❖ HUNTING FOR MOLES ❖ (C/Aeluri)

"Rina Tempest—age twenty-three, born in the summer months, no children. . ." Jericho paused and looked at the pretty-faced woman tied to a chair just ahead of him, glancing at her flat belly, "yet. Pregnancy is due eight months from now, wedding is scheduled for next week. . . or so it says." Jericho flipped all of the pages back into a neat pile and placed it on the nearest crate.

He and The Black Cat had been doing some "dirty work" again today, but this time working as one unit. Their task was simple—to find, capture, and make a mole at Richmond LTD confess. It wasn't anything a little torture couldn't solve, but the sheepish Jericho would rather be the one to watch and ask questions rather than doing the actual deed. The more jobs he took, the more he realized that being close-and-personal with his targets wasn't to his liking, and being in the warehouse that he slaughtered a small terror group didn't really improve his mood either.

The two cloaked mages were alone with the smaller, silent Rina Tempest in Lavanitir Port City late at night. It was the hour in which many businesses would be closing up for the night and the prime time for things such as this to occur. Rina Tempest was tied to a chair under a single light and shrunk in its glare. She stared at her feet and didn't raise her head no matter what they said to her, but each time Jericho bent down to take a look, she always had this awful, glowering expression. She looked like she would bite his fingers off if he got any closer! So, Jericho didn't come any closer. Instead, and sat on the crate with the papers, watching both The Black Cat and Rina Tempest with deep interest.

"Should we get started?"

Watching the spit of the woman project from her lips and fly onto The Black Cat's shoe made Jericho twitch with disgust. He felt angry for The Black Cat for only a moment before feeling somewhat comforted by the fact that it wasn't his shoe that was spat on. With this in mind, he cleared his throat and looked down at the written overview he was holding when The Black Cat asked him if he wanted to start.

". . . I think you're better at this sort of stuff than I am, Cat. So maybe you should start." Jericho nodded comfortably. The truth is that Jericho didn't mind torturing others, but would avoid it if he could. He had some atrocious methods to offer of his own, one he had been withholding since he found out about this task, but would wait until there was simply no other option before he would do such a thing.

Jericho cleared his throat and stood up from his seat, sauntering over to Rina Tempest without a sense of urgency or pressure. "Hello, Rina. Hello, little one." he bent down and whispered to her belly.

Rina flinched, "Don't touch me, you bastards!"

Jericho snickered playfully before creepily returning to his usual solemnity, walking around Rina in slow revolving circles. "Rina, I know you don't want to be here. We don't want to be here either. If you just told the truth, we could all be—"

"Get out of my face." Rina interrupted maliciously, attempting to spit at Jericho's shoe as well but missing when he slid his feet away at the sight of her lips puckering.

He stared down at it icily before sighing and looking at The Black Cat. ". . .I see." he said deadly. Of course it wouldn't be so easy to get a confession out of her.

"You hear that? She called you a bitch." Jericho giggled playfully like a teenage girl gossiping. The only thing he seemed to be contributing to this activity were his offhanded comments like this one that sounded far more cheerful than the actual nature of their situation.

While Jericho was laughing, Rina was not. She was petrified with agony and indecision when The Black Cat explained to her what a burrow grub was and what it meant for her and her unborn child. Not even Jericho had heard of such a vile little thing until now and was beginning to wonder where The Black Cat had got a hold of it in the first place. But after briefly mulling over it, he dismissed the idea quickly as it was not very difficult to get your hands on anything as a dark mage. It was a surprisingly small world for their kind. It was only as difficult to get what you wanted as much as you made it for yourself, after all.

Jericho ignored the papers in front of him for a moment and gave the pitiable Rina Tempest his condolences. "Yikes. You hear that, Rina? Depending on your answer, you may not be alive in a few minutes! Crazy how quickly life can flicker away, isn't it? For the born and yet-to-be!" He slapped his knee in a jeering fit of snickers, "Don't tell my employer, but I really am not a fan of violence myself! It really breaks my heart to see women like you have to make choices like these. Food or medicine, which will you buy? Your lifestyle or your very lives, which will crumble after all of this unfolds? It really is tragic!"

