-~*~-
After a conversation with Marquess Ryuichi, Yanyi went back outside to where their previous training field is and see that her dear friends are enjoying pastry under the shade. "Wow, such peaceful hang out you guys have. Save any from me?" Luyao handed over a croissant covered with white chocolate to her, patting the empty space for her to sit down.
"What did you talk about with Uncle Ryuichi?" He ask and she explained everything, well almost everything. She hid the fact that she is here for a reason and only told about how he now find out that she ran away from home. Both male shrugged it off and continue to much down their food. It's not really surprising to have Yanyi behaving in such ways. Her rebellious nature has even made it across Yucoria.
"Oh! Also, he gave me this." She takes out a key from her pocket and handed it over to Luyao. Biting down on the pastry he examine the key and Kazuto added. "He gave you the access key to the training chamber?" He seem quite surprise by the unfolding situation. Even Yanyi is. After all, these training chambers are only used for measuring ones capabilities. Heck, usually you won't let outsiders use your training chambers as it practically symbolizes trust.
Luyao — "What did you say to him to have been given the access key?"
Yanyi — "I just said what I said. I never expect him to give me the key. Besides, what the use of giving it? It's not like I'll be staying here forever and pledge my alliance."
Kazuto — "Well seeing how we all turns to be friends now, maybe he wants to strengthen the friendship? I mean, everyone knows that father and your father is somewhat archenemies."
Irene — "So a new found friendship in the next generation then. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's check it out! I have never enter the training chamber before. It is such a privilege that only High Noble has them."
And so they pack their food in the basket and follow the two men to where their destination is. They soon arrives at a greenhouse and enters the door. From the outside it is a fully glass covered greenhouse with a little bit of white tint. "Why are we in a greenhouse?" Irene question while looking over all the beautiful flowers surrounding her. Kazuto only place a finger to his lip signaling for her to keep quiet.
He then put the key into a pot that is well hidden because of the plant's giant leaves. Soon enough, the glass wall becomes fully opaque and the ground in where they are standing starts to descend. Within three minutes Irene's mouth turns into 'O' as she feast her eyes upon the giant white chambers that is being separated by a a glass wall. There is also a simple lounge in which contrary to the white is in the color of dark amber.
"Wow... I've- I've never seen anything like this!" They all walk away from the greenhouse ground and it soon went back to the surface. Irene face the giant chamber like a kid who had his first ever aquarium trip. Kazuto stands beside her while Yanyi and Luyao take their seat at the lounge. "So... who's going first?" Luyao ask with his left leg resting vertically on his right knee.
Kazuto — "It must be her, right? Father give the key to her."
Yanyi — "I'm not the one who use this chambers for skill measure. Unless you have a control panel where I can input my training code?"
Luyao — "Right over here." *push a button on his chair*
A panel appears on the coffee table in the middle and the screen shows 'INPUT TRAINING ID'. Without hesitation, Yanyi input hers and a ding sound came across the panel. It closes itself and went back into the table. The blue locks makes her way to where the elevator is and descend into the battle ground. Irene, eager to see her friend in action drag a chair to the glass and sits comfortably while taking a few snacks from the picnic basket.
A figure appears from the corner of the room and made her way to the center of the stage. She looked up and shows a sign to which Irene has no idea of what it could be. But she heard a 'click' coming from behind and saw that Luyao had press a start button on the table. "Is that a sign for training to start?" They kept silent and left her question unanswered. They both are watching the chambers but instead of becoming eager like her, they are more conservative. It's like they are judging.
Many white mannequin like figure emerge from the tiles and some had even manifested from thin air. Each of them is holding onto various types of weapon. There are swords, whips, guns, chakras, and many more. Yanyi take out a black key from her belt pouch and it appears to turn into a giant scythe. The sharp tip of the blade is in a clear deep blue and the handle had some streaks of blue before coming down to the base where a blue gems place itself. This is the sapphire gems of Azure and this giant scythe is known as the Ocean Reaper.
Within 3 seconds of her wielding the scythe 7 figure launch towards her while many others blast their weapon to her direction. Her swift movement to the left leaves all the oncoming weapon to clash with each other. Though it didn't give her much of a leeway as figure after figure continue to make their way to her side. She didn't make any move to defeat of kill any of them yet which upset Irene in some manner. "Come on Yanyi!! Kill those things!!"
