Case #3: "Naga"

"DAMN IT!!!" the guard yelled, drawing his sword and charging towards Alexis before he was swept off his feet and thrown to the ground. She proceeded to remove his black gloves, took out a purple magic stone, and placed it near his right hand to reveal a tattoo of a snake holding a moon in its jaws. "Naga huh?" she muttered.

"Haruno, are you okay?" Emila asked while she ran over to Haruno, "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," Haruno answered, "But I might have to ask you to do something you may not like in a moment," relaying the request telepathically while she stared at the tattoo on the guard's right hand.

"Okay..." Emila replied.

"Now then, how about you introduce yourself ?" Alexis requested, as she proceeded to knock out the fake guard, tying him up and leaving him on the ground. 

"My name is Haruno Sayaka, I'm a Detective, and this is my wonderful assistant, Emila Watson," she introduced both of them. "By the way, are you sure you wanted to let that old man go?" she asked, noticing that Alexis purposely let him go during the commotion.

"I'm okay letting a worm go if it'll mean I'll reel in a bigger fish," Alexis stated. "My colleagues are currently tailing him back to their hideout within the city," with a tiny blue bird composed of mana landed on her shoulder, with a rolled-up parchment paper in its beak. "We found it finally!" she smiled, writing a reply order to give the bird.

"Damn it, already?" Haruno muttered with an upset tone. "I was hoping the old man would at least try to wait and hide before running directly to their hideout. What kind of moron heads directly there?" she questioned his thinking.

Haruno quickly relayed an unpleasant task to Emila telepathically as she walked toward the unconscious, tied-up man on the ground. She proceeded to draw her long, thin sword from her right side and remove his right hand in a single sideward slash. The man started to scream, tossing and turning as he bled out.

"WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?" Alexis yelled, charging towards Emila as she wiped her blade before sheathing it back in.

Haruno quickly stood in front of Alexis and blocked her way with her body. "Emila, continue, please," she requested, as Emila crouched down. "

*Shroud of Nightingale + Heal*, with the exposed wound quickly sealing up and becoming a stump.

"Explain yourself," Alexis demanded, grabbing Haruno by her collar and pulling her forward, "Why did you order your assistant to attack the prisoner?!??!?" as she realized Emila was acting per Haruno's instructions. 

"Look over there!" Haruno requested, pointing in the direction of the right hand.

Alexis stared at the severed right hand as it lay on the ground motionless before it suddenly started to convulse. The fingers started to bend backwards, and the hand started to walk towards her with Emila quickly securing it into a large glass container. The hand started to ram the glass container, trying to escape, but suddenly stopped as a black shadow emerged from it, falling over, motionless.

"What just happened?" Alexis asked, releasing Haruno, and started to walk over to Emila to look at the hand. "EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!!"

"Members of Naga are required to be branded or tattooed with a special ink that appears when you shine it with a special stone, right?" Haruno explained, "The special ink they use has a remote curse that kills any members if they are caught. When the old man arrived at their hideout, he must have revealed that a member was caught, and they activated the curse to silence him." 

"That's not possible!" Alexis exclaimed, "We've checked other captured members of Naga for curses, and it has never been detected before, even by people who specialize in curse detection."

"Remember, I said the ink was cursed," Haruno stated firmly," Since the ink was cursed, the curse is absorbed into the skin and is constantly moving around the body. When you think of a curse, you think it applies to a certain object or a certain part of the body. Even if you were to do a full check for the curse, you won't be able to detect it until it activates, as it is a special remote curse," she explained. 

"That explains a lot," Alexis muttered, "Wait, how do you know so much about curses? Even more, how do you know about Naga? The organization is only known by certain people, and civilians like yourself shouldn't know its official codename." 

Naga, the official codename given by the Kingdom of Teralisa regarding an evil organization composed of bandits that has been attacking merchants and adventurers heading towards Cremonia. The bandits would often leave their organization's insignia on corpses to send a warning not to do business with Cremonia. 

"They learn it from me," Ana said, walking toward Alexis as she reconvened with the group. "It's been a while, Alexis," she greeted. 

"Guild Master! Why are you here?" Alexis asked, "What are your relations with these two?" she inquired. 

"I'll explain it later, but for now, what is the next plan of action, Haruno?" Ana asked, " I've put an illusion barrier around us for now, after being informed by Emila, but what's the plan now?" 

"Illusion barrier?" Alexis muttered, as her brain filled with more questions. 

