Captain of Echo V group received an encrypted message just before starting their next mission. In their profession, the time often played the key role, nothing complicated the plans like a sudden information received from the brotherhood's chief. The note was short, really general and pointed him towards the method for receiving the further instructions.
Ken, though unwillingly, found a safe spot by using a special communication device to open a secure channel.
Direct contact with the brotherhood's boss was not an everyday thing and usually - in case of Kenichiro at least - did not mean anything good. Regulations, that were introduced in order to secure the messages due to the expected invasion from the demons' world, introduced complex procedure they had to comply with, and he really did not like these.
When preparing a connection, he already managed to be called several times by his team, but was unable to reply due to setup being in progress. Only after both Ken's retina and aura signature were scanned, he was finally able to initiate a call.
"Hello, Ken" chief greeted the man "I hope you are taking a good care of Kyoko and others. The reason why I reached out to you is extremely important, so be sure to make it a priority from now on. No matter what you are doing right now, I need your team to be in Poland in next two days. However, you will need to go through Berlin to handle one thing on the way. Details about your transportation will be delivered separately to your individual terminals. When you get to Berlin, there will be people waiting to receive you. Speak to you later and send my love to Kyoko."
Kenichiro cursed immediately after the chief disconnected.
"And here I was only getting used to the new place" he said to himself "Guess it's usual shit again."
At this very moment, Ken was standing inside a dark warehouse located in a port, surrounded by clouds of dust and smoke, stepping on concrete floor spattered with a tarry, viscous fluid. His sensitive hearing was catching sounds of steps and even someone's rapid breathing somewhere behind a wall on the right. Just after, he picked unpleasant screams, which echoed momentarily to go silent within seconds.
Kenichiro adjusted a receiver he was using for communicating with the team by pressing it into his ear.
"How's the situation?" he asked as he started moving steadily forward.
"Ken, what kept you so long?"
This question he heard in response was asked by Kyoko, whose breathing seemed shallow, suggesting she was quite tired.
"I got a message from the guild. This held me off by a big, but I will tell you everything after we take care of stuff here."
"So you can just tell us now, then" this was also a female voice, belonging to another team member "We took out the targets. I also just checked all signatures around and it looks like there's nothing left. Too bad for you, Ken. It looks like you missed the whole party because of important call."
Captain sighed with a relief, though felt a noticeable irritation at the same time, caused by this one team member.
"Ok, let's do another round to scout the area, just to be sure. If there's nothing, we go back to the boat."
He first heard laughter in his earphone, then a loud "aye aye, captain" shouted in unison by several people. Having three female members had to be some kind of punishment, Even after so many years, he was still unable to get used to it.
Inspection of the whole warehouse took them about a quarter. They could no longer sense a living soul and their specialized equipment only confirmed that feeling. Seeing that this is the case, they walked towards the boat they took as a means of transportation to get to their destination.
"Password?" a man hidden in the shadows asked with a hoarse voice.
"Full moon."
Kenichiro proceeded to walk onto the deck, but the man had a barrel of his weapon aimed at Ken.
"What about my password?"
Kenichiro cursed. This skipper had a really peculiar sense of humor, which he did not like. However, he ended up gritting his teeth and saying:
"Boobs."
The boat's owner laughed out loud. A moment later, he was standing next to Ken, still grinning, clearly proud of himself. Kenichiro had a strong urge to punch the guy in the face, but this skipper was the only person who was brave enough to set off with them to places commonly known as areas infected with demons, so it was best for them to get along.
"Cyprien, you let girls through without a password again, and expect only me to say such bullshit out of the blue. Now that I think of it, maybe I should be happy with moving elsewhere?"
Skipper looked at him, surprised.
"You going somewhere? Something happened?"
"We have a new mission, and it's not in the area, so we won't be around.
The smile disappeared from Cyprien's face as soon as he heard that, making him look like a completely different person. The man sat down on a box and sighed loudly.
"Ugh, and you are telling me that out of the blue, shortly after I got so comfy working with you, Ken" such words came out quite unexpectedly "I was hoping that there will finally be some chances for me to take some action after I gain your trust. You don't even know how much I wanted to do something more for this effort" one could hear a clear disappointment in his word "For all the things they did to my close ones... And all I could do was give you a ride."
