Beginnings

The hours flew by aided by the alcohol. They managed to sort through the information, gaining not much clarity. So far, what they could piece together was that reports were starting to come in from other areas, even ones closer to Gandara. The adjoining human cities were also filing in reports of missing people, though those were the reports of those missing for over 24 hours. There was no way to tell how many were actually gone.

In all the cases, the alarms had been triggered, stating that humans had entered the realm accidentally. However, upon investigation, not a soul was in sight, nor were there signs of struggles. Nothing abnormal could be felt. No secondary portals, and there had been very little searches in the area to look for anything leading underground.

Hyouga had some contacts still in the black market, and they reported that sales of humans had been going up recently, but no one was willing to give away a source. Not that they could be blamed, given who Hyouga worked for.

“So our best lead is to what, wander forest after forest searching through caves?” Sukuna scrunched up her nose. “That could take weeks, even if we all split up to look. A lot of the caves here are expansive. Just mapping out one could take a while.”

Hyouga jumped in her seat and pulled out a personal phone. “Yes?” She paused for a moment, and then stood from the left armchair. “You’re kidding! I mean, only if you’re willing to take the risk.” She nodded to nothing in particular. “Yeah, got it. Tell me when you find something out.” She closed the phone and put it in her pocket. “Someone’s going to help.”

“It’s a start,” Kurama said, stacking up the papers once again. “Though very risky.”

“Information is also a huge thing for sale. We’ll find something.”

Kitsu stood. “So what now? We just wait for your contact?”

Hyouga spread out her arms. “Got any better ideas? We’re losing a lot of eyes with Mukuro pulling out of the investigation, and I know Enki has no one to spare of his own.”

Salem smiled and started to gather up the glasses. “Besides, look at where you are. Think of it as a paid vacation.”

“Once we get paid, of course,” Sha said. “Thank you again for allowing us to stay.”

“Not a problem at all. It’s nice to have this place filled again. I’ll put this away and show you where you guys can set up for the night.”

He took them around the house, first giving away the last remaining room on the bottom floor. Upstairs, the girls had options to three remaining rooms, two of them with oceanfront windows.

They did a game of janken, which Sha ended up failing. Which ended up in many foreign curses and a few thrown middle fingers.

“It’s the first door on your left around the corner.”

She slid the dividing door open, vaguely surprised at the Eastern-style doors, bidding Salem good night. She checked time on her personal communicator, surprised to see it read 2 in the morning. She and her teammates had agreed to go into the city to their domiciles in the morning to gather up a few extra clothes, due to the known slow traffic of information through the black market. Normal information to a normal informant would take anywhere between 24-36 hours. For hard to obtain they were looking at almost 48 hours, at minimum. She stripped down to her undergarments after locking the latch on her door. She frowned at a noise outside her door as she slipped into bed. Someone’s footsteps passing her door caught her attention, as did the door sliding open to the left of hers.

After that no noise came. She turned off the lights, keeping her sword close by. She knew that the inhabitants were trusted by Koenma, but they were still strangers to her. There was no such thing as being too cautious in her line of work. With her hand at the ready near the pommel, she fell into a light sleep, ready to strike if the need arose.