File 1.4 - One Last Job

No longer the usual quiet village, Welest’s small populace of three hundred gossiped and watched the visitors that they had. It was uncommon to receive anyone when it wasn’t harvest time and even stranger when it wasn’t about immigration into the mainland. Most had kept away feeling uneasy by the presence of the strangers and the questions that they asked. Since most of the villages remained out of sight it meant that the mayor of Welest stepped out to speak with the strangers.

The leader of the strangers and the mayor talked inside the mayor’s home for quite some time. The rest of the group hovered around the center of the village taking advantage of the location to speak to anyone that passed them. While uneasy, the villagers were friendly and answered their questions the best that they could. It would always be the same series of questions inquiring about a teenage girl in the village, but never fit the description provided. Obvious frustration among some of the less even tempered strangers started to surface after having the same dead ends for thirty minutes of trying.

A man in his twenties with a rough hair cut and sloppy clothes kicked a wood pale a few feet. He turned towards a woman calmly sitting on the edge of the stone well. “Come on Sheila! We know their lyin’ and hidin’ the girl! Let’s just start knocken’ down doors until we find her!”

The woman turned her gaze up through her long light brown bangs that immediately changed the man’s mood. “Don’t make me send ya back to the ship, Nate!”

Nate took another step back away from Sheila going around to the other side of the well staring off into the distance, folding his arms up. A heavy annoyed sigh came from his mouth, but there were no more arguments from him. As he looked around to keep himself from getting bored he noticed Ed come up the main road. Once Ed rejoined them close enough not to be yelling Nate shot out a mocking tone. “Got lost following the road, Ed? It’s a wonder ya can even fly the ship!”

“I didn’t get lost, Nate! I just got…distracted…” he replied softly near the end trying to not have Sheila hear. However, heard or not she marched over to him and punched him in the face. It was hard enough to knock him back, but not do much other than leave a red mark. The intention wasn’t to cause harm, but as a discipline action. “…Shelia! What ya punch me for?”

Sheila glared down at Ed when he stepped back even with her. “Yer s’pposed to be workin’! And whadda I hear from ya?”

“Did Cap’n Fin or any of ya find Shizuka?” Ed asked not having his thoughts interrupted by Sheila’s tirade.

She sighed to herself. A quick turn of her head towards the mayor’s house and finding no activity gave her the answer. “No…none of the villagers claim to know the girl. And the Cap’n’s been with the mayor fer half an hour now.”

“The girl I met said the same thing to me.”

Nate pulled up behind Ed heavily dropping his arm around his shoulder. “Got lost ‘cause of some girl huh, kid?” There was a sleazy grin building on his lips as he looked down at Ed.

Sheila didn’t take to Nate’s tone as she pushed him off Ed. “If ya got time to screw around, ya got time to talk to the villagers! We ain’t gettin’ paid until we find the girl!” She looked over at Ed trying to get him to shape up and take the job seriously. Her arm came up pointing a finger at him. “This might be yer last assignment with us, but that doesn’t mean ya can get lazy, Ed!”

“Oh good, everyone’s here!” said Captain Fin from behind Sheila, still walking towards everyone. The mayor wasn’t present with him, but he carried a look that said he had a plan. Sheila motioned and moved the rest of the team together ready to receive orders. He scanned everyone quickly, getting a read on the situation before he spoke. “I’m takin’ it that you haven’t found her…” There were some forced nods trying to minimize their failure. “Well it seems we’ve been goin’ about this the wrong way.”

“Cap’n?” Nate said, speaking for everyone’s confusion.

“Seems that our info it’s a little outdated. I guess it’s to be expected when we’re workin’ from six year old data. The Mayor gave me the same stuff you’ve probably been hearing, but we were able to trace things back. He was able to confirm for me that there was a young girl here six years ago. However, the girl has blonde, not black hair and goes by the name of Shizuka Hiraoka. Now that we know this we should have more success in speakin’ with the villagers and locatin’ the girl.”

It took a moment to sink into Ed’s head, but the name that Fin mentioned was familiar to him. A blurry image of the girl he met out by the tree came to him. “…ah crap…” groaned Ed lowly, trying not to get anyone’s attention. However, Sheila’s hearing was too perfect and she immediately narrowed in on his uneasiness.

“What’s wrong, Ed?” Sheila barked sternly, expecting a quick reply.

Pressure not helping, Ed took a sheepish step back seeing the focus drawn to him. “Well ya see…I think I sorta met ‘er already…”

“What?!” Sheila leaned in, grabbing Ed by his shirt bringing him even closer to her face.

