Chapter 166: A little better

Friday morning.

Letting out a shaky breath, Charlotte raised the coffee cup to his lips and took a light sip.

His purple eyes were looking around him, scanning each person for this Y.M.

Truqueda Cup is a Cafe that is located on Sureste Street, its specialty was its bitter coffee and its curious tea. This was a fairly popular cafe in the area so it wasn't unusual for it to be somewhat crowded.

This was one of the main reasons why Charlotte had chosen this place.

It is much less likely and more difficult for this Y.M. to do something to him in a Cafe full of sober and alert people than in a Bar full of drunks whose senses are reversed and mistake the bathroom for their table.

'Where are you?' Charlotte thought uncomfortably as he took another sip of his coffee.

He looked up at the wall above the counter, there was a clock hanging there and it said 8:57 a.m.

'Three minutes... is he that punctual?' he thought a little stunned.

"Hey, did you hear? Holmes has been seen hanging around the Dead Rose area!" a man whispered loudly from behind Charlotte.

'The Fire Mage?'

This caught the attention of Charlotte who, having a little time to spare, decided to pay attention to this.

"Mr. Holmes? Wow that man doesn't know when to stop" replied another younger man.

"Right? A few days ago he destroyed Dead Shot and now he's going after Dead Rose! At this rate, East Borough will be cleared of all its gangs before the end of the year!" the first man said cheerfully.

'...'

At those words, Charlotte couldn't help but nod slightly.

With his eyes, he gave another pass to the Cafe and saw how the people were chatting happily.

'If someone had told me in May that I would see this I would have died laughing at such a ridiculous joke...' Charlotte thought dazedly as he looked down at his cup of coffee.

Seeing people laughing and being happy in East Borough 3 months ago was ridiculous!

They would call you crazy for just saying that.

How can there be happiness in such a place?

Where so much death, disease, and suffering live and nobody does anything to change it?

Happiness in East Borough did not exist...

Until 2 months ago.

The arrival of the Fire Mage changed everything.

He came with a bang.

Attacking the bar where the second leader of the Black Skull was happily drinking and dragging him away never to be seen again, gave much to talk about.

But after a few days without anything happening, this disappeared, it was also thanks to Black Skull who was looking for their second in command but found nothing.

But suddenly, one day, Black Skull began to be hunted like rats by the authorities.

Nobody knows the reason for this but in a week this gang disappeared.

The rest of Backlund may think this was a move by the authorities to show they still had power in the East Borough.

But East Borough thought differently, they knew the reason for this, thanks to the words of one of the members who was in the bar when the second leader was kidnapped.

<Tell everyone that Mr. Holmes is home>

Whatever Holmes did caused the authorities to move in for the first time and wipe the gang off the map.

This is officially Holmes' first appearance, a minor one that no one gave much thought to until what happened next.

After a time of silence, Holmes reappeared in a fiery spectacle.

In the middle of the day, this guy hunted and killed more than half of The Creed gang, in the middle of the streets or in bars, it didn't matter.

Not satisfied with that he went and burned down the gang's main base and burned the boss alive in front of everyone.

There he earned the name Fire Mage.

It didn't stop there.

A few weeks later he destroyed one of the largest illegal brothels in Backlund by freeing the women and burning the boss and all his men along with the brothel which burned to ashes.

And on the same night, he released a large group of people who had been kidnapped from the southern continent.

Finally, a little over a week ago, he assassinated the head of Dead Shot together with his strongest men in his secret base without the guards outside knowing what happened.

Not satisfied with that, he stole all the money from the head of his own house and returned all the stolen property to its owners.

With no money and no one to guide them, the rest of the gang fell apart with no one to save them.

Of course, there were several who were stubborn and tried to save the gang.

These people were found burned black and with the classic Holmes business card on them...

The changes weren't very noticeable at first but now the impact Holmes had had on the East Borough was so obvious it was impossible to ignore.

Security had been greatly increased throughout the East Borough, much more so in areas that had been cleared of its main gangs.

Crime was going down day by day and it was becoming safer to walk the streets.

Of course, it was still dangerous and there was still a lot of death but it was slowly getting better.

Without being extorted by the gangs, people could pay for their food and could even afford to buy medicine for the sick.

The gangs were terrified and their activities had greatly diminished.

The smaller ones had joined together to survive and the larger ones were much more careful due to the great danger that Holmes was.

No one in the East Borough did not know the name James Holmes.

Even the mere mention of his presence caused crime in that area to plummet.

The kids even call him a Hero.

'Hero...' Charlotte thought as he looked at his reflection in the cafe.

'A hero has a lot of power to be able to do what he does...'

"Power..." Charlotte whispered longingly.

'If I had the power that Holmes possesses...Then it would be possible-'

Clink* Clink*

His thoughts were interrupted by the cafe bell signaling the arrival of someone.

Looking towards the entrance, he saw how a man had entered.

A chill went up his back and without being able to control it, his vision changed.

A whirlpool seemed to arise deep within his purple eyes that were focused on the man.

To his eyes, the man's aura was revealed.

It was blue mixed with orange.

'Calm, careful, and a little joy...' He subconsciously did an aura analysis when his eyes noticed something else.

Deep within that man's Ether Body was an orange-red flame, burning with power.

'Strong!' He was surprised by the intensity of the flame and looked up at the man's face.

Scarlet eyes and purple eyes collided.

On the man's face was an amused smile as he raised his finger and moved it side to side.

At that moment a waiter approached that man.

"Welcome to Truqueda Cup sir, would you like to order something to take home or will you stay?"

Thanks to the fact that the bar was not very big and he was sitting near the entrance, he was able to hear the conversation.

The red-eyed man gently shook his head, and still maintaining his smile, he responded.

"No need, I'm here to see someone."

"Oh, so you've located who you're looking for?" the waiter asked politely.

The red-eyed smile sharpened, returning his eyes to Charlotte.

"Oh yeah, I'm looking at them right now, if you'll excuse me." Without waiting for an answer, the red-eyed man began to walk towards him.

'Y.M!' Seeing the man approaching him made Charlotte snap out of the trance he was in and quickly massage the bridge of his nose with a cold sweat running down his back.

'It happened again!' he thought heavily.

His vision returned to normal at the same time that the red-eyed man sat down in front of him.

With a tight smile, Charlotte spoke nervously.

"Are you him?"

"Well, I am me." the man teased and Charlotte tensed a little.

'Are you seriously joking right now?' thought Charlotte a bit stunned.

Composing himself, he asked again, this time more specific.

"What I mean is, are you Mr. Y.M?

The red-eyed man showed a confused expression.

"Y.M? What are you talking about?"

"Huh?" Charlotte looked dumbfounded at the man in front of him.

He didn't have time to process anything since the red-eyed man was smiling at him.

The confused expression was gone, now there was an amused smile and red eyes full of mischief.

"We finally meet Mr. Mystery Pryer~"