"She won't" Kazuto commented from his position. Irene side eye to him for explanation and he gladly answered her silence question. "Each of us have different settings for out training. For her, she had a setting where is she choose to individually kill them separately, more will spawn. Thus killing them one by one within a different timespan will only make the situation worse for her."
True to his words, Yanyi didn't dare approach any of them that are standing alone. In the battlefield, when you kill a person, their screams will attract more people and will be more troublesome. Thus the best way is to kill them simultaneously. Of course, you can do it individually if you're fast enough. But sometimes, you have to sacrifice speed for strength. You won't get both of them at the same time.
At one point in the chambers, Yanyi had move far enough to the point for which snipers have to move from their alleviated platform to another. She is also being chased by about 5 more critters. Taking this opportunities, the moment the sniper is about to land to another platform, Yanyi past behind it and sliced her back with the scythe. The slice not only took down one sniper but also getting rid of the others that is chasing her. Hence, she had successfully clear 6 figure from the chambers.
Despite that, a total of 8 new figure emerge from the tiles and continue to stack their attack over and over to her. The good news is that none of them are snipers. Irene who is seeing everything finally understand how this chamber works. "So using your logic, there must be a way for her to complete the course. Despite killing multiple at once, more emerge from the ground. Yet none that emerges are using range weapons. Does that mean that if she kills in bulk including a range ranger, no more range ranger will emerge?"
"Correct. According to her files right here, the settings is going for the lost of range ranger. That must be her clearing quota." Luyao commented as he watch the whole fight from the console on the coffee table. The fight continues with Yanyi using her speed and observation to yet again kill in bulk with another range ranger. This keeps on going until no more range ranger exist on the battlefield. All of them are melee ranger that has been concentrated in the middle.
Surrounding them are multiple platforms that is empty. Twisting her scythe to their optimal angle, she launch from one side of the platform to another and keep on doing it back and forth. Her speeds are being used to its maximum and though it sacrifice her strength she compensate it with the continues sharp flow of the water from her scythe. After 20 times of back and forth, every single figure in the chamber had been defeated and she stands proud with her scythe.
"END OF TRIAL" the console voice continues. The door by the corner open and Yanyi seethe her weapon again and enters the elevator. Her emerging from the elevator was met with a launch to the back as a weight is added to her body, making her stumble backwards. "THAT WAS AWESOMEEE!!!" Irene shouts in euphoria. Her bare arms can squish her lungs to smithereens. Tapping her arms had signal Irene to let go of her.
Luyao — "That's good."
Yanyi — "Thanks. Haven't done that in 6 months. Thankfully I remember what to do."
Kazuto — "Is that not your new code?"
Yanyi — "Nope. That is from years ago. I haven't gotten my most recent code yet. I'll get it later."
Luyao look over to Kazuto and signal for him to the console. "You wanna have a fight?" Kazuto didn't like that smirk on his face and profusely refuse the offer. "I would rather kill myself than having another duel with you." Yanyi then turn to question to the one who had asked Kazuto. "You're not going in?" He shakes his head. He didn't really like the training chamber because it didn't feel like a real battlefield. He had long for the old times of military service where he outright fight with threats before being appointed as Chief Inspector.
And with that their little game has come to an end. They went back to their everyday life and leave the chambers.
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-~*~-
It had been about three weeks after the mass kidnapping case. Yanyi and Luyao had to work out some of the leftover cases and even sorting some files. However, Yanyi had noticed that although their clock out hour are the same, Luyao didn't leave his office like she did. She didn't know what he is doing so late at night but it's not her place to bother so she left it alone.
That is until one morning on her way to the station, she saw many civilians with signs and banner chanting "BRING BACK THE KIDS". She had no clue on what its link to the station but one thing on her mind, she had to find another way to sneak it. Thankfully, she can bypass the large wall of the backside of the station and make her way through an open window that leads to the officers general workspace.
There's not many of them inside, but they are still scared and shock to find their Chief Inspector's work partner coming in through the window of their office. Yanyi profusely apologize. "Sorry for the behavior. I can't really make my way to the gate with how many people are blocking the entrance."
