Arc 2, Chapter 36: Lexokodac

The hood went over the blonde's head, "By the way, how exactly did you find the place?" Jotou gazed around.

The stone streets were wide, people bustled down the sidewalks, bicycles were ridden next to carts that passed through, pulled by horsaroaches, but also- 'There's normal horses!?'

The buildings gave ample space for the neighbourhood that led into the main thoroughfare. High-Town was quite the productive place.

"I'll tell you, but I hope you can follow the complicated methods," Fumeko's face gleamed in smugness. Jotou rolled her eyes as she followed the brunette down the street.

"First, Jack's assumptions were right. Using the locations, I needed to know how quickly they got to their cases to completely triangulate them.

I went to the guild first and made a distraction. I yelled that the Thundering Blade was outside which kept a lot of attention off of me while I snuck into the gym.

There, I pushed over all the equipment causing the clerk to rush out and I sneakily made my way to the front desk. I looked through the files, searching for the Lexokodac's.

I got a response time and a call time for each of these cases. With that, I just needed to find the properties in three locations within that time frame," she put a finger in the air while explaining.

Jotou's eyes narrowed, "If you had information like call history and response time, wouldn't you have their addresses already?"

"Eh…" her finger remained while her smile wriggled, "Well… ahem… yes there were addresses and I swiftly wrote them down, but I still needed to find which of the three they would be at!"

"Uh huh…"

"Regardless," she crossed her arms, "I found out that they switch between each house within the span of four days in a clockwise rotation between High-Town, Bargain District and Haven-Port.

And… this house," Fumeko stopped, pointing to the corner lot that was met with a dead-end road. "Was closest to their cases three days ago and they would be changing at the end of today."

Two stories high, equal to the rows of houses beside it, however this house gave a different picture.

The windows shut with black curtains drawn, some windows on the higher floor boarded up. The grass mangled into one another—wildflowers bloomed under the shade of a tree, branches breached into the top of the house.

The autumn leaves drifted down from reds to gold onto the mud-ridden lawn. "You sure this is the house? Cause I think John Princely kept his place better…"

"Ah, for the untrained eye Jotou, this seems like a trash heap, but it's all a clever disguise. Not one good enough to fool Detective Namora," she flaunted her hair.

"Can you get to the point, they might move again by the time you get to it." 'Why did I ask her to be confident…?'

"Ugh, fine," she slumped, "I came here, but they weren't home. I tried tracking them down through High-Town. It took me a bit to see through their disguises, but one of them had a sword and another a bow.

The Lexokodac has an archer and a swordsman so I tailed them. They were running errands all day till they got back home. After they did, I had no clue where they were inside.

I thought I would stake-out the place; I blinked up the tree and everything and I couldn't see a peep through all their damn curtains!

But," Fumeko looked to Jotou, "I still did a pretty good job, right? It took a lot of cunning to do all of that you know."

Jotou sighed, "Yeah, yeah, you were really clever," patting her on the head, "I couldn't've tailed them all day and not get caught," she moved towards the house with a smirk.

"Hm! Thank you," Fumeko followed behind, "But pat me on the head in public again and I'll bite you." Neither noticed the eye peeking out from the window past the curtain.

Jotou climbed the three steps, ready to knock on the door, "You don't scare me detective; you never will," she whispered back. Jotou knocked on the white door three times.

"Hello? We're going door to door selling cookies! My friend thinks there's people in here, but I'm pretty sure it's haunted. Would you be interested in buying, spooky ghosts?" Jotou purposefully made her voice high.

Fumeko glanced at her with furrowed brows, "What's with the Sobi plan?" she hushed.

"I don't know," Jotou shrugged back in a whisper, "They're not just gonna open the door to 'Thundering Blade'."

"Why would they open up to cookies? Actually…" Fumeko answered her own question as the door knob turned and creaked open, both their heads swivelling to the entrance.

A man with clear skin and sharp blue eyes; a black ascot tie under his grey coat. Medium black hair swept to the side—he stood equal in height to Jotou as he opened the door.

A sword strapped to his side in silvery leather and an uncaring look in his eyes, "Thundering Blade? We've been expecting you," his voice smooth and resonant, he spoke without a smile.

"Expecting me?"

He threw a shoe towards Fumeko who caught it promptly. "You sent your little rat to track us down, didn't you?" he asked, but they could sense it wasn't really a question.

'No tricking them obviously…' Jotou pulled her hood down in acceptance, "How d'you guess?"

"Hey, defend me a bit; I'm not a rat!" Fumeko scowled to Jotou, then to the fellow. The purple and white shoe was cleaned to perfection like it was brand new.

