Hajime knelt down and explained everything to Shea point by point.
“Look, Shea. Normally, when you find a lost child, the proper thing to do is to send them to the safety department. Besides, Myu’s a dagon. They’ll definitely treat her well. And the fact that there’s an underground auction that deals in dagons will cause a huge uproar. There’ll definitely be a full-scale investigation, and all the other kids will end up in the department’s protection as well.” Even if Myu was a beastman, she was one of the races under the kingdom’s protection. Fuhren did possess a level of independence, but they couldn’t ignore people that were so flagrantly flouting the kingdom’s authority. Hajime had no doubt that the officials of the city would have to act, which in turn would surely lead to Myu being returned home.
Hajime continued piling on rational reasons why they should leave Myu in the city’s care.
“Do you understand? What we’re dealing with here is the underworld that exists in every large city. If they’re capable of capturing Myu, then it’s obvious they have eyes and ears in places the government can’t reach them. This whole affair is Fuhren’s problem. It’s not something we should poke our noses into. Besides, whatever we decide to do, we still have to report this to someone. I know this probably hits close to home, and I understand your feelings, but...”
“I guess... you’re right... But we could at least take her with us, right? We’re headed west, anyway...”
“Come on, you know we’re going to visit the volcano before we reach the coast. Are you suggesting we take her into a labyrinth with us? Or make her wait outside alone in the desert? Besides, if we just took a girl with us because we wanted to, we’d be no better than kidnappers ourselves. Don’t be unreasonable.”
“Awww, okay...” Shea had gotten pretty attached to Myu in the short time they’d spent together. Guessing that she was the cause of their argument, Myu tightly hugged Shea. It seemed Myu was pretty comfortable around Shea now, too. Her hug made Shea even more reluctant to let Myu go.
However, what Hajime was saying was right, so she reluctantly nodded. Hajime squatted down next to Myu and slowly explained what they’d decided.
“Okay, Myu. We’re going to take you to some people who can protect you. It might take some time, but they’ll definitely get you back home.”
“What about you?” Myu’s voice was anxious.
“Sorry, but we’ll have to say bye to you there.”
“No!”
“Hey now, don’t be like that...”
“I like being with Onii-chan and Onee-chan! I’m staying with you!” Her adamant refusal threw Hajime off-balance.
She started struggling in Shea’s lap. She’d been surprisingly mature up until now, but that might have just been because she was still trying to figure out what kinds of people Hajime and Shea were. Now that she’d decided they were people she could trust, she’d begun acting more spoiled, like a kid her age. It was possible she’d been a lot more cheerful and noisy before all this had happened to her.
Hajime was glad Myu liked him, but he knew he’d have to report this to the authorities. On top of that, he still had a labyrinth to conquer before they would make it to the west coast, so he had no intention of bringing Myu with him.
After seeing how reluctant Myu was, Hajime gave up on trying to explain things to her. Instead, he forcibly put her on his shoulders and headed for the safety department building.
The whole way there, she scratched and pulled at Hajime’s hair, eyepatch, and face. She had finally found people she could trust after escaping that hellish prison, so she wasn’t going to let them go without a fight.
Had it not been for Shea following behind them placating everyone, it was quite possible Hajime would have been reported as a kidnapper himself. Hajime arrived at the safety department covered in scratches, his eyepatch missing, and his hair a mess. He explained to the wide-eyed receptionist what he’d discovered.
The receptionist told Hajime that in order to launch an investigation and to make sure the procedures to get Myu sent home they would have to talk to their boss. They promised Myu would be safe in their hands, and urged Hajime to leave her there. As Hajime had guessed, this was a huge deal. They would probably need to call in reinforcements from their headquarters as well. Seeing that his job was done, Hajime turned to leave. However...
“Onii-chan, do you hate me?” Even Hajime couldn’t take Myu’s teary-eyed puppy-dog look. Most people wouldn’t be able to. He let out a garbled groan and tried to explain once again why he couldn’t take Myu with him, and that she would be safe with the kind old man standing over there. But even when he told her the man would take her home, Myu’s sorrowful expression remained.
The people at the safety department tried to console Myu, and somewhat forcibly attempted to separate her from Hajime. After many tears and pulled hairs, Hajime and Shea finally left the department building behind.
Of course, neither of them were in the mood to continue their date, and Shea kept shooting worried glances back at the safety department building.
Finally, they were out of sight of the building. Shea still looked glum, so Hajime tried to cheer her up.
However, just as he opened his mouth, there was a massive explosion behind them. The two of them whirled around and saw black smoke rising in the distance. The source of the smoke was clearly—
“H-Hajime-san, that’s the...”
“Tch, the safety department building!” The black smoke was rising from where Hajime and Shea had just left.
They nodded to each other and ran back as fast as possible, fueled by the fear that the worst-case scenario might have happened. That they’d somehow found word of Myu’s location, and in order to keep everyone’s mouths shut, blown the whole place up along with her.
They tried to hold back their panic as they arrived to find a blown out building with glass and masonry lying everywhere. Fortunately, the building itself didn’t seem too damaged, and wasn’t in any danger of collapsing. They gingerly stepped inside and found the kindly old receptionist lying face-down on the ground.
