"Hey girls. I'm back." Kaguya announced as she arrived back in Seawood Inn with Mikado, "Sorry for disappearing for a bit."
"No problem." Helena smiled, "We all know you were busy teaching the Driftwoodians to grow crops. You sure do like doing that a lot though."
"It's good practice for when I introduce it to Fuyuki." Kaguya sighed as she sat down at the table, "But enough about me. How's progress on the main mission?"
"Main mission?"
"Yeah. You have been chasing the monsters right?"
"Oh. Yeah, we don't really have any leads so..."
"You...haven't been chasing anything?"
"I mean, all we got is the possible presence of demons." Momo mused as she crossed her arms, "I guess I should've asked Roko about it when he showed up for the feast but I don't think he would've given us a straight answer anyway."
"He do be evil now so pretty unlikely." Helena nodded.
"We're sure he's evil again?" Kaguya raised an eyebrow, "He did seem pretty similar to how he usually acts. He was just...a bit more antagonistic I guess?"
"I mean if he's not with us then what else can he be?" Helena smirked.
"Well, if we do end up fighting him, I don't know if I'll be able to handle him." Momo frowned, "We might need Varis to handle him."
"Hey, don't worry about it. We got Roland." Helena grinned.
"Helena please, I'm too hungry to burst out into a fit of laughter." Kaguya said with a smile, "Where's Lydia or Brian? I need to order something before I die of starvation."
"Haven't seen Lydia but Brian has been looking really down lately." Corissa replied, "I'm not sure what could've happened but he seems really devastated but when I go to try and talk to him about it, he just tries to brush me off and assure me it's fine."
"Must be something immensely personal then." Helena nodded, "And Lydia hasn't been around lately. Maybe love troubles?"
"Are you saying Lydia cheated on Brian?!" Corissa gasped, "But Brian's such a nice guy!"
"Well Lydia seemed fine otherwise whenever I caught glimpses of her." Momo mused, "So...the guy is devastated and the girl seems fine...I dunno, it really might be cheating."
"How horrible!" Corissa shook her head, "Whoever stole Lydia from a guy as nice as Brian must be a real scumbag!"
"Couldn't agree more." Momo nodded, "Going after a married woman is messed up."
"Horrible individual." Kaguya shook her head, "Scum of the earth."
"I could never be friends with someone like that." Helena scoffed.
The girls all nodded in agreement.
…
"I'm still hungry though." Kaguya remarked, "Can you make something, Corissa?"
"Oh. Well I can't use the kitchen right now. Brian's keeping out non-staff during his depression. I even offered to help out for free but he refused. I could still whip up something with my own tools though."
"Please do." Kaguya sighed, "I'm starving."
"No problem!" Corissa grinned as she stood up, "Let me check what I still have in stock and see what I can whip up!"
"Alright. Now that we have eaten up, it's time to get down to our work." Helena nodded, "So let's start with interviews!"
Helena's plan was met with a rousing cheer from everyone as they stood outside the inn. Then were immediately confused when Helena began to walk back into the inn.
"Wait, I thought we were doing interviews." Momo said as she grabbed Helena to stop her from returning to the inn.
"Hm? Yeah, we're interviewing Brian right?" Helena blinked.
"Brian? On what?"
"His love life."
Momo sighed as Corissa and Kaguya just giggled to themselves on the side, "Helena, we need to focus on the situation in the town."
"Okay well let me tell you the situation in the town then." Helena frowned, "Everyone's been taken over by monsters and among those monsters are possible demons. So you tell me where I can find any leads."
"If people aren't trustworthy we'll just have to look for evidence instead." Momo replied, "...Right?"
"What kind of evidence are we looking for?" Helena rolled her eyes, "A grimoire? That'd solve all our problems for sure. And what evidence of demons do we even look for? Alec had a demon with him and nobody knew until Roko exposed him!"
"Uhhh..." Momo backed down from Helena, unable to come up with a good counter.
"This situation would be so easy for Roko huh?" Kaguya remarked, "His spells would see right through their disguises and secrets."
"True." Helena sighed, "That's why they took him from us didn't they?"