Kenichiro heard quite a bit about the skipper's past. While the guy looked like your usual, local fisherman, he was a demon in fact - one that volunteered to provide help to the guild. After all, not every demon was a monster straight from scary stories, going around to kill people - some were just like regular humans, only wanting to live a calm life. In the end, even among demons there were different opinions and different approaches to life. Unfortunately, such differences were usually handled in brutal ways and bringing tragic consequences. Echo V's captain understood this real well and that is why he did not want to engage himself emotionally - keeping a healthy distance was the best way to keep his sainity intact, same as for this particular demon who was keeping bad memories at bay with all of this silly joking.
"It was a real pleasure working with you, Cyprien" this was a way for Ken to thank the skipper, good words combined with patting his shoulder "If you could only cut on your perverse jokes, I wouldn't even hesitate to call you a friend."
"I could say likewise if it wasn't for you being too stiff, Ken" Skipper replied "Well, at least you are not an owner of a smelly fishing boat, so it makes up a bit for your lack of sense of humor..."
They looked each other in the eyes and smiled. Kenichiro bowed to Cyprien with respect before going under the deck.
The ladies already made themselves comfortable in the mess, taking care of making food for everyone. Recently, they had so much work to do that any free moment was a great opportunity to eat something and rest.
Their leader hated to do so, yet he needed to break the news of them moving to everyone. However, when Ken was about to do so, they heard footsteps coming from the deck and all four of them instinctively reached for weapons.
Since everyone in the team knew the layout of the vessel, they quickly handled the situation after recognizing people outside to be a part of different hunter group from their organization. Those people talked with Cyprien for several minutes before leaving. Afterwards, the skipper set off for deeper waters.
"Ok, Ken-chan, so where they are moving us now?"
The youngest person in the squad, Stella, asked this question. Undoubtedly, anyone not knowing her would have wondered how in the world did she realize, but everyone in their group was aware of her special skill - exquisite hearing. And it was not something like a slightly better hearing than other human beings - that girl was using magic of her aura to augment this specific sense, allowing her to overhear a whisper up to several hundred meters if there was no noise that could jam it, so in reality several dozen meters was a realistic range of her skill.
"Father treats us to another trip again" Kyoko snorted "What reason did he have this time?"
Kenichiro took one of the free seats and poured himself a glass of tomato juice he was drinking in large quantities.
"Derrik sent him some important information, but chief didn't give me full details as to what were the exact contents, so I have no idea what this is about. Sousuke was often mysterious about the stuff until now, but this time his mysteriousness was even stronger, if you can believe it so I don't know what to think about it."
He put the bottle away and continued:
"Nevertheless, we are supposed to get to Poland. Derrik is to wait for us there."
"Great, so even farther east" sarcasm could be easily heard in Stella's voice "What's so interesting over there?"
Other two ladies - Kyoko and Adrianna - looked at each other. They seemed somehow interested and excited, which Stella immediately caught on.
"What's up with these eye contact there?" she asked.
"What kind of eye contact?" Kenichiro obviously missed what was clear to Stella and ended up being the only one unaware.
Adrianna sighed out loud.
"You spent so much time with him and you already forgot? Which country is Kaleb from?"
Empty tomato juice bottle shattered upon hitting the floor as Ken abruptly raised from his seat, hitting the table in the process.
"Damn, you're right! It makes perfect sense now. Derrik said he will be searching further. Maybe he finally found some trail?"
Ken, Kyoko and Ada all smiled and looked really hopeful. The only person who appeared unchanged by this conversation was Stella.
"I don't want to spoil your mood, but I feel I should say that as it's in your best interest" she said "Do you remember how many times were you full of hopes, that you will soon find him and then there was nothing?"
Adrianna went away from the stove, while Kyoko turned to Stella.
"You may be right that having too much hope can cause a lot of disappointment for us all, but our reactions is not only about hope. I think all of us are happy that our guild didn't forget" she turned to Ada after saying that "Since we've discussed everything work-related, how about we finally eat something?"
"I'm all for it" Ken moved closer to help with dishing up "I hope Stella didn't help this time?" a slight anxiety could be seen on his face as he waited for a reply."
"Hey! Remember that I have great hearing" Stella threw a socket at Kenichiro "Anyone can make a mistake, ok? A time will come when you beg for me to cook you something!"