Hayman's Flight

"What's with this? I wasn't informed that I would be meeting with anyone from the military today?"

Rose was confused but trying not to seem hostile in her words, the last thing she would want is to be replaced by some Ardent person who didn't have her people in mind.

"Hm, no. We just have a few questions for you. on behalf of Grand General Lumina, you hereby are not allowed to disclose any information that we have shared or you shall share with anyone outside this room. We'll be doing the same." Winter stayed standing as Akari took a seat across from the woman.

Their meeting room was an unorthodox one, it was more like a rest room with comfort in mind. By the tea out and the fine wooden table separating them, they were trying to come off as friendly which looked to be working. Rose wasn't looking worried at all, as she drinks the tea in front of her, Akari glanced to Winter who nodded his head.

"Let's get straight into this, have there been any signs of rebels growing around the city?"

Rose blinked a few times at the question, it took her a moment to really process what was being asked her but when she did, all she had to say was, "What? Rebel groups?"

She didn't want to sell her people out but the deal they had with Ardent was good, even great. With no military to speak of, some rebel groups trying to claw back their country which was more or less fine with the current rule were going to have Ardent breathing down their necks more than they already are.

As the Mayor thought, she had no clue that some of the most ruthless fighters Ardent had was sitting right in front of her with the second even closer.

For the good of her people, the Mayor decided to sell out to the ones who weren't quite happy with the loss of power, "Father forgive me... I'll write you a list of nobles who are less than happy about the current situation. I'll detail the ones who give me the most to worry about with their ideas."

"Looks like that takes care of some of the high class, I'll give you updates on the progress of the scouts when they get back to me. Looks like the gun squad is starting to move."

Winter hummed as Akari kept talking with the Mayor, they were glad she was cooperative but still, after this, they were going to have an eye kept on her just in case she was lying all this time.

But, over with Amiya, Chisai, Sakura, and Selen...

Those four girls were making their way through the streets with their guns slung to their shoulders. They weren't sure where to start but walking around might catch them an earful of something useful.

"Chiisaaaii." Amiya was leaning on her leader after not getting much rest the past few days.

Amiya wasn't expecting to be called in so soon again so she was taking her sweet time relaxing and staying up far past what everyone else was doing. Now, to be back on duty, she was tired beyond belief as she hasn't even slept yet in an attempt to fix her schedule.

"Don't call my name, if you want, I can show you some shadows that will make you never want to sleep again?" Chisai was tired of the girl flopping around like a fish and being uncoordinated.

"I'm just glad she didn't show that to Captain Kazami or Major Flynt. They would've torn her a new one seeing her be this lazy." Selen was shaking her head disappointedly, "You know they're in this city, right? We have no idea when we could run into them."

It wasn't the threat of shadow monsters invading her nightmares that made Amiya shoot up, it was Captain Kazami. If Akari were here, she wouldn't know what to feel about that, if it's an insult or not either.

"Okay, I'm awake! Don't call, the Captain! She's like mega scary!"

"Are you not scared of Major Flynt?" Sakura asked, but well, he was more likely to just make fun of her while Akari was going to probably hit her very hard to wake her up.

"No way he's a saint compared to her! Remember how she cut that dude in half after Sakura finished interrogating him? No mercy, she even yells at Major Flynt. As a wise man said, you don't mess with crazy." Amiya's playful disrespect toward her superiors would stay between the four of them.

Mostly because they would rather not see the punishment given to her.

"Hey, isn't that Captain Kazami?"

The girls were walking side by side in a square formation. Amiya and Chisai in the front with Selen and Sakura behind them, to scare the Wildcard, Selen said that causing Amiya to jump and look in the direction to see no one there.

"...Oh, ha, ha. Very funny, Selen! Why am I the one who always gets made fun of?"

"Because you have the most emotion when teased. You should've seen the way you jumped up, I wish I was recording that." Chisai smiled lightly as the other girls reminisce on the moment that just happened.

"Hmm, you should've seen how scared you were." Sakura was more focused on the fear factor because she was a bit of a sadist...

She certainly wasn't like this when they first started their missions, it was more than possible that she was concealing this trait of hers until recently but they didn't exactly care about her weird tendencies. It wouldn't be used on them so why should it be a problem if she likes to hurt the enemy a little more than the rest of them?

This group made for perfect interrogators as well. Sakura's perfect plans for hurting them, Amiya to heal them so they wouldn't die, Chisai's shadows to mentally hurt them, and Selen was perfect for encasing them in the darkness and silence they needed for messier ones.

"I have to say, it was quite funny watching you flip around like a monkey." Even Selen had covered her mouth to let off a few giggles at Amiya's jumpiness.

"At least you can laugh at my pain..." Amiya sighed but shifted into more seriousness as her drones spotted something.

