Another Hargeon Town Murder (Job, Solo)

Back in Hargeon Town Samira now found herself. She had only been visiting since, well, it had been some time since stepping foot there. Not that it was a place she avoided, she actually liked the place. It had been the original home of Lamia Scale, her first guild, and as such she was quite used to being there and knew the locals. The Saint just always had other things to do that was a bit more significant than a trip down the nostalgia road. However, even after finding some time to pay a visit Samira somehow got mixed up in a job that the local authorities could not handle.

A series of deaths were plaguing the town, none of them natural. No. The recent dead were murdered. After an investigation and a confrontation gone wrong, the town guard were able to access and mask the murderer. A man name Jacob Goodnight. Samira did not know who he was at all, but the town guard had remembered a job she had done ages ago when she was a new recruit to Lamia Scale. That specific one also had a murderer involved, and she and a guildmate had worked together to apprehend them. Somehow doing that ONE time meant she was a professional at dealing with murderers. She could handle monsters, yes. That was what her former guild was all about. Technically a murderer was a monster... but not the correct type she handled more often. Somehow the town guard did not follow that type of logic. Just toss a mage that had done it once at the criminal and it'd all work out swell. That or they were just relying on her status. Who knew?

(Word Count: 285)

Samira waited until nightfall since going to his residence had done absolutely nothing other than to provide an empty house with no clues to his actual whereabouts during the day. From what she had been told, he liked murdering those that roamed alone at night. All she had to do was go to the lower docks, his favorite area to commit the crime apparently, and he was sure to be there. So she did. Four of her spirits had been summoned to keep a look out around the area while she herself took a spot. They were hunting for him while he was likely hunting for his next target.

Some time had passed with Samira standing quietly at the docks, waiting for some sound or sign that gave the miner turned human butcher away. Instead, what she got was four spirits coming back with four people that were unconscious, believing them all to be the murderer they were trying to catch.

"What... no. What were you all thinking? None of these people are who we are looking for." Samira looked at the first one, brought by Serqet. "This one is a woman. We are looking for a man."

"Hey! He could be wearing a disguise!"

"Doubtful. He possesses no magic, and I sense no magical items on her person. You have successfully apprehended a defenseless woman that looks about as dangerous as that school teacher we spoke with much earlier. Actually..." Samira tilted her head as she got a better look at the woman Serqet had dragged over.  "I think this is that teacher we spoke with earlier. Serqet!"

"Well she was kind of shady. I mean, did you see all those books she was carrying with planned homework assignments? Even planning that much homework should be a crime. And what innocent teacher goes around walking at the docks this time at night? Suspicious!"

The Saint sighed and looked at the next [strikethrough]victim[/strikethrough] suspicious culprit. "...Susano... what is this? I give you credit for at least targetting a man, but he is much too young."

"He found the fountain of youth as a clever way to disguise himself. Obviously. If you're going to complain about who I bring in then you should have picked someone else. This isn't my area of expertise. I just attack things, and poke fun at you."

"Ugh, honestly! You are not that much of an idiot. You do these things to annoy me."

"You got me."

The next two that were brought were also not Jacob Goodnight. One was an old man in a wheelchair. He wasn't unconscious because the spirit hit him or anything, the guy just decided to take a nap and had been that way when the spirit found him. Needless to say, he was very surprised when he woke up and was not in his original location. The last one was one of the town's guards. Both were also categorized as possible disguises. "This is why we should just stick with tracking down actual monsters. Somehow the normal criminal is confusing for you all."

(Word Count: 513
Total So Far: 798)

"Speaking of normal criminal, lets go over the profile for this guy again. Is he big?"

"Yes, very tall and bulky supposedly."

"Looks super scary and wears stuff that you'd see some mine worker wearing?"

"Most likely."

"Does he also wield cleavers, knives, and a meat hook?"

"Those are his murder weapons of choice. Why are you asking these questions? They are basic, and you know the answers already."

"Hmm, just checking. We were all about to say it's probably that guy over there, but he kind of gives off the teddy bear vibe. Not really a murderer feeling. Nevermind. A shame. He was the perfect match otherwise."

"What?" Samira turned around to see who he was talking about, and sure enough there was a man passing by, purposely avoiding the group, that matched Jacob Goodnight's description perfectly. Although, she was fairly certain there was no "teddy bear vibe." "Really?"

"Yep. Total teddy bear."

Samira did not take the time to reply. Istead the spirits watched as she used a quick dash spell to close the distance between herself and the supposed target. Then they proceeded to keep watching the interaction that started off as a conversation, possibly her making sure he was who they thought they were. That conversation turned into the large man attacking, not that it did any good. The cleaver had only impacted a barrier. Then he shouted something that was hard to make out clearly because of the distance, but it probably was along the lines of declaring that he'd go to jail only if she dragged him there, a reasonable impossibility given that a normal person of Samira's size could not accomplish such a thing.

What made them think this was the proper translation though? Samira using one of her more rarely used spells and turning herself into a very unrecognizable lamia. She disliked the spell, but it did come with a huge strength bonus, and so she was actually able to do as he suggested. A yelling and flailing Jacob Goodnight was dragged all the way to the local jail. The other four were also taken to the jail by the spirits that had originally taken them... just in case they were real criminals in disguise. They were super shady individuals, after all. That and, well, they couldn't just leave them all at the docks, alone. They were considerate spirits! Another mission accomplished.

(Word Count: 400
Total So Far: 1198)

3-15-20
500 for Original Turn In
500 for D Rank Freeform