Both of his arms had been broken, and he was unconscious. The other members had suffered a similar fate. The only saving grace was that no one’s injuries looked fatal. As Hajime was looking over the staff, Shea came running back to him. She’d gone on ahead to search a different part of the building.
“Hajime-san, Myu-san isn’t here! Also, I found this!” She handed over a slip of paper. There were demands written on it.
“If you value the dagon’s life, bring the white-haired kid and the beastman with him to this location.”
“Hajime-san, this is...”
“Looks like our opponents got greedy...” Hajime crushed the paper in his fist and smiled fiendishly. Somehow, they’d overheard Hajime’s exchange with the safety department people. They’d decided that it would be more valuable to keep Myu as a hostage. That way they could use her as a bargaining chip to get a rare rabbitman as well.
Shea looked at Hajime, determination etched all over her face.
“Hajime-san, I’m going to—”
“You don’t need to say it. I know. Besides, they’ve made themselves my enemy. The time for talk’s over. We’re gonna tear them a new asshole and get Myu back.”
“Roger!”
Hajime had honestly thought it would have been better to leave Myu in the care of professionals, especially considering how dangerous their journey was. And if they were going to leave her eventually, the faster the better. After all, he hadn’t wanted a desperate girl like her getting too attached to them.
Still, now that he knew there was the danger of her getting kidnapped again, he couldn’t leave her alone. Abandoning her when there was something he could do about it would certainly lead down the path Aiko had feared. Besides, he knew if he just said it had nothing to do with him, Shea would be devastated too.
And more than anything, they’d tried to kidnap Shea too. Anyone that would dare harm some
one Hajime considered important was an enemy. And he showed his enemies not even an iota of mercy. These slave traders had crossed a line they never should have.
Weapons in hand, Hajime and Shea headed to the designated meeting point. Those fools would soon learn what unholy monsters they had called down upon themselves.
“And there you have it. When we got to the place they’d marked, we only found a bunch of thugs. Myu wasn’t there. They’d probably planned to kill me and kidnap Shea. We killed most of them and interrogated the few we left alive, but they didn’t know where Myu was being held either. We tortured them until they told us where their other hideouts were, and we’ve been going to each one trying to beat Myu’s location out of someone.”
“It seems they were planning on kidnapping not just me, but you two as well. So in order to set an example, we decided to utterly crush this organization and anyone associated with them...”
Today was supposed to have been just a simple date, but they’d become entangled in the underworld of one of the largest cities on the continent. Yue and Tio marveled at Hajime and Shea’s penchant for attracting trouble.
“So we just need to find out where Myu is, right?”
“Yeah. From the information we’ve gotten so far, it’s a pretty big organization... They’ve got a lot of buildings and sub-groups. Could you help us?”
“Yeah... leave it to me.”
“Of course. I would never dream of refusing a request from my master.”
Yue and Tio agreed without hesitation. Hajime told them about the location of the hideouts he’d just discovered from his previous raid, and they split up into two groups to take them down. Hajime went with Yue, Shea with Tio. The reason Hajime and Shea had split up was because they wanted there to be at least one person Myu knew there when they found her.
They headed to a place near the outskirts of the business district. It was an area that no tourist or honest merchant ever visited. It was a place as far from the prying eyes of the authorities as possible, the perfect location for a criminal base. There was dimness to the alleys despite the fact that it was noon. Even the people walking around seemed somehow gloomier.
Tucked away in a corner was a ten-story building. On the surface, it was a place that managed part-timers. However, in reality, it was the headquarters of Freidhof, an organization that managed Fuhren’s slave trade.
Normally, it was a quiet place that did its best to look inconspicuous, but today it was bustling with activity. People were running in and out of the entrance with unusual frequency. Most of the people running around were low-ranking thugs that were ferrying messages back and forth. Their expressions were twisted in confusion, impatience, and fear. No one had any idea what the situation was.
Thanks to the chaos, two figures clad in nondescript robes were easily able to slip into Freidhof’s headquarters.
They weaved through the crowd of panicking gang members, and made it to the top floor without anyone challenging them. Before them stood an imposing set of double doors. Angry voices spilled out of the room into the hallway the figures were standing in. The two of them raised the hoods of their robes slightly and tiptoed forward.
“Quit fucking with me! I dare you to say that again, you bastard!”
“H-Hii! B-But it’s true, Boss. They’ve already taken out more than fifty of our safe houses. There’s two groups of two taking our whole operation out!”
“You’re saying that just four fuckheads are destroying everything Freidhof built up? Is that it, huh!?”
“Th-That’s righ— Bugwah!?”
There was a loud thud and the room fell silent. Whoever had been giving the report must have been punched by this “Boss.”
