𝙷𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛

4

. . .

"You missed one Jousha."

"You really love to make my hard, hard work seem like trash don't you Mari?"

A handful of crystalized but decaying flesh colored spikes were thrown onto the somewhat lengthy table. This was the table to one of the meeting rooms of the heart building owned by the government protection unit of the county. The building stood tall and terrifying in the center of the busiest part of the city. Inside the meeting room, seated at the long table were 6 individuals, seemingly just released from their duties as most of them were dressed in black compression shirts with or without sleeves and comfortable pants. One or two did not shed their dark dreadful armor fully just yet. All looked at the spike thrown on the head of the table, some breaking into more pieces with the impact of meeting with the wood surface. Except for the woman who had thrown the spikes on the table. She had black hair that was strung up into two space buns. She crossed her arms, and even though her fluffy bangs covered her eyes, everyone in the room could tell she was staring down at the other woman seated at the other end of the table. "What even is that?" The green haired woman yawned. She had choppy muted mint green hair, and pale pink eyes that latched their gaze onto their target and pierced it with cold intensity. Some of her hair was twisted and matted into long dreads, some behind her and some hanging off her shoulders, and they were littered with small bones as charms. Bored and staring at the accusatory girl and evidence in front of her, she flicked her tongue over her silver canine looking like she was trying to get food out of it or something or another, and even fixed the metal bar that ran across her cheeks and nose. "What do you think they are?" She who was standing crossed her arms and nudged the disintegrating spikes. "I don't know Mari, you tell me since you found them and saying that they're my fault." Mari felt her temper rise. "Jousha, you were the one who asked to assist us in Mergi and you said you were going to wipe that section. And obviously you didn't get all of them." Mari kept her voice level but she was pretty pissed off that she had to clean up another person's mess, even though it was small. "Calm down Mari.. it's not that big of a deal. How many seers do we not kill off because they just happen to be good at hiding?" On the right side of the table, sat a lean but strong looking man, with long black hair that reached to around the center of his back. His eyes were tired, but golden and sharpened like a hawk. He seemed to be the most calm and comfortable one there, as he had his leg hung up on another chair and leaned back in his like he was relaxing at home. "I really don't need your help, Zayin." Mari didn't even grace him with a glance.

"Mari just because you have a Valence Badge doesn't mean you're a Phantom yettt.. and Mr. Lazy over there is right." Another lanky but cool man injected with his smooth English accent and put his arms behind his head. He also had a minty green type of hair, but the ends of his hair was black, and he was littered with almost symmetrical piercings. His ears were gauged, he had a nose ring, a bar in between his eyes, and two bars inserted into his upper lip, looking almost like fangs. "And you've been here for too long to start with the strict 'follow the rules or else!' bullshit." Anyone else would have looked at him with either concern or fear, but he was so nonchalant that it was hard to feel that way. "You too, Jakey. Shut it." Jakey threw his hands back up in his defense and looked down. He still wore the lower body parts of his armor, and his arms were bare. However on his right forearm was a tattoo of a woman surrounded by snakes. The other two in the room remained silent. The man that was standing was handling a bag with a messy braille and written name tag hanging off of it reading 'Shirai'. He looked very similar to Zayin, however his hair was braided and fell behind him, and the sides of his head were neatly shaved. He gave a look around the room and his peers quickly, and continued shoving things into his bag and fixing it. "You really are too uptight Mari.. I do my job well! You just wanna demote me again." Jousha frowned and whined. "You should be more like Rai over thereee.." Shirai looked up and glared at her. "No one said you could call me that." His voice was deep, and the two thick scars going down the tendons of his neck wrinkled slightly as he turned his head towards and away from them. "I think that means he's happy to get rid of our asses.." Zayin muttered. "Can we please discuss this?" Mari's temper was getting to its limit. "Your mask is breaking." The final woman in the room spoke, taking her two high ponytails out. Her lavender hair fell over her star-shaped pupils. Mari took a breath, and rolled her shoulders down, a few clicks coming from them. "Anyways.. I've already sent these to be tested to see what color seer they might've come from and the results came back as benign." "Sooo how is it my fault again?" "Because you could have found whatever this thing is and killed it, but you didn't. There were also two sets of footsteps in the dust of that alleyway. So you let two get away."