Black Avatare

8 | MISSION

"Binnie, what's the status?" Piumi's voice whispered urgently in her earbud.

"Nothing here." Binara slunk past a vegetable plot. "And stop calling me that."

"Okay, Binnie, stay sharp."

Binara glowered and scanned the garden. Plants of all kinds sprouted out of the soil—chilli, eggplant and pumpkin. A scrawny moringa tree stood next to a rack of pots and cooking utensils. The sun beat down brighter than usual, baking both clay and her exposed head with equal fervor, and flies buzzed by, gossamer wings glinting. To make matters worse, the odor of compost grew more pronounced.

Screw this. I'm done. She wiped the perspiration on her brow and peeled off her hoodie. "I'm coming over."

"Binnie, are you sure it's clear?" Piumi asked immediately. "Did you—"

"Yes." She tied the hoodie around her waist and stomped towards the front of the house—one of many little dwellings in the village.

The front was hardly different, choked with shrubs, vines and foliage. Leathery leaves overflowed from pots, next to which was Piumi, her face scrunched up in concentration. A woman flitted about, holding a stick bundle of a broom.

"This sand here looks suspicious." Piumi examined the underside of a pot. "Do you recall it being this color?"

The villager stooped down for a closer look, though her plump midriff protested against the motion. "Oh, yes, it has a lighter tinge. I'm sure it's not from around here."

"Then we'll have to look into it."

"Iyo, are we cursed?" She flapped her free hand. "We are cursed! Seven calamities! I wonder if it's that nasty woman next door."

"Possibly." Piumi's expression turned grave. "But we can't know for certain until—"

"I'm telling you, it's Heenmanike. My roses died last week too. Evil eye, evil mouth. And the other day..."

While the woman lamented, Piumi made a sympathetic noise and pocketed a sample of sand in a clear bag. "We will analyze this in the lab and let you know."

Binara tapped her feet and crossed her arms. The fact that they actually ran forensic analysis was unexpected, but it did little to improve her mood. The woman's whining bugged her more than the flies.

"No snake eggs," Piumi announced into her phone recorder as she straightened up. "No hooniyan detected. A sample of suspicious sand procured—bringing in for analysis."

"Oh, thank you!" The villager gripped the broom tighter. "We'll await your test results."

Binara rolled her eyes.

Soon after, they navigated through the village in the direction of the forest path, which would take them back to Yakadura HQ. Piumi hummed an upbeat song under her breath, and her ponytail swayed as she trotted along, the highlights rippling and bouncing as red as a cherry barb fish. If the Yakadura shirt was meant to make her look formidable, it failed miserably.

"How much more of this?" Binara muttered.

"Huh?" Piumi paused to survey her.

"How many times do we have to poke around in random people's yards for silly sand samples and snake eggs and nonexistent hooniyan?"

"It's not silly." Piumi adjusted the straps of her backpack and held her head high. "These are important missions. In any case, we need experience to level up."

"That's such bull—"

"Hey, hey!" The greeting blasted them like a civet shriek.

It turned out to be Manju. The boy scampered up to them, his grin broadening with each step. Binara scowled.