Malice Hearts Yin Book 1 Part 1

Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

By the time I returned to the Jade Pearl, both Hibiki and Satoshi were thankfully awake. The latter was already half groomed for the day, while the former was barely off his sleeping mat.

"You seem exhausted, Kyubei-san." I noted. He was usually a morning person, waking with little effort despite his perpetual use of sleeping aids.

He laughed sheepishly. "W-well, as you know, after I went chasing after Ken, I-I got a bit lost, hehe. I wore myself o-out trying to find w-where I was."

"And ya got Fujiwara's clothing stolen, too." Satoshi ran his fingers through his thick hair a few times to untangle it before tying it up into a sloppy ponytail. He had dark circles under his eyes and his complexion was off. No matter how many times he started his day with a hangover, he never learned to cut back on his drink.

"I h-hope he does not make me pay for them."

"It's a good thing nothing worse than that happened to you. The streets of Shanghai aren't safe. You're just lucky I found you before it could. Actually, just a few feet from here..."

I explained to them what I had seen in the commercial district.

"But th-that makes no sense! If the Zi family is behind the f-faceless murders w-why would Baoji be a v-victim?"

"Your sure it was that bastard from last night?"

"I said I saw the pendant he was wearing; that's not enough to confirm it was actually him." I corrected. "With the face gone, that's impossible."

"True, but that p-pendant, well, it seemed r-really rather expensive, did it not? I-I would imagine not m-many people can a-afford a piece of jade that large."

"Nor would they have the guts to wear it outside without worrin' about bein' robbed. Also, from what I can gather from that guy's character, seems people would be scared shitless 'bout wearin' anything similar to his, and drawin' his attention to 'em."

"S-so we can definitely conclude that it was Baoji that w-was m-murdered last night!"

"But why would he, of all people, get targeted?" I mused, pacing the room in thought, but when no explanation occurred to me after a few moments of this, I decided to come back to it later, after I gathered more evidence. "No sign of Fujiwara? How about Haruka and Yu? It's half past the hour of the dragon."

"Not yet, b-but I'm certain that w-we can rely on Haruka-chan to bring the child b-back to us, a-as for Ken, he's never been v-very punctual."

"That's putting it lightly.... anyway, Okimoto, when Yu gets here, I want you to perform a Kokei reading on him."

"I was thinkin' the same thing. That kid's a strange one."

"He is a p-peculiar child..." Hibiki mused, pacing the room until he reached the window and stared out into the streets. "I don't believe he's p-purposefully lying, but I d-do hope he has m-misunderstood. I-I don't want to consider t-that someone in the order w-would ever betray us i-in such a way... selling a Magatsuhi as a weapon..."

"There's always people 'round that'll put personal profit before everythin' else."

" Especially if relatives of the Zi family made their way into the order." I added. "It's likely that they're among those stationed at the Shanghai branch. That's the only way to explain why none of them were present at the scene."

"F-fair.... we should s-stop by and politely inquire as t-to their investigation w-with the faceless m-murders.... o-of course, k-keeping both Yu and what h-he told us quiet."