"I dunno..." Momo frowned, "Why would demons choose to mind control a random human instead of just killing him? Even if he was a danger to their operations, killing would be a much simpler solution than enslaving right?"
"Hmmm. Even if they coerced Roko to cooperate instead, he would almost certainly be planning on betraying them at any point and would have the sense to send us some sort of sign that he's not on their side." Kaguya mused.
"I mean, the demon did seem pretty frustrated by Roko." Corissa added.
"Yeah but that's because Roko's an asshole." Helena grinned.
"Well...he's hard to get along with sometimes but he's still a good person at heart." Corissa said with an awkward laugh.
"He always knows what to do next." Momo smiled, "And he always does it first before anyone else. A real leader if nothing else."
"Smart enough to be harsh. Wise enough to be kind." Kaguya added, "That's the Roko I know."
"I'm proud to have him as a friend." Helena nodded.
…
"Man, I bet Roko would've had this solved already."
"Hey, Roko."
"What's up, Olivia?"
"Weren't you supposed to be looking for a grimoire?"
"Well, that was the plan but then I got sidetracked by all this contract business."
"You've made your point now but the demons are still expecting some sort of result on the main thing we hired you for."
"Hired is a generous word."
"You know what I mean."
"I know." Roko sighed, "Let's go then."
"Where?"
"Where else do you go to find monsters?"
"...So I know where we're going. It's just if I say it out loud then you sound-"
"I'm well aware." Roko sighed, "Thankfully there's nobody else around to judge me. And you're a demon so what does it matter if we say it?"
"That's true. Off to the church then."
"Haddock! You big fucking nerd! Where's my goddamn money?!"
"Really?" Roko frowned.
"I saw your friend do it and kinda wanted to do it myself." Olivia smiled sheepishly.
"Dear god, what did I ever do to deserve this?" Haddock growled.
"Praying to the wrong guy, fella." Olivia crossed her arms as Haddock prayed in front of his altar, "But if you don't want to get killed for like, what, the fifth time? Just tell us where the grimoire is."
"I said as such since you arrived here, demon." Haddock said as he stood up and dusted off his robes, turning to his intruders with a knowing smirk, "I know not where our grimoire is and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you anyway."
"You're telling me that the priest doesn't know where his bible is?" Olivia scoffed, "Some priest you are."
"Being a priest doesn't give me the psychic ability to know where every bible is within a 10-mile radius." Haddock frowned.
"So you don't know where the grimoire is?"
"Of course I do." Haddock's eyes widened as he looked down at his own mouth, covering it as he tried to stop the truth that was spilling out from it.
"Looks like it worked." Roko smirked.
"Yeah." Olivia smiled, "I didn't even know what a 'Zone of Truth' spell was but I think I figured it out."
"Blasphemers." Haddock scowled, "You would force the truth out from my very lips?!"
"We gave you the easy way." Roko shrugged, "Now we just doing it the hard way."
"Devils! Demons!"
"Actually, she's part succubus."
"I vant to suck your blood!" Olivia said waving her arms in a vague notion of looking scary.
"Olivia, that's vampires."
"Well, I can't say the other thing."
"Enough!" Haddock cried, "I don't care what kind of spells you've learned! All who defy us shall be eliminated!"
A brick flew through one of the church's windows and humans began climbing out of the broken window. In an almost zombie like state waves of humans began pouring out to try and attack the duo, stumbling over themselves as the ones that landed on their torsos began conjuring fire to throw at Roko.
"We really haven't learned a thing have we?" Roko sighed as they were swarmed from all sides.
"How do you want to handle it?" Olivia asked as she hacked the fire spells being thrown at them and redirected them back to the nearest attackers.
"Well, the entire point of this is to get him to confess under the zone so you can handle the chaff."
"Roger."
Roko walked calmly down the aisle, the monsters trying to attack him only getting easily pushed back by immense magical forces as he kept his eyes on Haddock who was starting to become unnerved.
"I-I can't understand! How are you THIS powerful?!"
"I'm not." Roko replied simply, "Olivia is."
"I'm not actually." Olivia replied, "Roko's knowledge and theories dwarfs any mage I've ever met."