"Oh! It-It's okay, Lady Yanyi. Actually... We would like to ask for your help." One of the officers said with sweat falling down his forehead. She observed their current behavior and find that three out of 7 officers here has a really prominent eye bag. With how their voice is, it seems like they are doing something in secret. However, nothing secret can ever get away from either her or Luyao. If she didn't know what is happening than the Inspector certainly do.
"Something about Luyao?" Seeing their cover blown up, they didn't dare to hide it any longer. Though the possibility of being reprimanded is high, they can no longer work with this situation. They nodded and ask her to go over to the office and help their dear Inspector. How unfortunate of them to be drag into such mess just because they wish to help their boss.
She makes her way to the lobby and up the stairs leading to Luyao's office. Though at this point, it can be said to be hers' as well. Opening the door, the first thing she saw is the huge pile of paper on the owner's desk. She remember back what the officers had said.
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Officer 1 — "There's been a serial children kidnapping cases and the Inspector has been tasked by the Marquess to deal with it. At first, he wanted to deal with it alone but as we all have a late shift, we all sneak to see him still in the office and request to help him in whatever he is doing. He first refuse our help but allowed us to help by reading through all of the victims data and filter them out."
Yanyi — "And how long has this been going on?"
Officer 2 — "A-About two weeks."
Yanyi — "TWO WEEKS!!! Are you three crazy! Two weeks without sufficient sleep can cause death by being stupid!"
Officer 2 — "We-We're really sorry, Lady Yanyi! We promise to get sufficient sleep from today onwards!"
Yanyi — "Forget it. You three are allowed to take three days off. For resting and resting only. So I figure the commotion outside came from the parents of the victims?"
Officer 3 — "Yes. Lady Yanyi, can you please help us to solve this problem. We don't think the Inspector can handle more of the workload."
Yanyi — "I'll go and see him."
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She had figure out that the man is either awake and is ready the papers so diligently or he has fallen asleep due to exhaustion. She close her steps to where the table is and low a behold, her boss is sleeping like a dead mouse. His head is swaying to the left side of his chair, being supported by his shoulder.
She can only shake her head and went over to the sofa to grab a blanket that had been staying there for days. There are certain times when Yanyi needed some sleep for her brain to function and this Inspector Chen had gracefully place a blanket for her to use. Who would've known that he also be subjected to be under its cover.
She covered his body with the blanket and gently place a pillow in the middle of his table and gently guide his head to lay over the pillow. Making sure that he wouldn't conjure any nerve pain after waking up. After finishing babysitting the man, she look over to the pile of papers. She wanted to whine but considering that many had suffered from this case, she ought to give her part.
Painstakingly, she take the papers, tower by tower and place them around the coffee table where her comfort place to do work is. Rubbing her eyes and kneading her head, she began to read the papers and the files underneath one by one, not missing anything. She also wanted to make sure that whatever this case has something to do with "them".
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Two hours of scanning later, Max came over and instead of knocking he give out a small greet to the Lady sitting right before him. The blue locks had been put into a ponytail with her lap cross over each other. One side has the filed she is reading and the other side has a few piece of paper that she had written information on.
Finishing the reports on her hand, she slides them back into the file and placed them according to her categorization. "Lady Yanyi, I think its best if you take a break for the time being." Max came in and carefully place the tea on an empty area of the table. Yanyi thanks him and proceed with her reading.
Apparently some of these reports are fake and had been conjured up by parents who hadn't seen their child for less than a day. She discarded to one side where literally half of the pile is. "Some of this people are doing it just for attention." She commented and continue to read yet another one. This time after reading them she scribble a name onto the piece of paper on her lap and put them on another pile. This pile is not as big as the other pile, just half the size.
Although half a size its a worrying factor as these contains the exact and true victims of the incident. Yanyi had gone through 75% of them already and ready to speed things up if need be. After 45 minutes, she finished reading everything and take the whole pile of missing children and sort them out by date.
She then leave the pile neatly on the coffee table. Taking her note she read through them yet again. She had conjured up some similar factor that could help him-! Help them, in solving this case.
All of the authentic report has one similar content that can't be ruled out. Each time the children went missing their were out of the house "playing" from noon to dusk as stated by their guardians. She had seen how there would be two to four missing case in one day and it happens everyday. Everyday, except on Sunday.
