Wanted! Castle Killer! • Private, Job [Shizuka]

And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

Why her jobs kept making her come back here? She wasn't sure. But honestly she'd like them to stop. It is true that the musician was still weary of her former guild, which resided in this very town. Though she told herself she was over what happened between her and the guild master, she couldn't help but have this underlying feeling of dread, knowing at any moment she had a chance of running into the tanuki. Granted, knowing Izayuki, she would not normally be out roaming the streets casually. She was a well known figure after all, being a former rising star, the wife of the first wizard saint, and on top of everything else a guild master. If Astrid and her shared one thing in common it was their dislike of overwhelming amounts of attention.
Which is why, for the most part, the ace decided to stick to the shadows today. While normally she trudged through the amount of attention she got from citizens, doing that on this day would be rather silly. After all, she was after a wanted killer. Drawing any attention to herself could cause the fugitive to make a run for it, knowing most likely she was here for him on behalf of the magic council.

The dragon slayer leaned against the brick wall of a nearby store, standing between the small gap of that and another house. In other terms, an alleyway. Another place that was repetitive in her life. Seriously, it seemed like everything wrong in her life always happened in alleyways. But, she would not be staying here long, thankfully. This was not the place she would start looking for the Castle Killer. Actually, the place she was hoping to search, was right beneath her feet. The sewer.
Reports had shown people complaining about being able to hear inhuman roars and crashes under the streets for a while now. And though most people would cross that off as either the pipes being weird or the infamous tale of sewer gators, Astrid was convinced it was much, much more. But, then again it was just a hunch. It really could be nothing, or something else completely different. Either way, she was sure to find something out. And at this point, with no other leads at all, a lead that led to nowhere was better than no lead at all.

Watching the people pass by on the street a little away from her, she turned to settle it on the covered manhole in front of her, resting her arms across her chest. All she had to do was wait for her backup. Yeah, backup. Apparently the council was too worried to let any one person go alone with how many people had gone to search for the killer and not come back. It was too dangerous. And while Astrid was sure she could do this by herself, she would not deny the extra help where it was appreciated.
She just hoped whoever else they got for this would get here soon. She didn't like standing in the cold, dark alley alone... It smelled... Really bad.

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And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

Instantly at the sound of the all too familiar call the slayer's head turned, crimson eyes widening as Shizuka of all people ran over and attached herself to her hip in a hug. "S-Shizuka?" the ace questioned, tensing at the girl's touch, disbelief washing over her face. Why was Shizuka here? Did she follow her all the way from the guild? Did no one see her leave? Why didn't anyone stop her? Though as the girl continued talking, that did not seem to be the case. Apparently she was her... Partner... Shizuka was her partner for this? But she was only D-rank. What was the council thinking? As big of a help she was last mission with taking down the Vulcans, they were not taking down something as merely as overgrown apes this time. This was a serial killer, someone who has killed many people. What were they thinking, giving this job to a child? "Les dieux me donnent la force..." the silvernette sighed. Well, for whatever reason they had, it looks like they were stuck together. Even if Astrid wished they weren't. At least, not for a mission like this.
Gaze raising up to the entrance of the alleyway she noticed a few people would glance in their direction from time to time, most likely hearing Shizuka's excited words. Crap, exactly what she didn't want. She had tried so hard to stay under cover this whole time. Well, at least the alleyway was dark enough so they probably didn't know who she was. But still, she wanted as little attention as possible.
The dragon slayer squatted down to the child's height, a pointer finger placed over her mouth. "Shh, we need to be quiet. If we're not Castle Killer might come and gobble us up. And we don't want that, do we?" she would finish the statement by closing her lips firmly and using her pointer and thumb to imitate a zipper, running it across her lips and then acting as though she were throwing away a key. She hoped that would be enough to keep the girl quiet. Now that she had to look after Shizuka as well as herself, this mission just got a littler harder. And she would appreciate all the help she could get from their silence.

