After the master and his followers left, we left the mayor’s mountain retreat to stay at a hotel in Aslaville.
It was because I had a feeling that the fangs might make another attack. This time I wanted to put the fangs on the defensive. A complete counterattack.
Hearing this idea, the mayor immediately suggested we stay at the hotel.
No matter what happened, he would take full responsibility, boasted the mayor. He would just be paying for it out of taxes, right? I am not sure why he was acting so proud.
But the mayor saying he would “take full responsibility” made me very happy. We borrowed a car from the mayor and headed into town.
The hotel wasn’t in the center of town, but closer to the outskirts. The Hybrid-Royal Hotel. The name rang of elegant perfection. The mayor said it was Aslaville’s top-class hotel, but would probably be considered a high-mid-tier hotel in a normal city. Of course, that didn’t matter now. I would bet anything it was built by the owner. Knowing his personality, he didn’t spend any money more than needed on service and amenities. We were going to lure out the fangs, so, in fact, a real first-class place would have caused a problem.
We arrived at our room. This room, as well, was at a high-mid-class level. I did like the fact that it was big and spacious.
After some tea and a couple minutes rest, we got ready for Mr. Fang’s visit. We’d eaten and showered at the mayor’s retreat, so that wasn’t on the to-do list. First we needed to the room to be completely pitch black. Since Chakra never got dark, this presented a problem. The door appeared to be airtight, so that wouldn’t be an issue, but the windows were going to be a problem. No matter what we did, light still got through. Finally we used a spray putty which was stocked in town and covered all the windows top to bottom. We then let the putty harden. Then we could see how the fanged one did in the dark, and expected that it probably wouldn’t be happy with what we had set up.
And with some finishing touches, we had the room perfectly and completely black. We hid in the shadow of the bed, and waited patiently for the fangs’ attack. Even in the darkest of darkness, it was easy to see that this room was going to take some damage.
And it got away.
The anticipation and preparation of the second attack was perfection on our part, but what we were missing was the finishing move, the checkmate. Not being able to see it, we had a hard time reacting, but why was it that it tore apart the ship and bed with its teeth? This was a really difficult enemy to put a finger on. But one thing we did learn: the fangs could not take Mugi down. An attack on Mugi resulted in a Mugi fighting back, not the expected easy kill. This might be a key in taking care of this creature.
“Ke-i!” said Yuri. She was sitting down on the half-chomped mattress. She was holding her knees to her chest and her head was tilted to the side.
“So now what do we do? We almost had it. I doubt it’ll be showing up for while.”
“If we can’t get the fangs, then we have to go to that, you know,” I answered. “We need to try and figure out what that was.”
That was the vision we’d seen when the ship was attacked by the invisible jaws.
Yuri and I saw things as espers. Our power only worked when we were together, and we saw things as one.
Clairvoyance.
This is our special power. When there is information for us to gather, we fall into a sort of trance. Then in a deep state of ecstasy, a vision floats up from the depths of our consciousness.
From that vision we can see a kernel of information relating to whatever incident is involved.
Unfortunately, our power isn’t a perfectly tuned machine. But not being perfect isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Maybe clairvoyance isn’t the best word. Half-voyance is probably more accurate. We see visions, and see them clearly, but it’s usually more of a hint, or a hint of a hint. We are only given subtle fragments. So the real challenge is what to do with the info once we have it. It’s like trying to solve a riddle.
What we’d seen when I grabbed Yuri’s hand on the yacht was a black egg.
I couldn’t tell how big it was. I couldn’t tell you if it was an actual egg, or something just in the shape of an egg. It was just a vision of a black egg, but it stood out clearly floating against the white background of our trance.
“I wonder if there is anyone who could help us figure it out,” said Yuri as she stared at the ceiling.
“Jeff can help us,” I answered a little too quickly. “I wanted to ask him about it earlier, but missed the chance. For questions like this, there is nobody but Jeff to confer with.”
“What does he know?” said Yuri, shaking her head. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Landis, you know.”
“But even then, he helped us search,” I rebutted. Any excuse to get back to Jeff was good enough for me. My mind was set. “Even if he doesn’t have an answer right off the bat, he’ll help us find the solution. If he can give a clue to what it means, what do you have to complain about?”
“I think looking into the owner is going to give us answers faster,” Yuri resisted stubbornly. “If he really is a part of Lucifer, if we follow him he won’t be able to keep it hidden for long. Eventually he’ll show his true colors, and we’ll be right there to see it.”
“The owner, huh?” I twisted my head back. “We would have to be incredibly discreet. Don’t forget the mayor, who told us his info, I think we should wait and see rather than rush in on this one.”
“Hnn,” Yuri groaned, her lips tightening.
“Hnn,” I growled back, crossing my arms. This is the problem that comes up when trying to manage these little cases.
It was a glaring contest… and Yuri finally folded.
So it was decided, we were going back to Jeff’s office. I was about as happy as I had ever been.
With no delay, we were in the car we’d borrowed from the mayor and headed downtown.
But then.
Jeff wasn’t at his office.
Since his office was still damaged, all that was there was one ugly-looking repair robot.
“INCIDENT OCCURENCE REPORTED GAUTAMA SECTOR… SHERIFF DEPART TO EMERGENCY… LAST COMMUNICATION 17 MINUTES 20 SECONDS AGO… PLEASE TRUST ME WITH URGENT COMMUNICATION… MESSAGE DELIVERED UPON SHERIFF RETURN…”
The robot’s voice sounded like a child with no intonation, and it would deliver communications in the same manner. We really couldn’t leave a message about the black egg like this.
We returned to the car in dejection.
“Where could the Gautama sector be,” I wondered aloud.
“This car doesn’t have an auto-navi,” said Yuri as she examined the dashboard from the passenger seat. “We can’t go to a place if we don’t know where it is!”
“Then let’s go to a place we do know.”
“Where would that be?”
“The owner’s place.”
“Waa—” Yuri fell forward across the console. “What happened to all that talk about discretion?!” she snarled, popping back into her seat at lightning speed.
“If Plan A fails, move to Plan B. That’s just common sense, right?” I asked unperturbed.
Score one more for Kei.