been watching the scene that drunkard had made. "It's not like I've been gone for so long, it's only been a few days."

"But it felt like a century for me." Suddenly said a voice raspily.

After that a hooded figure stepped out of the shadows of the alley.

I stopped and looked at the hooded person. "And why is that?"

'I couldn't sense his presence, could he be using the Hani Suppression Stance?' I thought with interest.

The hooded man gave a brisk and humorless laugh. "Do you know what I got for you? If anyone found out that I had it there is no way that I would live to see tomorrow morning."

I shook my head and leaned against the wall to the right of the alley. "You must be exaggerating."

The man shook his head and began walking toward me. "Believe me if you want to, but my advice to you is to never let anyone know about what I'm selling you. Trust me it's for your own good."

I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly. "Just give it to me."

The man sighed and pulled a silver cylindrical object out from under his cloak.

Almost like I was mesmerized by the glow I slowly out reached my hand to take the cylinder, but before I could grab it he put his hand, and the cylinder with it, back into his cloak.

"Pay up." Said the hooded man.

I sighed and held forward my XOC. "All I have on me is Freestone points."

"Good," Replied the man. "That's the only currency I take."

I transferred the points to him then held out my hand. "Hand it over."

The man reached under his cloak and brought out the cylinder. "Remember what I said, don't tell anyone about this, and if you do definitely don't call my name."

I rolled my eyes under my mask as he handed me the cylinder. "I don't know your name."

"Good," Replied the man as he turned around. "And let's keep it that way."

Just before he left I called out to him.

"How do I know that this..." I held up the cylinder. "Is real and isn't a fake?"

The man paused and called from over his shoulder. "You don't, you'll just have to trust that I'm an honest businessman."

With those final words, he disappeared into the shadows.

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As I walked out of the alley a minute later I sighed in my mind and began counting my woes. 

'And now almost all my points are gone. I'm starting to think that he ripped me off."

I sighed once again and began walking down a street. 

'Whatever, if it's what he said it was then all the points spent are going to be worth it."

I turned down another street and immediately I saw a huge crowd of masked and cloaked individuals walking down the street, and they were all heading in the same direction.

'Oh well, I'm in a strange mood right now and I think if I join this crowd I'll find something interesting where they're going.'

With that I walked into the crowd and joined them in going wherever they were headed to.

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I heard various conversations coming from the people in the crowd. I decided to listen in since it could let me know where they were headed.

Most conversations I heard didn't interest me in any way, but there was one that piqued my interest.

"Hey have you heard?" 

"Hmmm, what?" 

"Another person has gone missing."

I heard a sigh. "What does that have to do with me? It's not like I knew the person."

"But about one thousand people have gone missing during the past three years. It's like they disappeared into thin air."

"And so..?"

"The Underworld is getting blamed for it, everyone, both the police and normal people think we have something to do with it, they're saying we're trafficking them or something."

The other person replied in surprise. "I haven't heard of an operation of that size since....I don't even remember when, maybe it was ten years ago that something like that happened in Freedom City."

The other person sighed. "Our bad reputation is getting worse."

They kept on walking for a little while longer as I quietly creeped behind them before suddenly one of them exclaimed and turned to the man he was with. 

"Yes I forgot to tell you." He then lowered his voice so much that I had to really strain to hear despite having much better hearing as a Ranked. "One of my 'friends' in the police said they discovered something from where the latest missing person was last seen."

"What did they find?" Replied the man.

The man looked left and right so I began walking in another direction so he wouldn't notice me. But before I went too far away I heard his last sentence.

"Huge claw marks were found there."

I kept on walking while deep in thought. 'I haven't paid much attention to what's going on in Freedom City, maybe it's time I change that."

I looked around the street I was on and noticed that the buildings were becoming more scarce.

'I've never been to this side of the Underworld before.' 

Like I had mentioned before, the Underworld was in a huge cave and even after two years since I'd first come I still haven't gone everywhere. I mostly kept to only the places I needed to go and didn't go anywhere outside of that.

After a few more minutes I saw a huge building in the distance.

From where I was it looked like a miniature stadium, but the closer I got the more I realized just how tall the building was.

When I finally reached it I slowly ran my eyes up its length and felt glad that I was wearing a mask, because it would hurt my image for people to see me with my mouth hanging open.

I looked down and saw a gate standing open in front of me. Since I saw many people entering through the gate I decided to do the same.