"That's surprisingly nice of you." Roko blinked, turning to glance back at Olivia.
"It's the damn zone." Olivia scowled, "I totally meant it though."
"...Were you trying to be tsundere again?"
"SHUT UP! Grab the man already!"
"Fine, fine." Roko smirked.
"No...no!"
Haddock directed waves of men and women to get in Roko's way only for them to get pushed aside with ease as Roko drew close. Then the door burst open.
"Haddock! You dumb monster! We've come to have a discussion!"
Everything in the church stopped moving as Helena, Corissa, Momo, Kaguya and their knights all suddenly arrived. Their group being just as stupefied by the scene before them. For a long time, no one knew what to do. Then Kaguya turned to Helena,
"Helena, I thought you were going to use the 'Haddock! You big fucking nerd! Where's my goddamn money?!' line again."
"That was what I meant to say." Helena frowned, "Dunno why I said what I did."
"Oh, that's weird." Momo nodded, "Anyway, holy shit it's Roko!"
"Fancy meeting you here!" Helena grinned, "Looks like you're in a bind! Need some help?"
"Does it really look like we need the help?"
"Depends on the interpretation."
"What kinda line is that?" Kaguya frowned.
"I dunno. I keep saying way lamer lines than I mean to." Helena frowned.
"GET THEM ALL!" Haddock yelled.
As chaos descended upon the church once more, Roko called out to Olivia though their mental connection, Olivia! Drop the zone and get back here!
We escaping? Olivia asked, dodging the attacking humans to fly back to Roko's side.
Better to retreat before we get found o-
Roko's thoughts were cut short by the flash of a blade. Barely able to raise an armament and reinforced arm in time, Roko just managed to block Varis sword from taking his head.
"Tch." Roko growled as Varis pushed against his arm, "So you're here too."
"Roko!" Momo called as she struggled with the monsters swarming them, "We're getting answers out of you if it's the last thing we do!"
"What happened to your own investigations?" Roko scowled.
"We're stuck!"
"Momo!"
"Sorry, I don't know why I said that!"
"Olivia, I thought I told you to drop the zone!"
"Sorry, I forgot!"
"What zone?!" Helena cried.
"Never you mind!" Roko snapped.
"Are you really evil?!" Corissa called.
Olivia?
Zone's been dropped.
"What do you think?!" Roko cried as he pushed Varis back.
Why'd you ask me about the zone if you were going to be ambiguous anyway?!
Caution!
Ah, hold that thought.
Olivia suddenly appeared from behind Roko and grabbed onto something approaching from his blindspot.
"Nice try there, little girl. But you're gonna have to do better than that."
"I didn't think you saw me." Kaguya smirked, Calcify inches from scratching Roko's body with poison.
"When protection is part of our contract, we're alerted to any attempt at harming our contracter."
"You're protecting him? Why?"
Olivia scoffed and picked up Kaguya, throwing her at one of the humans attacking them. As she did, she sent Roko a thought.
Roko, what do I say?!
Are you serious?
Yes!
Is the zone down?
YES!
"Why else?" Olivia sneered as Kaguya picked herself up, "Gotta protect my assets."
Quick question, could I have said that under the zone of truth?
Do you see me as an asset?
I mean, yeah.
Then yes.
In that case, why'd you ask me about the zone?!
Just checking.
"Asset huh?" Momo growled as she jumped over all the attacking humans to swing her sword down at Olivia who threw up a barrier to block her, "Is that all Roko is to you?! An asset?!"
"Of course."
Okay, I couldn't say THAT under the zone.
You think of me as more than an asset?
DAMMIT!
You know, you didn't have to admit that.
I KNOW!
At least I know the zone is actually down now.
THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN SA-oh for- nevermind.
Olivia snapped her fingers and summoned a small rift that dropped a sword onto the ground for Roko to draw from the earth.
"Looks like we're not getting out of here without a fight." Olivia said.
"Looks like." Roko sighed.
"I'll do you a favor and go easy on your friends." Olivia sneered.
"I was going ask you to stop holding back actually."
"HA! Good one!"
But in their heads;
Seriously?
I don't lie.