“Woah! Hey Sheila! I didn’t know it was ‘er when I was talkin’ to ‘er!”

“Ya talked to her? Did ya tell her about why we’re here?”

Ed turned head away from Sheila for a moment not wanting to see the anger that was building on her face. “Yeah…I thought she could help me find the girl! I didn’t know it was ‘er!”

Sheila looked over to the Captain checking to see his reaction. She saw what she needed turning back to Ed. “Yer goin’ back to where ya found her, Ed! And we’re going to hope that she hasn’t gotten too far from here!”

Captain Fin stepped forward looking to add to what Sheila had said. “Go with him Sheila. Nate, get the truck ready. We’ll check the road and try to get ahead of her, but considerin’ the only direction she wouldn’t have gone is north, we have a lot of ground to cover.” Nate was already gone before Fin finished making for the edge of the village where they had parked. Sheila and Ed rushed off behind him after the Captain finished.

Edgar took the lead, forced to retrace his steps back to the tree. They kept to the edge of the row of corn quickly checking the between each as they went along. ‘I can’t believe it! She was playin’ me from the start just to get info!’ The realization made him stumble a step before he recovered pressing his feet.

The tree and surrounding crops were all empty in a quick search. It seemed like a long shot that she would still be in the same area. There were no sounds coming from anywhere apart from the wind blowing through tapping the plants lightly. It didn’t feel like anyone was in the whole field leaving Ed with an unsettled feeling.

Sheila stepped into the row a little and shouted out into the corn. “Shizuka! We know you’re here!”

Ed quickly leapt forward grabbing at Sheila’s arm to get her to stop quickly. “What the hell ya think yer doin’ alertin’ her to us?!”

She snapped her arm back before looking on at him. “I expect one of three things to happen. One she panics and holds her position givin’ us time to find her. Two she runs makin’ enough noise for us to track her. Three she’s not even here and it won’t matter.” Once she finished explaining herself to Ed she stepped forward beginning her march through the fields calling out Shizuka’s name at infrequent intervals.

Grudgingly agreeing with Sheila, Ed followed her strategy and took up a distance in sight of Sheila still but far enough away to provide search coverage. He kept his ears alert for any noise that he heard that might signal him to Shizuka’s location.

Undetected, for the moment, Shizuka tried to move out of the corn, but it went on forever as anxiety mounted for her. She hadn’t seen any strangers in the field leaving her to question if she was safe. However, knowing that there was someone looking for her had her asking herself if she could be safe anywhere. Caution was all she had with her. It wasn’t enough for her as a noise in the distance began to alert her. Through the tops of the rows she narrowly searched, finding that it was Ed, the boy she had met earlier. ‘Guess they figured it out…better move quickly.’

“Shouldn’t ya be havin’ lunch?” a voice from behind Shizuka asked rhetorically.

Shizuka fell over into the dirt as she turned, startled by the woman standing over her. “Who are you?” rushed Shizuka barely managing those words.

“We’ve come to take ya to yer dad, Shizuka Kitawara,” Sheila replied as she bent down grabbing Shizuka at the wrist to pull her up to her feet.

“No! You’ve got the wrong person! Let me—“ Shizuka strained at her arm trying to break free from the grip, but the woman was far too strong for her. She had no leverage or strength and each time that she tried she quickly got countered into a painful position.

“Not gonna work this time, kid! Changin’ ya name and hair color is pretty smart for someone yer age, but we aren’t gonna be fooled. And I’ll give ya points for makin’ a fool of Ed like that.” Sheila began to pull at Shizuka trying to force her to her feet so that she walked on her own. The stubborn streak in Shizuka fought with Sheila as she ripped the young girl up forcing her on her feet. A few steps later Shizuka purposely tripped herself, dragging through the earth and slowing down Sheila. It wasn’t enough to stop Sheila, though she quickly became annoyed, with her continuing down the row of corn dragging Shizuka by one arm. “Didn’t think a little girl like ya would give us so much trouble.”

Far from done, Shizuka struggled with the woman trying to twist her arm free, but only found it to cause more pain than she could accept. She took a moment to be quiet and think while dragged. Shizuka stretched her free arm behind her, going for her water bottle tucked away in a work satchel. The search in her pack freed up the bottle as she pulled it towards her unsnapping the top. She quickly squeezed the bottle spraying the water on her arm. The water and surprise from the woman was enough to give Shizuka the opportunity she needed to break free. It was only seconds, but Shizuka fled into the opposite direction, disappearing between the rows of corn using her size to her advantage as Sheila struggled with it, losing sight of her.