Diffuse

The group sat on the ground eating the meal Hunter had prepared for them. "Wow!!!" Aislinn exclaimed. "This is -- This is amazing!" She added.

"Uhm .... mhm!" Sasha closes her eyes, savoring the taste of the food. "Incredible."

They continued eating, and making small talk until Sophia changed the topic. "There's something that's been bugging me," she turned to Hunter. "How did you know I was here?" She asked the teal green-eyed boy.

"I wasn't looking for you," Hunter admitted. "I'm here to shut down the Retribution!" He claimed.

'Although I'm surprised she ended up here of all places while unconscious.'

[Uh-huh]

Sasha places her fork and knife on each side of the plate.

"I knew it!" Aislinn exclaimed. "I knew the reason the Public Safety and Demon Control agency faked your death was that they wanted to crack down on Retribution before the Bureau picked up on what was happening."

"What?" Sophia said confused.

"See the thing is Hunter did get injured but then he recovered and Jade saw it as an excuse to ..."

As Aislinn continued to tell the stone blue-skinned girl her theory, Hunter shifted his gaze to the ecru-haired lady who called his attention.

"Are you serious?" She asked. "Are you going to try to destroy Retribution?" She asked.

"Yes," the sprite replied. "I thought you knew that already," he added.

"I didn't ... I thought ... I don't know what I thought," she said.

There was a sudden silence, it was short but all four of them stopped talking at the same time almost as if they were all preparing for the next spoken words. "You can't shut down Retribution, Hunter, it exists to make sure no woman is ever harmed."

Aislinn raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Ah --"

"My father ... I mean the master, he created Retribution after what happened to my mom," said Sasha. "They broke into our home and took her away and I did nothing ... I just stood and watched. He created the group to train girls like me and also ensure something similar doesn't happen to other women."

'Is she under a spell?'

[That's the worst part ...]

"You're joking," said Aislinn. "I grew up with Retribution, I know everything about the group and it's definitely not about saving anyone. Ask the girls how they feel about the group and half of them would tell you they prefer to leave the group entirely."

"You only say that because of my father. You think he's cruel and harsh but what you don't understand is that my father is cruel and harsh because that's what Retribution needs; a leader who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty."

[... She's not under any spells.]

.

.

.

•New Lanes

Jade walked towards a lady wearing a baseball cap, aviators, and a scarf around her neck. The lady kept her gaze on the ground, not looking up until the pale-skinned vampire spoke.

"Camille ... What's with the getup?" Jade asked.

"We're doing a full dive, I can't be seen by anyone who works for the Bureau .... except you, I know you can keep a secret."

"Let's talk in my car."

...

"You wanted to know about opening portals to Hel, may I know why?" Jade asked the director of the Alpha Sector.

"It's part of an Alpha Sector case ..."

Jade notices Camille's hesitation and decides to speak. "Opening a portal from this realm to Hel should be impossible because of Lilith's travel ban," said the vampire.

"Yeah, but that's for demons, right?"

"For everyone. Demon or not, it should not be possible to open a portal to Hel."

Jade hands a file to the red-eyed woman. "This is the case I was telling you about on the phone," she said.

The director of the Alpha Sector opens the file and sees a picture on the first page. "Who's this?" She asks.

"Rana Baci or Chef Baci as she likes to call herself."

"Chef?"

"She's a demon, the one Hunter caught in River Pot."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Rana insists she cannot open a portal and an investigation into her abilities shows she's right. Unless aided by someone else or armed with a really powerful mystical artifact, she shouldn't be able to open one. Baci claims that a portal 'just opened' in front of her, a story all four of her siblings corroborated."

"So they don't know how the portal opened?" Camille asked.

"If we're to believe the words of five pure demons."

"Do you know which location in Nym'Roal they arrived?" Camille asked.

"Based on their description, we believe the point of arrival to be Warsaw," Jade replied.

"The Laundry keeps a record of these things. I believe we can figure out the exact location they arrived at if you ask. We can go investigate the location ourselves," said Camille.

"It's been a while since their arrival, I doubt we'll find anything interesting but you're right, we should ask about the Laundry," Jade said.

"Yay!" Camille exclaimed. "Let's solve this case!" She said, raising her hand for a high five.

"No," Jade shook her head.

Camille put her hand away. "Okay."

...

"Director Jade, welcome to the Launderette. We received your inquiry on energy anomaly in Warsaw in the past year and have drawn up the sole report for you."

Jade followed the Laundry agent as he led her through the halls.

"Just one, huh?" Jade asked.

"Yes," the man replied. "The energy at that time was so high we contacted The Bureau and the MSF for a joint response," he said.

"Did you find anything there?" The vampire asked.

"No. We assumed the anomaly was a natural energy surge, as has been the case in several other locations lately," he said.

"The energy you recorded," Jade started. "Is it high enough that we can assume it to be a portal from Hel?" She asked.

"Hm." He paused to think about what the vampire said. "There's little to compare it to as most visits we get from Hel are by Lilith herself or someone she sends and she barely uses high energy for her transport."

"Right. But what do you think though? Was the energy huge enough to bypass Lilith's travel ban?"

"I have no idea how powerful the ban is but I will say this: the energy was high enough it could be from there. However, when comparing the energy pattern with times people have arrived from other realms, there is a huge difference."

"What difference?"

"The energy in Warsaw started huge but other times we've gotten visitors from other realms, the energy starts small before growing larger. Additionally, if the portal was from Hel, there would've been an abundance of dark energy in Warsaw, that was not the case when we got there."

"What if you compare the pattern with when a portal is opened from here to a different realm?" Jade asked.

The Laundry agent turned to face the director of the Public Safety and Demon Control agency. "Are you saying --"

"Yes. I believe a portal was opened from Nym'Roal to Hel."

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