She called everyone to stop and flipped inward, making the Magitech screens visible to them as well, all of them recognized the face of a man they hadn't seen in a very long time. Right on the screen was one of the men they purposefully let go when protecting the relic in Ruina, he didn't look to be a soldier and was walking into what looked to be a butcher shop.

The only reason they remembered his face was because of how dead he looked on the inside when leaving Ruina. Now, he was all spry and happy, he was a former soldier, what better place to start than him?

It was a bit of a long walk but when they got there, the man greeted them with a happy smile even though they were soldiers with guns and extra ammunition. Not as if people walking around with weapons is anything unusual considering the Explorer's Organization, self-proclaimed adventurers, and the average mercenary band.

"Hey there, as you can see, we're from the Ardent military. We have a few questions for you, okay?"

Now he was starting to look a little nervous as Chisai approached the desk.

With a snap of her fingers, Selen constructed an illusion so people from the outside would see a perfectly normal scene through the windows. This was more of an insurance thing, in case they have to dispose of this guy quickly.

"What do you mean? Is something happening?" He was paying attention to them, none of them had pulled their weapons off their backs but they were standing quite spread out.

"Nothing exactly, you used to be a part of the military, correct?"

"Yes?"

"Recently, we've been getting reports of suspicious groups around the city, have you seen anyone acting out of character recently?" Chisai was assuming this guy wasn't stupid, she was obviously talking about rebels in a very roundabout way.

If some weirdos were bothering the citizens or some strange creature was hopping around, the city police would be the ones in his shop right now, not the Ardent military.

"Is this about rebels?" Though he could guess what this was about, he still wanted actual confirmation.

Chisai nodded, "We don't want to get rough with you or whoever else may be here. You're a former soldier, you have to have been approached by someone, we'll take anything that could help us in taking out these terrorists."

The butcher was almost struck silent at the very crass way of talking, when trying to extract information, you would want a calm and polite way of going about it. These girls are using magic, standing in a formation, and calling his fellow countrymen terrorists to his face. In a way, he almost didn't want to tell them what was going on around the city just because of how rude they were.

"I know something..." He was comfortable with the rule change, as long as he wasn't bothered, he couldn't care less who sat on some throne, rebels would plunge everything into chaos if not done smoothly and from the history of revolutions, things would not go smoothly.

"Oh? Tell us all you know."

"In the industrial side of town, there's a shipping company called Hayman's Flight, former military men are using it to gather weapons. I don't know anything past that, other people can guide you there. The only reason I know is 'cause one of them tried to recruit me to help with training recruits."

"Hayman's Flight... okay. Thank you for the information." Chisai started to walk back but Sakura popped up and started walking toward the butcher again.

"Oh yeah, one more thing!" She reached into a pouch and the man instinctually flinched thinking he was about to be annihilated by some spell but instead, he heard the sound of coins hitting the table.

He slowly opened his eyes to find sixty Ardent credits on his counter.

"Give me as much steak as I can buy with this."

"Really?" Selen asked Sakura as the entire situation felt somewhat diffused by this.

The butcher just shrugged his shoulder, took the money, and headed into the back to fulfill the order. Money was money, if she was going to pay, why not give it to her?

"What? We're going to have to wait at least until tomorrow, I might as well buy something while I'm here and cook it tonight... do you think the hotel will let me use their kitchen? Who am I kidding, I'll make them let me use their kitchen." She nodded her head with the thought in mind.

It was a fair idea to get something to eat, sure daylight was still out but it was slowly turning darker by the minute as it was around 7 PM now. By nine it would be dark, Winter and Akari would probably convene for everyone to share what they have.

"When would you even find time to cook, huh? We'll be doing something tonight anyway." Amiya was on the others side but came out and said, "Also, can you share? The last time you cooked steak, I had a dream about it."

"Don't share her side!" Chisai was shaking her head disappointedly, "You won't have any time to make that, why even bother?"

"We're going back to the place right after this. They'll understand how important this is." The rabbit lazily put a thumb up at her teammates as the butcher came out the back again with the meats stored perfectly in packaging, "Thank you, sir. Okay, let's move out...!" Sakura marched out the door with Selen and Chisai sighing coming after her.

"...We have other things to look for still." Chisai was still one for continuing her search. She wanted some praise from the commanders for being the first to find something big, she was sure her group would get it for this shipping company but she wanted more for them.

"Don't worry, don't worry. I'll be sure to have my drones looking all day, let's head back!"

Chisai made the mistake of looking at Amiya who instantly hit her with puppy eyes. The leading officer cracked under the cuteness instantly and turned them around to head back toward the hotel, she was desperately hoping that finding out about the shipping company would spare them any scrutiny for heading back earlier than everyone else...