“Listen good, you lowlifes! I want those fuckers brought to me alive. Cut their legs off, break their arms, I don’t care, but I want them alive. At this rate Freidhof’s reputation will be ruined. We’ve gotta torture those fools to make an example out of them, or we’ll be the laughingstock of the city. I’ll give five million Luta to anyone who captures them! Five million per head! Tell everyone else about the bounty!” A flurry of activity could be heard coming from the room. The man hastened to leave the room as fast as he could. The two hooded figures nodded to each other. One of them pulled out a massive warhammer strapped to her back and hefted it into the air. Then, just as the man put his hand on the doorknob, she swung the hammer down.
With a massive bang, the door exploded into a thousand splinters. The right side of the man’s body was crushed flat, and the people sitting behind him were blasted by a wall of shrapnel. They slammed into the wall behind them, covered in blood.
“There’s no need to tell everyone. We’re right here.”
“Hmph, I shall handle those waiting outside. Finish this up quickly, Shea.”
“Thank you, Tio-san.”
The two figures who had casually walked into the room were none other than Tio and Shea.
Freidhof’s boss, Hansen, had watched in shock as his door was blasted open and his subordinates flung across the room like ragdolls. Shea and Tio’s conversation brought him back to his senses though, and he quickly pulled out his weapon.
“So you’re the ones that have been running around busting up my operation. Wait a sec... Tch, you’re the bitches from the wanted posters. Shea and Tio, right? There was that other small brat too, Yue or something. Man, you’re real lookers. Hey, if you throw down your weapons and surrender, I’ll spare your lives. You don’t honestly think you can walk into Freidhof’s headquarters and make it back ali—” A massive bang, loud enough that it could be physically felt, interrupted Hansen’s prattling. Drucken was resting on Shea’s shoulder, smoke coming from the retracted handle. She’d transformed it into bombardment mode... and blown Hansen away with a shotgun blast.
From such close range, he hadn’t stood a chance. The barrage of iron pellets had ripped his right arm clean off. He tumbled into the wall behind him, a spray of blood trailing in his wake. A few seconds passed before he realized what had happened, and then the screaming started.
“Boss!? What was that sound!?”
“Are you alright!?”
The loud sound attracted the thugs on the nearby floors. They started swarming in like flies. However—
“Preying on children is one of the most despicable acts there is... You’ve roused my anger now. Repent your sins in the afterlife.” Tio unleashed a blast of fire magic that eradicated the stairs and anyone standing on it. Those left on the floor below stopped in their tracks, their only way up now a pile of ash.
Still, the dragon wasn’t about to let anyone escape. She turned her fangs to the men below and unleashed her dragonbreath. True, her breath wasn’t as powerful in human form, but it was still the same breath that had tested the limits of Hajime’s defenses. A wooden building had no hope of surviving that.
Everything but the room Hansen was in was bathed in pitch black flames. The building somehow didn’t collapse, despite the fact that an entire wall was now missing. From a distance, the burning building looked just like an ant farm, with people scurrying about, trying to escape.
Those who were still alive scrambled out of the building as fast as they could and simply stared dumbfounded at what was happening on the top floor. It was only natural. Their base had been destroyed in the span of a few seconds. Their brains couldn’t keep up with the situation at hand.
However, the enraged dragon had no intention of showing them any mercy. Fireballs and wind blades rained down on the survivors with the speed of Hajime’s gatling guns. Men fled in every direction, but... only a few made it out of the onslaught alive.
As Tio kept busy raining death onto the people outside, Shea walked up to Hansen. She stopped in front of him, tapping Drucken menacingly against her shoulder. Without a word, she slammed the hammer into the cowering gang leader’s stomach. He simply grunted in pain and desperately tried to push the hammer off him, but moving the super heavy hammer with a single hand was all but imp
ossible. The only option left to him was to beg for his life.
“I-I’m begging you. Don’t kill me! I’ll give you as much money as you want! I won’t ever go after you guys again! Please— Gwaah!?”
“Quit talking. All I want to hear from you are the answers to my questions. Understood? Every time you don’t answer, I’ll make this hammer heavier... I recommend you start talking before your organs turn to mush.”
“Shea... You really are one of Master’s comrades... You sound just like him.” Tio turned around to poke fun at Shea, but she completely ignored her and grilled Hansen for Myu’s location.
Hansen seemed confused at first, but when Shea mentioned that Myu was the dagon girl he quickly started talking. The steadily increasing weight of Drucken probably had something to do with it, too. It seemed there was going to be an illegal auction held this evening, and that she’d been imprisoned in a cell beneath the auction hall.
Hansen hadn’t been aware of the relationship between Shea and Myu, which was why he didn’t understand the reason Shea was so hung up on her.
From the sound of it, whoever had spotted Shea and Myu at the safety department had decided to capture Shea on a whim. Shea’s name had actually been a priority target on Freidhof’s list already, so the thug who tried to kidnap her had likely just been looking for a promotion.
Shea touched the gem on her choker and used Telepathy to contact Hajime.
“Hajime-san, Hajime-san. Can you hear me? It’s Shea.”
“Shea? Yeah, I can hear you loud and clear. What’s up?”
“I found out where Myu-chan is. You’re in the tourist quarter right now, right? It’s close to where you are, so head there before us.”
“Gotcha.”
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 4 Page 5