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And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

Astrid was relived when the girl seemed to get what she was trying to tell her. That was good. That would make the job a bit easier on the both of them.
Upon the question Shizuka asked, the ace nodded. "I have a hunch he's down there. I know it's a bit icky and gross, i'd rather not go down there myself. But if i'm right about this, he's defiantly down there." Casting a glace to the man hole cover she would stare at it for a moment before looking back to the child, placing a hand on her head, giving a smile. "Let me go first. If the coast looks clear i'll tell you to come down." She wasn't going to let Shizuka go first, of course. If Castle Killer really was down there that'd be like giving her a death sentence. Only when she knew it was clear would she allow Shi down there.
The slayer rose from her squatting position and released Shizuka's head, walking over to the cover. Eyeing it for a second she spotted two holes jutting out from the metal. She bent over and dug her fingers into them, lifting the cover with little to no effort and placed the lid next to the edge, careful to place it down gentle as to not let it make much noise.
Crimson eyes peered down into the hole. Oh yeah, it was dark. Very dark. Even with heightened eyesight and musician couldn't make out much other than the brief movement of water to the side of her view. Which, probably meant there was solid ground just below the hole, luckily for them.
Squatting down once more the silvernette shifted her body so she would dangle her feet into the hole, and then with one push, would fall into the hole. Prepared for the fall she easily landed on her feet, placing a hand onto the ground to cushion the impact. Once gathering her bearings Astrid stood to her feet, sniffing the air once. She couldn't smell anything or anyone. In fact, it was a little surprising. You'd expect a sewer to smell really bad, but all she could smell down here was the normal smell of the city above. She wouldn't complain about that.
Holding up a hand next to her a small ball of light formed and floated next to her head, lighting up a decent portion of the sewer. Yet again, nothing out of the ordinary. The water down below next to her was rather calm, and there was only two directions one could go. Forward or back. But other than that, nothing... Crimson eyes narrowed, trying to see if she could spot something her light could not illuminate. But there really was nothing...
She looked back up to the hole above, figuring everything was safe.
"Okay, you can come down."

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And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

The girl watched the child as she made her way down, just to make sure she wouldn't fall too hard and hurt something. But thankfully it seemed she had everything under control, seeing as how she was able to get right up and ask a question.
"I'm not sure" turning her head from Shizuka Astrid stared down into the wide hallway. To get more light and scout out her surroundings she would have tossed her orb of light further down, but by doing that she had the chance of alerting anything that was down here. And with Shizuka now being here, the ace wasn't about to take any stupid chances.
Without looking down to her the slayer pushed Shizuka a little behind her with her hand, a signal to stay behind. While she was happy Shizuka was determined to bring this Castle Killer to justice she was not going to let her get too hyped up for it either. That could cause many things to go wrong with her childish nature. They needed to be as serious as possible.
"Come on, we're moving forward. Stay close."
Taking a step forward the silver ball of light beside her would move along side her, illuminating as much as a small candle would, about a couple feet before behind and in front of them.
It was after a few steps forward did the slayer catch something... Strange. Like a low humming sound. She stopped in her tracks, head jolting up in curiosity. Red eyes looked right, and then left. She wasn't sure where it was coming from, with the amount of reverb within the concrete wall it was almost impossible to know where any sort of sound was coming from. Maybe it was just the city above them? Like, a car passing by? No, this was a constant sound. If it was a car it would have already passed and the sound would be gone. Besides, this wasn't any normal humming. It sounded like a bunch of things were giving off the sound at the same time.

"... Do you hear something?" Astrid would ask the small girl, a silver eyebrow raising, looking around to try and spot the source of the noise.

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And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

It was like Shizuka said, one minute the buzzing was there, the next it wasn't. The sudden stop of the noise made the slayer uneasy. It grew and grew, intensifying, and then suddenly just stopped? There was nothing natural about that.
Out of curiosity Astrid channeled a little bit more light into the orb floating next to her, causing it to grow slightly in size and illuminate the darkness a little further. Squinting red eyes they caught something just at the edge of the limited light source. Something torn and beat up on the floor. Brown, almost like cardboard. She would have just shrugged this off as some sort of garbage normally. They were in the sewer after all, there was bound to be some trash down here. But something about this looked familiar, like she had seen something like this dozens of times. And whenever she did, it wasn't something good.
Wanting a closer look the slayer jogged over to the piece of mystery, instantly recognizing it as soon as she bent down to examine it better.
"A hornet nest?" No, not just one hornet nest, but two. This was too large of a mess to be just one. It was hard to make out but it looked like the two nests had collided together and broken off. But... Hornets? In the sewer? They didn't belong down here. They were usually up in trees. The slayer could recall all the times the kids in the village would bother the nests and come back crying to their parents about their stings.
So if these were the nests... Where were the hornets?
Looking back up from the nests Astrid started to feel the sewer vibrate again. But this time even stronger than before. No, wait. That wasn't the sewer vibrating... It was the air. She could feel it cutting through the air. Not liking what was happening she stood to her feet, turning her head to the source of the noise.
As if on que, after a moment of staring a black cloud jumped out from the darkness and consumed the two girls quickly. Though having been prepared Astrid held onto Shizuka and casted her force field spell, allowing a silver see-through bubble to cover the two of them before the hornets made contact, pushing the insects away. Even so Astrid could see them continue attacking the bubble, watching as their stingers constantly made the bubble vibrate and pulsate.
"They must think we're the ones who destroyed their home" the silvernette concluded, knowing the hornets would not have attacked them otherwise. They were rather peaceful creatures. If you leave them alone they leave you alone. But as soon as you mess with them they could be more aggressive than any vulcan.
Astrid's head snapped to the side when she heard a cracking noise from the bubble, spotting a forming crack growing larger every time they brought their stingers down. Crap. They were already breaking through. They meant business. If she didn't think soon they would be consumed and dealt with quickly... There was really only one thing she could do...
Bringing Shizuka closer the dragon slayer took in a breath and released a bright pulse from her body. It broke through the force field easily, but that's what she wanted. In order for this to work she would have to sacrifice their protection. The pulse consumed the area in a bright light and ate through the advancing hornets, causing them to sizzle up upon contact into nothingness.
It was a shame to have to end their lives like this, but if she did not her and Shizuka would have defiantly fallen to them eventually.