"Alexis, are any of your still colleagues nearby?" Haruno asked, "Are any of them the same height as him?" She pointed at the unconscious man. 

"Yeah, one of them," Alexis answered, "Why?" 

"Can you call them over first, and I'll explain in a moment," Haruno requests. "By the way, how are your acting skills?" she inquired. 

"Huh?" Alexis muttered, being caught off guard by Haruno's question. 

A few minutes passed by, and the once bustling plaza was now full of soldiers & knights, packing up the stolen goods left behind by the old man.

"HOW DID WE LOSE ANOTHER ONE!" Alexis screamed, kicking an empty crate into the distance as it broke into pieces and startling the other soldiers & knights. "GET HIM TO THE MORGUE ALREADY!" she ordered, kicking another empty crate with two knights picking the cloth-covered gurney off the ground and proceeding to move it into a covered wagon.  

The two knights proceeded to sit in front to drive the carriage, with Alexis jumping into the back of the wagon as they started to move. 

"Is the coast clear yet?" a male voice whispered. 

"Shut up, Eric! Dead people don't talk," Alexis yelled, kicking the body in the shin. She proceeded to back into the plaza as they moved away,  catching a few glimpses of odd shadows appearing on the rooftops. "I can't believe she thought this far," recalling Haruno's plan. 


"Why do we need a body double?" Alexis asked, "Also, why does the plan involve my acting skills?" 

"Currently, we are sitting in an illusion barrier cast by Mother where it should show us four standing around a dead body, upset." Haruno explained, "The reason for the body double is to make it look real during transport to the morgue. If we use the unconscious man and he wakes up in the middle of transport, the organization will be aware that we discovered how they've been silencing the members after being caught." 

"If we are just bringing just one outsider to act as a body double, wouldn't they know numbers don't match up?" Ana questioned, knowing the smallest error could result in this plan failing. "How do you plan on transporting that unconscious man?" 

"That's why we will also be calling other soldiers & knights to help clean up the stolen goods," Haruno stared at the goods left behind by the old man. "Regarding transporting him, we can just shove him into a wooden box and place him inside a wagon with the stolen goods," she smiled. 

"Okay....." Alexis muttered, "What does this have to do with my acting skills?" 

"I need you to act extremely upset and angry once the plan is motioned," Haruno explained. "We need to lead them into a false sense of superiority after outsmarting the Vice Captain again."

"I see now," Alexis smiled, "Well...not brag, but I was the main lead in a play during my time at the Royal Academy." *Ah-hem* as she began to clear her throat. 

"*HMPFT*" Ana chuckled, "I remember attending that play on your parents' behalf. You were so young, and as soon as it was your turn to speak, you tripped on your dress and fell off the stage." 

"SHUT IT!!" Alexis yelled. 


The covered carriage came to a sudden halt, and the knights began to carry the gurney inside the morgue, placing it on the stone table with the heavy metal door slamming shut. 

"Can I rise from the dead now?" Eric asked, "This position is killing my back!" 

"Go ahead," Haruno answered. 

"Finally!!" Eric yelled, rising from the gurney and proceeding to remove the white cloth sheet that covered his face. "Hello, beautiful WORLD??!?!", he yelled, staring down at another corpse lying next to him. "WHO THE HELL IS THIS?!?!" he yelled, slipping off the stone body table used for the dead. 

"This is the body double we are leaving inside the morgue tonight. This body belongs to a drunk vagabond who died a day ago after being trampled by a carriage," Haruno explained. "Based on the information we have, the curse itself tends to leave the victims extremely disfigured once activated, so we shouldn't need to worry too much about his facial features." 

"What about the tattoo?" Alexis questioned, "Wouldn't they verify the body by checking the tattoo?" placing the stone near the body's right hand, with a tattoo appearing. "Wait, how is this possible?" she asked.

"I had Emila recreate the special ink they used, curse-free, of course,  and then I applied it onto the body myself," Haruno explained, with Emila handing over the ink she replicated to Alexis. "This body double should buy you enough time to interrogate your prisoner, but I still recommend placing a few guards nearby to protect it." She suggested, "A dead body still holds a lot of information that can be used to trace back to them, so I believe Naga will be sending members out tonight to the morgue to destroy the body," as she placed a small bag of powder underneath the right arm before covering it up with a cloth. 

"Thanks, Haruno, Emila," Alexis thanked the two before the party disbanded for the night.