The guardian has the testimony that their children often goes to the nearest central square to play with their friends. Now this is a bit odd. These central square are filled with people passing by even during not so busy day. So, how come kidnapping can happen in broad daylight without anyone noticing. That is until you counter in one important factor of a human.
Most won't care about what is happening around them unless it starts to involves them. And even if it did, they wouldn't bother with it if they deem it unimportant or damaging to them. Such is the true nature of human beings.
Seeing that most of these kidnapping happening at the west central square, Yanyi decided to make a trip there today. It is currently two in the afternoon so there is still time for her. And~ the west central square isn't far away from her. She can reach there in about 5 minutes if she use all of her speed.
"Ouh! I almost forgot." She take the notes and puts them in an empty file and place them under the pillow that Luyao is currently using. "I'll be helping you out with this. One can't bear the public's burden on his own." with that out of the way, Yanyi makes her way out of the office and into the streets, taking the fastest route to see the children.
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*Slurp*
"Ouh! Brain freeze!" She close her eyes before taking another lick of her half devoured ice cream. She had been walking around the square for quite a while. In the middle of the square there are indeed a group of kids playing around both consisting of girls and boys. Though they are up to their own agenda.
She had been walking back and forth for a while and still hadn't see or saw anyone that could be deem as suspicious. After finishing her ice cream and wiping her hands clean, she felt a few pairs of eyes staring at her or rather to her back. Turning around she was met with many sparkling eyes from little girls.
"I have never seen such beautiful hair before!" One of them commented. The next one came from her fellow friend. "It's so shiny and glimmering." There are a total of 5 girls and the rest of them said simultaneously in excitement. "Can we braid it!!!"
The hair owner in question is quite shock and weird with the developing situation. She is not the type of person who likes her hair to be tied in styles aside from ponytail and that is strictly for work and combat only. After all, her mother had nurture and care for her hair which prompt her to let it loss most of the time.
However, considering that her presence may impact the children's safety she agreed with their request. That is not until a group of boys came over and starts to tug on one of the girls hair. Laughing from his action he criticize their girlish behavior saying something like. "Who needs to style their hair when it can be pulled easily from the back!" His friend soon follow. "Yeah. You need to be a warrior like the Ocean Ripper to be a worthy lady."
Hearing her nickname being mention, Yanyi had an idea on how she can input not only some lesson but also getting the boys to be by her side. This way she can both entertain and keep an eye on them. The down side is, she won't be able to be in action to catch the culprit. Considering that she is alone at the moment, catching the culprit would be difficult so she opt to stay with the kids for now.
Yanyi — "Really? Well I heard that the Ocean Ripper's father is a really fearsome warrior that can bring terror across all of Yucoria."
Boy 1 — "*Tch* Yeah right. Do you even know their name?"
Yanyi — "Of course. The infamous Ocean Ripper is Lady Xue Yanyi, the firstborn of Marquess Xue. The loyal companion of His Highness. Her father, Xue Xenzi! The almighty Dark Justice of the Empire! And the ever lasting battalion of warrior on his side!"
All the children — "Woahh!!"
Yanyi — "*smirk* So, want to hear some story?"
"Yes!!!" Everyone, including the girls are jumping in their shoes, eager to hear more about this idol of theirs. And so for 1 hour Yanyi sat with the girls braiding her hair and the boys sitting on the pavement, telling everything she had known, learned and heard about her father's journey. The rise of the infamous L'ordre de l'appel du phénix (The Order of the Phoenix Call ).
After braiding her hair, she has yet to finish entertaining the kids as they kept on asking for more stories. Oh boy, Yanyi knew a lot about her father, to tell it in one sitting is not enough so she indulged their request for another hour. This time both girls and boys sits on the pavement around her with glistening eyes.
Though not everything can be happy moments. While her hair is being braided, she can feel a couple of eyes wandering to their location. Specifically landing on the children before landing on her and disappearing. Yanyi can easily went away after the eyes are off but they can came back at any moment. It is not until one of the children's guardian came that she felt more relief.
Boy — "But mama! I want to listen more about the Xue Family! This sister is telling a really good story."
Boy's Mama — "You can listen to it again later. It's so late already! Go back home!"
Girl — "B-But! Sister might not came back!"