"Come on in, we have brunch," he walked inside, leaving the door open. Jotou gazed to Fumeko and raised her shoulders before following him in.

Fumeko grumbled to herself, "Fine, you can make it up to me with brunch," she closed the door behind her.

Jotou threw her bland cloak over the coatrack—the home was shrouded in darkness. The lights only came into view the further they walked in.

"What happened to the rest of your party?" he enquired.

"I didn't realize you know we have other people," Jotou replied.

"Of course we've been keeping tabs on you. Some party comes out of nowhere and deals with our problem and they didn't even have a name and no one beyond expert level," he scoffed.

They walked past the spacious living room, scattered were the random tools and gadgets. A radio sat on their table, alongside a telephone that had buttons rather than a dial.

Doors to rooms were closed and a stairway led up.

Fumeko crossed her arms, "Sounds like you're just a fanboy of four girls," she mocked.

"Sure, let's say that," he seemed unfazed.

A disgruntled Fumeko surveyed the area; if only it was not so dark—was that on purpose? However, the girl in purple's nose caught whiff of something.

Was it chicken? No, it was pork… and eggs and bacon and spices and the scent of something roasted so beautifully… There was no controlling her salivating mouth.

"I heard of what happened to one of your members; almost eaten by a velatos, right? The wolf-girl if I'm not to be mistaken. Send her my regards and to you, my condolences," he spoke with a hint of sincerity.

'How would he know that…?' Jotou knitted her brows, "It's Hotaru, and thanks. The other member is keeping an eye on her."

"The magician picked up from the circus?"

"How close have you been keeping tabs?"

The corner of his lips bent up just slightly, "Just enough," he side-eyed. "Your little friend here tailed us all day and judging by her expression now," he turned back to the enchanted Fumeko.

"She must be quite the glutton to eat our leftovers when we left the restaurant," he entered the dining room, where the light from the lamps on the wall and ceiling originated from.

Her glazed over eyes looked down to Fumeko… "What? I forgot to bring money!" Jotou kept staring… "Okay, I used the little you gave on food but I didn't have it when they were eating dinner."

"It was lunch," he told. "Don't fret, eat all you want here, there's plenty," he led them in.

They were introduced to the long wooden table, with piles and piles of food, ranging from waffles stacked up with syrup to a whole roasted chicken that oozed out stuffing glazed in oil.

Mashed potatoes filled up a couple of bowls and bacon was stacked up on a plate; the steak was perfectly cut, seasoned with sizzling spices and sided with root vegetables.

"Don't say we weren't generous when you visited," he walked along the table, two others sitting on the other side to where they walked in.

A man with his legs crossed and hands behind his head. Dirty blonde hair that was messy and a fresh sea dandelion tucked behind his ear. A red and brown vest and hazel eyes.

"Well, it seems the rumours are true; the Thundering Blade is quite exquisite~" he spoke with a playfully witty tone.

The dark-haired man gave a light smack in the back of his head as he walked past. He sat up, looking back in an annoyance—in doing so, revealing the red bow he had on his back.

The man took a seat right at the end of the table; the dirty-blonde sat to the left of him as the last member sat to the right edge.

Short purple hair, sat straight like him with a sly glance towards their guests. A mangled staff made from wood and crushed autumn leaves it seemed like, sat behind her chair.

With matching purple eyes and a long-sleeved blouse of blackish-purple, "Quite the style little rat; it looks better without the mud you fell into. Sorry I had to let the tree drop you," she apologized in her velvety voice.

"You did that!?" Fumeko screeched over from the other side, "If it wasn't for the food, I would end you for that right now!" her attention could not go away from the… delicious scents…

Jotou stared, standing directly across the entire table to the other end. Though their attire looked somewhat normal, it was not hard to tell that they were not too dissimilar from Jotou's and Hotaru's.

He picked up a cup of coffee, sipping it slowly, "We have some introductions in order I suppose," he drank. "I'm Okod. Enchantment affinity; metal to be exact," he put the cup down.

"Right, Zach. Affinity wind—manifestation," the dirty-blonde introduced with a smile.

"Lexi. Though if you want to know my affinity, I'm not really interested in sharing-"

"Shadow—transmutation," Zach cut her off.

Lexi gave a glare to him, "Hey, you want to tell them your weaknesses, you go right ahead, leave me out of it," she spoke.

Okod looked back to Jotou, "The point is to show that the Lexokodac can be hospitable and don't need to send people to track us down. So, care to introduce yourselves?"