The Emperor's Dragon

Turning Points

Sir Nighteye looked around at the slaughter. He was standing near the middle of an abandoned warehouse and there were bodies everywhere. All of them had been killed violently. They'd died fighting but it didn't seem as if any of the opposition remained. Except... his eyes narrowed. With the way the bodies had fallen, it didn't appear as if any of their opposition had fallen with them. There was very little disturbance to the bodies which would indicate that they had been shifted for the victors to take their dead and injured.

Plus the merchandise hadn't been touched. Until now.

Paramedics were stretchering the last of those still alive, thankfully most of them, out of the building now. Most of them were babbling something about how 'Dragon did this' or 'Dragon ordered this'. They seemed desperate to get that message across. The paramedics didn't care. It wasn't their job to care about that. He'd heard and shook his head. There was no Dragon in the underworld. Those kids were going to need extensive attention, both physically and mentally. That was always expected with a child smuggling ring.

But it did lead to several questions.

Those running the ring were dead. The Dorei ring had been dead for a few days before the smell had attracted attention. The merchandise, scared, dishevelled children had survived because this batch of kidnappers didn't stint them on water.

But why were the Dorei ring dead? And why hadn't the killers then taken the merchandise and sold them? Or at the very least, released them? A vigilante would have released the kids.

Whoever had done this seemed more interested in killing the kidnappers and then... they just left?

That wasn't right. It was too odd. Though... if he supposed that someone named Dragon had done this or had ordered it, then the oddity would make them stand out.

He sighed. It meant there were forces moving in the underworld.

The sidekick shook his head and then began picking his way out of the mess again.

Half way through he paused. Eyes narrowed as he examined the ground. Blood was liberally splashed there but was dry now. However there was... Sir Nighteye looked closely. There. There was a colour. Brilliant green.

He took precise steps towards the tiny flash of colour, deliberately controlling the concern he felt. Carefully he squatted and looked at the colour.

He shook his head. It was what he thought it was.

A scale.

Iridescent green. "Evidence!" Mirai yelled. The group rushed back into the warehouse and stopped, staring at where he was. He rose and pointed. "Just here," he said.

"What is it?" One of the collectors asked, eyes roaming over the blood splotches on the ground as if determining a pathway.

"Something that shouldn't be here," he said.

The man nodded and then picked his way over. Sir Nighteye was glad to see he had an evidence bag, tweezers and a camera all on hand.

The scale was quickly extracted and bagged.

Mirai looked at it, holding it up to the light. It looked the same as the others he had seen but what did it mean?

On one level, he knew what it meant. This was connected to All For One. Dragon was connected to All For One.

But whether it was the man himself, or one of his minions, he had no idea. He'd have to ask one of the kids, after they were treated and hope they had more information. He hoped they did. If they had anything that would help determine if this was All For One or one of his minions, then that would be immensely helpful. At the moment it just seemed like him and Mirai didn't want to think about what that could mean. The man had lost his head! The first responders who had gotten to Toshinori were adamant on that. So how...