Yanyi — "Oh don't worry! Sister will come back some time again. Then, we can continue with the story. And you girls can redo my hair with more flowers. How about it?"
Girl — "Really! We can see you again!"
Yanyi — "Of course! Next time, I'll tell you an even more epic story than before, okay! But~ you all have to promise me something."
"What is it?" One child tilted his head to the left, wondering what this condition she sets up is. Kneeling down to be on their level, Yanyi poke one of their nose. "Never ever walked anywhere alone, okay? Always bring at least 2 more people with you." "Okay!" And so Yanyi's journey by becoming their babysitter came to an end. Soon she makes her way to the station while admiring her new looks.
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-~*~-
~ * At the police station *~
As the short hand of the clock strike towards the number five and the long hand starts to move away from the number twelve, Luyao starts to open his eyes slowly. All the fatigue and lack of sleep from the past week had catch up to him which lead to him falling asleep.
Though that is not the most surprising part of all to him. That is reserved to what state he is currently in. His head is laying on a pillow coming from the couch and there's a blanket that he is very familiar with as he had been the one to buy it. "She drape it over me, didn't she?" Stretching his muscles and folding the blanket again, he saw Max walking into the office.
He place the snacks on the coffee table where the Chief Inspector make his way. Before sitting down he saw multiple stacks of files on the ground. Taking the top files it turns out to be the case files that he had worked day and night with for the past two weeks. Someone had organized the entire thing from top to bottom while he was asleep.
Luyao — "Max. Who did all of this?"
Max — "Oh! Lady Yanyi did. She came in this morning from the back window as the protest keeps on getting in the way. Some of the men that had helped you sir ask for her help and she went in and did everything. She had even prepared a summary for all the things she had concluded."
Luyao — "Where is the summary?"
Max — "I believe its on the table, sire."
He turn back around and saw the single file from where the pillow used to be. -She must've put it there.- He thought to himself. Just when he is about to open in, Yanyi's voice came from behind. "You're awake?" Turning around he is quite perplexed with her current looks. From the first day he had seen her, she had never EVER tied her hair in any style aside from a simple ponytail.
Now he sees her in a braid. He bangs had been swept nicely to the side, letting the nature of her face be shown more to the world. He didn't comment on it and only kept silence for a short few seconds. "Why are you staring at me?" Turns out his short stare is not overlooked.
Clearing his throat, he clarify that he had never seen her with any other hairstyle aside from letting her hair loss. Subconsciously, she touch her braid and explained her current predicament. "I take a visit to the west central square. I met up with some children there and they ask me to spend some time with them. I happily oblige."
Luyao — "Right. Also, care to explain what the content of this file is?"
Yanyi — "Certainly. I have read through all the reported files. 75% of them are either made up for attention or false report. The true one are only 25% which I had left on the table. I had organized each case according to date. Something I found is that it all happens in broad daylight from Monday to Saturday. Weirdly enough, Sunday has no report of missing children."
Luyao — "Shouldn't they be attacking in a more discreet area? Not a highly populated area where people walked around from dawn to dusk?"
Yanyi — "That is also what I thought. But, humans are humans after all. Normally, if the situation does not interfere with our private life, then ignorance is a bliss. That's all the summary I had."
"Anything from observation?" He place the file back on his desk and move to the couch where the girl had already lay herself flat. He exhaustion from talking is evident. Sending in a glass of water from the jug to her, Yanyi starts to confer back to what had happened. Practically nothing important happen. That is until she mention how she can feel a couple of eyes landing on her and the children.
Just then, a commotion break out at the front of the station. Luyao send in Max to deal with it while he rest and discuss more things about the case. Yanyi realized that the scream of a mother is coming from outside. Though it is not a cry of distress it spark something inside of her mind.
Taking a few of the case files in random order she looks closely to the picture provided. "What is it?" Luyao question her sudden action. Her brows are twitching and slowly arching toward the center. She is angry. Closing the files again. She starts to sip on her glass of water, and~ start a conversation.
Yanyi — "You know how the case before is a mass kidnapping for revenge, right?"
Luyao — "Yes."
Yanyi — "Though we are dealing with kidnapping issues. It is not on the motive of revenge."
Luyao — "What's the motive then?"
Yanyi — "Business. We are dealing with serial kidnapping for children trafficking."
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-~*~-