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Ryu's POV
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My words get caught in my throat as I stare wide-eyed at the man in front of me.

I feel his green eyes penetrating my very being as he returns my gaze, sending shivers down my spine.

My body doesn't respond no matter how much I try to move, and time seems to have slowed down to a crawl.

The final doubts in my head seem to have disappeared as our gazes stay locked onto each other, all surrounding noise drowned out by the intensity between us.

They're here.

The No-Names.

They're involved in all this.

First Asa killing off potential loose ends.

Now this.

"... Kagei." (Ryu)

"My, to think you wouldn't even help me keep up the act. Do you hate me that much, Ryu?" (Kagei)

A grin appears on his face, while a look of disdain appears on mine.

"... I have every reason to hate you, don't I?" (Ryu)

"I'm sure you do, but for now, how about we get to the matter at hand?" (Kagei)

As he speaks, the surroundings seem to regain their life as I tear my eyes away.

The previous silence that encompassed us seemed to have never been there as the sounds in the bar continued as usual.

"Oi, Ryu, hurry up and take a seat." (Captain)

I feel a look of confusion pass over my face as I take a seat.

Did they not hear all of that? Why hadn't they said anything about me just standing there?

My mind quickly becomes clouded with thoughts about the interaction, no information coming from Kagei reaching my ears.

I am only free from my mind when I hear Kagei standing up to leave.

"But, for now, that's all I can tell you. Thanks for the money. Oh, and Ryu?" (Kagei)

I lift my head as I hear my name.

"Thanks for the little fun we had there." (Kagei)

My anger flows throughout my body as he goes to leave, while everyone else had no idea what happened.

"Ryu? Ryu?" (Airi)

I snap my head around to Airi, my face uncovering the rage I feel.

"Woah, no need for that." (Astrid)

Watching me, the Captain seems to notice my unnatural behaviour.

"What happened?" (Captain)

I take a moment to calm myself before answering, not wanting to take my anger out on the Captain out of fear of the concequences.

"... I wasn't sure of it at first but..." (Ryu)

They all go silent in anticipation.

"The No-Name bandits are probably controlling this whole situation." (Ryu)

"Eh?!" (Astrid)

"That 'information broker' was a member. He's called Kagei, and he's basically the leader of the bandits now." (Ryu)

"Wait, him?" (Etsu)

I nod at his reply, before feeling the table shift as he stands up, ready to chase him.

Staying sat down, I shake my head.

"Don't bother. He's gone." (Ryu)

Vice-Captain stays standing for a few moments before heaving a sigh and sitting back down.

"How do you know he's gone?" (Kana)

"He's extremely proficient in wind magic. To the point of controlling it without needing spells." (Ryu)

"A fast caster...?" (Kana)

"He can quite literally fly away from us." (Ryu)

"Hah, he's dangerous then." (Captain)

I only nod my head, not wanting to convey what I thought.

"Well, atleast we know what we need to do now." (Airi)

"Ah, but can we trust the info?" (Etsu)

"Probably, despite him being high ranking in the bandits, he likes adding obstacles into his own plans. The information is probably one of them." (Ryu)

"Take it with a pinch of salt then." (Kana)

"Oh, also, what did he say?" (Ryu)

"... He spoke about the Asa woman, he mentioned that there was going to be 2 more crystal gatherings, but not where they were going to be. He also said The Cardinal was set back because of three unplanned events." (Astrid)

I listen to Healer and let the information sink in.

"Say, do you think the group you were chasing were The Cardinal?" (Ryu)

"Why do you think that?" (Airi)

"Well... The two assassins sent after us were likely part of The Cardinal, and they probably didn't expect Lynx to be hurt so badly. They also probably didn't expect the mana crystal to be destroyed. And the only other situation I can think of is the dead mage who ran from the group you were chasing." (Ryu)

"So you came to the same conclusion I did." (Kana)

"Not that it matters, we don't gain anything from knowing. Instead, we need to find out the locations of the mana harvestings." (Ryu)

"Our best chance is to listen to the thugs in town. We likely know the place of one harvesting - the pier in a few days, but the other we need to find." (Captain)

Following the Captain's suggestion, we begin separating zones of the city to each of this, with me claiming the slums out of familiarity with the area.

With all of our areas assigned, we start to prepare.

I chose to try to obtain some rough clothing, knowing I'd just be a target for robbery if I wore anything better than the norm in the slums.

I look around the marketplace for nearly an hour before giving up and choosing to tear  one of my own sets of clothing to match with those living in the outskirts of town.

I make sure not to bring my bag out of caution of being robbed, but I ensure that my sword is hidden away on my back, ready to be drawn.

Around an hour and a half after the talk with Kagei, I begin making my way to the slums.

It takes me less than 10 minutes to reach it, the putrid smell of waste and animal corpses fills my nose, causing me to scrunch up my face.

No matter how much you live in the slums, the smell is never something you get used to.

But you can get used to the sights you see daily. A poor, lost townsperson being robbed for the 3rd time in a day. The same townsperson nearly getting killed because they had nothing to give.

Corpses of people who didn't manage to get food to survive, or were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Random bodies littered around the street, their eyes in the back of their heads, a sign of drug use.

The slums is very much a place of the survival of the fittest.

I wander around for a while, mapping the area in my head to make sure I don't get lost if I need to make an escape.

Before I realise, the sun had gone down and I could barely see my hands in front of me.

However, despite this, I also knew that the time for information gathering was now, the prime time for illegal activity.

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Author Notes
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Its another chapter! I've finally started writing again after finding the motivation!

Its been slightly a pain for me because I'm finding it hard to vary what happens in this "arc" of the story, because I feel this has been very much a: fight, talk, fight, talk kind of story so far - or at least in these newer chapters.

I dont feel like that's a bad thing, but I do want to be able to have different encounters in different scenarios, instead of just fights.

But this may just be something with how I've set up the story and the previous chapters.

Don't worry though, I have something else planned after this "arc", so hopefully I'll be able to differentiate the happenings of the chapters.