The cloaked man filled the silence between all three of them with his half-truths. It was in situations like these that his true character really showed itself. The solemn, moody, quiet man that The Black Cat and their former colleagues were so used only existed on Mt. Hakobe. The more time he spent outside of their fortress, the closer he was becoming to the true maniacal and light-hearted Ahote Laspor.

Jericho sighed recedingly and struggled to suppress his snickers, "You know—this all reminds me of the kids back in my old fortress. Their lives were short but the way they went is something to write home about!" Rina Tempest looked up at him with a horrified countenance.

"Let's see—we strapped some of our new explosives to them, gave them some funky serums, and some other things—it's all kind of a blur. But this. . ." Jericho walked over to The Black Cat and hovered over her box. His hands caressed it gingerly without taking it from her and he seemed visibly excited when his veiled gaze met Rina's flat belly, ". . . this is something I've never seen before! What do you think little Tempest is thinking, Rina? Huh?"

"Stop it. . .!" Rina finally spoke, her voice trembling and choked.

Jericho walked over behind her and began to press his cloaked mouth against her ear, "Will they ever get to be born? Hmm? Are they, Mommy? Is that poor, poor baby going to see the light of day after this? Hmmmm? I really. . . really want to know. . ." The cloaked man moaned into her ear with eerie anticipation. Jericho was beginning to get ahead of himself hearing himself talk since he hardly ever seems to get the chance. It seemed like his true character violently unleashes in such hectic circumstances.

"You guys wouldn't do such a thing. . .!" she protested with a horrified expression on her pale complexion.

"Have you ever seen a grub burrow do such a thing before? I haven't! But I want to! I wanna see how it squirms down your throat and eats every last tissue and muscle and how. . . and how. . .!" Jericho was breathing heavily at this point and suddenly remembered how gross it'd be to watch that unfold. He wasn't lying when he said he had an aversion to violence and gore and would avoid it if it he could, no matter how interesting it really was. The idea seemed to arouse him more than the picture in his head.

Jericho pulled away from a terrified Rina in abrupt silence, stammering over to The Black Cat in his ghoulish stupor. He whispered in his heavy breaths, "Ah. . . I don't have the stomach to watch that, I think. . . are you really going to do that? That's pretty gross, kitty. . . where'd you even get that?"

It was strange how quickly he departed from the idea of the burrow grub entering Rina Tempest and even stranger how excited he fell over the idea of it in the first place. This man was different from the one who led Basilisk Fang, for sure.

Whenever Jericho lacked the courage to do something, The Black Cat never hesitated to make up for it in fierceness. Well, now that Jericho had thought about it, she was always like that. Even if he had been braver than her, her fierceness wouldn't have diluted. However, that didn't make the whole ordeal any less disgusting.

When Rina Tempest made the poor decision to withstand the Burrow Grub, it had been a loss for both she and Jericho. While she was screaming, he was tucked away in a corner dry-heaving. He wouldn't vomit and continuously looked back to watch her struggle with an unphased gaze but would sporadically turn away to retch again. It wasn't her agonizing screams that grossed him out—it was the burrow grub's outlined figure underneath her flesh that sent him into a fit of retching again and again.

The whole ordeal ended quickly and both Rina and Jericho seemed upset—Rina being more upset, obviously, but Jericho looking at The Black Cat with childish indignation.

"Ahem," he cleared his throat as if nothing had happened, "That was fun." Jericho jokingly said without a lick of humor in his tones. He looked at the box and then back at Rina Tempest, who was panting in between sobs. Jericho walked over to her and bent down with his clipboard hanging over her head. In his icy whispers, he teased her, "Rina, can we talk it out now? We've been very patient—"

Rina interrupted him abruptly and confessed everything that was expected of her. She didn't even hesitate after what the burrow grub did to her, after all! With a triumphant nod, Jericho smiled through his cloak. "Very good! I suppose that's a job well done, isn't it, Kitty?" Jericho looked at her seeking validation of some degree, but he didn't give her a chance to reply, "Allllrighty then! Let's wrap up."