All Fake

Richard raised his hand gun and aimed.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three shots rang out amidst the five people that were taken aback. Two men fell to the floor with bullet holes in their heads. Blood spattered across the room. The others quickly aimed at Richard but the soldier would give them no opportunity.

He crouched and delivered another two shots that created a gaping hole in the next person's head and chest then he threw away the hand gun and electrocuted the closest man. Bullets rained towards his direction but again, he used the electrocuted man as a meat shield long enough to escape the bullets.

One of the men ceased fired and Richard used the chance they gave him and dashed towards a stack of crates to the side. He peeked out just in time to see one of the two removing the ring from his grenade.

Richard raised his arms and shot the gun he took from the other man in the other room. The bullet struck the grenade accurately making the explosion smash the men to the wall. They were charred black and the loud sound of the explosion made Richard's ear to ring.

Richard came out of his hiding place while rubbing his ear a bit. He slung the gun on his shoulder and approached the five corpses that scattered across the room. He walked over them and searched the room.

He soon found a large box among the many crates. He opened it and found three uniforms. He quickly unfolded them and his eyes landed on the large circles with the overturned and inverted 'Z' at the centre.

Richard frowned deeply and threw the uniforms away. He balled his fist and smashed it against the box. His hand hurt but he wasn't aware of it.

"Damn it!" he gritted his teeth with a deadly glare at the corpses. "This uniform is fake. The men are fake! All fake!"

He let himself sit down heavily with his eyes trained on the five people he had just taken out. He had let one man alone just in case he needed a hostage for interrogations but it turned out the whole thing was a set up.

He had a few guesses as to why it was like this. Maybe these men were members of a small time gang and in order to be feared in this region they faked their identity of being the Zeros thereby attracting the attention of Skull and her men.

He sighed and wiped the sweat off his face then stood up with a heavy expression. Once again—just another time—he had let himself hope that he could finally get the answers he needed but in the end, it was a ruse all along.

He moved away from the building and luckily he didn't meet anyone else. He got into his car and drove away, returning to Misthill.

….

Cruderia.

Clair shut the door of the small apartment that she had rented the day she arrived in the city. She had been here for a few weeks now yet she hadn't made any breakthrough in her investigations. For the past two weeks she had been going about the street showing the photo to people asking if they recognised the man in the photo. Of course she did this under the guise that she was a private investigator hired to find the man and this also saved her a lot of time and effort.

Unfortunately, she came up with nothing. Most of the people in the city only shook their heads, indicating that they had no idea who the man was while others only snorted and walked away from her. She couldn't do anything else but soldier on. She had covered a lot of street and bars that she was sure most people would know her.

Another thing she had that could've helped was the uniform but she felt apprehensive about bringing this with her or showing it to people. She didn't know which group the uniform belonged to and she was smart enough to know that the group might have rivals who might target her if they saw her with the uniform.

Another thing that could happen is that the members of the group could spot her and attack her. From the manner of Bobby's murder she could grasp the point that the group was very secretive and probably got rid of Bobby immediately he fulfilled his part so as to not leave a loophole.

If these were the case then she'd be safer not brining the uniform until she at least got information about the man in the photo—the man Bobby was holding a gun to.

"Have you seen this man anywhere?" she asked the next person. The lady looked at the picture before shaking her head and moving on.

Clair rushed to the next person. "Please, have you seen this man before?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I'm a private detective and I need to speak with him."

The man took a quick glance then his eyes fell on Clair for a second before he shook his head. "I don't recognise the face. Do you know the specific place he could be located at?"

Clair shook her head and said. "I only got information that he is here in Cruderia."

The man gave her a raised eyebrow, obviously aware that she was a foreigner. Though foreigners were welcomed in Cruderia, even those from Crevania, he was a little taken aback to notice that she was a private detective from another country.

The war situation hadn't made things deteriorate to that point and the three countries—under the recently signed peace treaty—welcomed visitors and emigrants. The same applied for the other countries as well.

"Cruderia is a rather large place, miss." The man said and left soon afterwards.

Clair sighed deeply and moved forward. The next person she showed the picture to was a middle aged woman. The moment she showed the picture, the woman shoved her aside. "Get out from my shop young lady! The last time someone showed pictures around, someone was murdered here!"

Clair quickly left. She pulled her shirt down a bit and walked forward. She saw a group of boys up ahead. They were playing around the alley way with a small beach ball which they hit around. She nodded and approached them.