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And while you are sitting indoors
waiting for the storm to pass
I will be outside dancing in the rain

❧

Thankfully Shizuka had come out from that ordeal unscathed. Astrid let out a thankful breath of relief, patting the top of her head.
"No need to worry about them. Hornets don't normally live in the sewer..." "... So then the question is why were they down here?" the ace thought silently to herself after reassuring the girl, silver brows furrowing in question as she looked back to the torn remnants of the nest upon the ground. There had to be some reason behind it, hornets weren't just going to build in the sewers by themselves. Which then could only mean one thing, they were put here by someone else. Who? Well the ace didn't have much to go off of, but if she was right then it was the same person they were looking for now. Which means he must be expecting them... She could only wonder what he was going to be like if it he was willing to set up a trap like that.

Before too long the two were back on their feet and moving forward. Shizuka moved a little ahead of the slayer, which she didn't mind too much, but of course kept a protective eye on the girl after what they had just gone through. She didn't want them running into anymore trouble before they got to the main fight. But of course, that was inevitable. It was always inevitable.
The silvernette watched the young girl stop in front of her, to which she stopped also. She rose a questionable eyebrow, unable to spot the reason why she had stopped. "What's wrong?"
Without a response Astrid rose the ball of light, allowing it to illuminate the darkness shrouding the front of Shizuka. It revealed the tattered street rat, his face and frame hidden underneath his hole ridden clothes.
Red eyes widened. "Shizuka! Get away from him!" her cry rang out, but before she even got to try and attempt to run towards the girl a pressure rose from the back of her left arm. The ace let out a cry of pain after it soon started to sting. She spun around, her first reaction to kick whatever had just given her this slice of pain. Coming into contact with her leg was another street rat, which was swiftly booted down the sewer with her powerful kick. Staring down the blackness to make sure he wouldn't attempt another sneak attack like that again her attention moved to the pain on the back of her arm.
She rose her arm up and craned her neck forward. A decently sized cut ran across her pale skin, crimson blood pooling up in the center of the wound while the edges ran free down the rest of her arm. It seems he had gotten her. Though it was just a scratch, so she supposed it would be fine... Even if this pain seemed to be a little more intense than she thought it should be for such a simple cut. She had gotten cuts before, mostly from her own clumsy nature, and none of them had hurt... This badly, it was like her entire arm was on fire.
Not able to look at it long as Shizuka's voice broke her concentration the slayer looked back to her, folding her hands behind her back to hide the wound from her, pushing a smile. Honestly she hadn't seen the fight as she was currently dealing with her own issues, but by the looks of things the child had managed to take care of the man. She really was getting stronger...
"You did great. Really gave him hell" she smiled softly, the beginnings of a cold sweat starting to form upon her forehead. Despite her whole arm becoming hot the rest of her was starting to get... Cold...
But she assumed for now it was just the sewer, sewers didn't have heating after all.
"Come on, lets continue. I think we're getting close" patting her on the back as she passed by Astrid would try and rush things along. Her arm was starting to feel heavy, she needed to get this mission done so she could look at this wound. She didn't want the child to worry about her, so for now she would act like everything was okay. Which meant she couldn't even heal it right now. After all her healing magic could only heal the actual wound, not anything that came with it. So to do so would be useless and would just worry her. She needed to stay strong.

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