Spark in Darkness: Unworldy encounter/Prototype

Spark 42: Red the body snatcher

Soon the four of them found themselves in a cafe, with Haruki and his friends listening to the Princess about her problems.

The unknown attacker as of late had been striking Sparks at night, with reports stating that a woman was leading a group of people who seemed mindless. The citizens are stressing for the authorities to take action, but the Nayshards were glad the Sparks were getting taken out, and could not care less. Besides, they knew the attacker was on their side from the start.

Lia could no longer turn a blind eye to this matter, and requested Haruki and his group for assistance on the matter. She could not simply declare a hunt for this witch, or whatever the woman was, without getting any sort of retribution from the Sparks controlling the royal family.

"So you want us to risk our lives taking down this woman for you?" Shiro complained. Haruki knew Shiro liked to speak her mind when it comes to things she did not like, but talking to the Princess of a country like this was unheard of for him.

The Princess nodded. "Yes. I'm really sorry to burden you with this, but I'm sincere about asking for help. I'll pass you guys the book I've found in the library about travelling between worlds after this. I'm sure it'll benefit you, Haruki. And of course, I'll pay all of you generously."

"The reward after the job, huh. You sure know how to make bargains, Princess. I guess we have no choice." Shiro shrugged.

Haruki and Shinesh nodded. "Yeah, we'll accept this job."

The princess was visibly relieved, and she dropped one more warning. "Be careful, though. She's not exactly a Nayshard; the methods of attacks are different from that of Darkness. We don't know the full extent of her abilities."

***

After helping to carry planks and blocks around for the day, Haruki and Shinesh trudged back to the inn. According to the Princess the attacker had been moving about the area in the citt a dozen streets away from the inn they were in, and that the body in the morning had been dumped there.

"Why in front of our inn when it's so far away, though?" Haruki questioned.

"Exactly what I'm thinking," Shinesh agreed.

"Unless...they are giving us a warning?"

"No way, how does the attacker even know us?" Shinesh replied. Then he paused. "Wait. Don't tell me this attacker is the next one after Green and Blue?"

Haruki clicked his tongue when he realised what was going on. That must have been it! Even the princess told them that she used a special ability to hunt the missing people. But this time the victims were just innocent people, so Haruki had not been connecting the dots.

"Shit! Rinya is still alone in the inn!" He exclaimed as he kicked off in the direction of where the inn was.

Shinesh chased after him, and the two of them hurried down the street, praying that they would make it in time.

When they reached the inn, they did not see any signs of scuffle, and with bated breath, the two boys headed up the inn, past the noisy and drunk crowd below. They sighed in relief when they saw that Rinya and Shiro were talking normally, Rinya looking much better than before.

"What's wrong, you two? You two seem like you have seen of ghost." Shiro questioned.

The two boys voiced out their hypothesis, of this woman being 'Red', the next attacker after them.

Rinya scratched he chin. "I kept seeing this figure at the window over at that building whenever I wake up from my sleep. Maybe she's the one. Or maybe that person is helping to keep an eye on me."