"Now come on, there's someone I want you to meet. He cooks the best fish in town."
"..."
Igor remained quiet at Atid's words. One last sweep at the Underworld with his senses verified Asia was still safe.
[It better remain that way.]
.
|DxD|
.
The town of Wairoa was home to two powerful gangs—the Mongrel Mob and Black Power. Both emerged during the '60s and 70's respectively and over the decades, gained significant power. Town Councilors, Chief of Police, Prosecutors, Prison Wardens, Judges—all were paid off by these gangs.
It wasn't wrong to say these two gangs held considerable sway in this town, but others existed besides them. Splinter groups, motorcycle clubs, and international gangs spreading their influence across the islands of the Pacific had Wairoa as outposts.
What these gangs did have as an understanding however was to not attack tourists. It was an unspoken rule of sorts—especially if these tourists respected local traditions. It was unfortunate this custom did not extend to residents as many foreign investors and settlers came to find out.
In its heyday, Wairoa did not have many large-scale factories, but there were many small businesses built around them. Mechanics, welders, and even small food stalls alongside other supplementary businesses existed because of these factories.
Most of the town's factories were concentrated in a designated area by a river that flourished once upon a time. The Abandoned District, as the locals called it, was roughly the size of four city blocks combined. The presence of these abandoned factories spoke volumes of the once industrious age Wairoa had seen.
Atid was leading Igor through this rather scenic path, for he wanted to act as a guide and show him this town's history. Instead of entering the town through the official road, Atid dragged his friend to the less-than-desirable entry point along a dirt path, one that would place them in sight of muggers and murderers.
"During the fifties, this place was bustling, brother. It wasn't the mess it is today. Back then, there were no gangs and job-security was high."
He led him through a footpath, navigating through untamed shrubs and tall grasses. There was a mountain of dumped trash far in the distance along with a few people sorting through the waste for metal. Igor looked at the group for a while in reminiscence of his own scrap-collecting days before Atid pulled his attention.
"Look at this, brother."
Atid gestured towards the segment of abandoned factories by the river.
"Some of them have been dead for over forty years now."
He clicked his tongue when he looked at the dilapidated state of the buildings. Untamed vegetation climbed over the broken walls and trailed around the edges. The roofs, air vents, gutters—anything exposed to the salty sea air had completely rusted through. Once sturdy iron had now turned into brown mush that peeled off at the slightest twist.
"I forgot to bring the photos with me, Igor. If you could see the difference between now and then, you'd be surprised."
The poor and vagrants of society had made this place their home. Graffiti lined the walls and winning the lottery would be easier than finding an unbroken window. Once proud signs that hung up had been muddied through with dirt.
Where uniformed workers passed now had the burdens of society. Establishments designed to bring prosperity now housed thieves and gang members—useless wastes of humans.
"Look, brother. This place had potential. It was small, but it had potential. If only those gangs didn't form, then this town would've thrived."
"..."
Igor looked at the people present. He could sense the presence of murderers amongst them, though no sign of the supernatural. For a town to have not a single supernatural presence, not even a stray devil, spoke volumes of its insignificance. It was hard for him to understand why his friend seemed so invested. It was too abnormal.
"You seem awfully affected by this, Atid…more than a casual observer."
"..."
It was Atid's turn to fall silent. Indeed he was showing too much emotion regarding this matter. He didn't reply immediately but pointed towards an abandoned building.
A large sign with simple lettering was there, though some had completely rusted through. Most of the corrugated iron lining the roof was stripped off, leaving only a few parts that had rusted heavily.
"This place used to be called RiverSteel. It was your go-to for anything metal back in the forties and fifties. From pipes and tools to even spoons—if it was metal, they dealt with it. But then the sixties and the seventies came and everything changed. Gang violence suffocated this town and this factory was part of the fall."
It was a waste to see such degradation, especially one borne from human greed.
"Four years ago, I met the man who started this company when I was touring the world. Like Goku, you know?"
He chuckled lightly at the thought. It sounded stupid when he said it, but his self-imposed journey led him to discover many things and expand his horizons.
"You know what they did to him, Igor? When he refused to pay protection fees, they started robbing any trucks delivering to this factory. Then they harassed his workers and at night, they damaged this building. When even the police couldn't help him, he was soon forced to shut down and hundreds lost their jobs overnight."
"..."
Igor took a look at the once-great factory once more. Just from the size of the building, he could tell it had been very successful in its heyday.
"Is that man still alive?"
"No. He died two years ago. But I did find and eliminate the ones who ordered his terrorization."
"Oh?"
Igor held some amount of surprise. If Atid could go this far, then this elderly man must've been a big influence in his life. He'd admit he was curious as to how Atid came to meet such a man. For a normal human to leave such an indelible mark on his friend…it'd have been nice to see him.
"Did this man father any children?"
"Convenient you ask, brother. The people I'm taking you to meet are his grandchildren. They're orphans unfortunately, but I did promise I'd take care of them. He left them a restaurant before he died."
For a moment, a smile formed on Atid's face.
"Like I said, you'll love their fish."
.
|DxD|
.
Atid led Igor through the town once more while casually explaining its history. They did encounter some seedier elements, but because of their clear foreign nationalities, they weren't touched. It was a hidden rule Atid informed Igor of along with some more history of this town.
They ventured through the Abandoned District and finally got into the heart of the town. Igor had lost count of how many times he thought of instantly going to where they need to be, but he'd admit he rather enjoyed the feeling of walking around and taking in the sights. It didn't mean he didn't like the eyes people gave him. Then again, in this day and age, who would wear a coat like his?
Atid soon led them down south towards the outskirts where some road construction was happening. The exuberant dark-haired teen greeted the workers with familiarity before crossing the street. A few hundred metres of walking and they made it to their location.
It was a wooden building that looked more like a small cathedral than a restaurant. It was made of dark oak with a very rustic building style.
"Here it is, Igor. This small restaurant boasts the best fish in town."
Igor and Atid were at an establishment built next to Wairoa River. There were a few cars and more than a few bikes parked outside. This place, in truth, looked more like a bar than a restaurant and definitely not a place they looked like they should be.
"Come on, Igor. I'll introduce you to Renata! I promise you'll love her."
"..."
Igor wondered whether his friend actually loved the food or the person serving it.
[This better taste good.]
Today was one of the few peaceful days he had without Triny being around him. He didn't want to waste it listening to cheesy pickup lines.
He entered the door after Atid and immediately, they stuck out like sore thumbs. For one, there was a whole table of Black Power gang members dressed in black and blue. The key identification was the patch featuring a clenched fist. The moment they entered, attention was drawn, especially to Igor.
The locals mostly avoided wearing red or blue for those colours could mistakenly be associated with rival gangs. Igor with his bright red coat could be mistaken as his allegiance to the Mongrel Mob, a rival gang of the Black Power.
Igor being Igor, such unspoken rules didn't concern him. What he didn't like though was the side-eye he was receiving. He met their eyes head on and spoke with unbothered neutrality. Right in the middle of the room, right in front of the shocked eyes of many patrons, he spoke words that would be remembered by all as the catalyst to everything.
"If you want me to kill you, just say so."
.
|DxD|
.
There Atid was, ready to meet and greet the lovely Renata. She was a beautiful twenty-one-year-old woman, a charming older type. Despite the violence in this rural town, she was kind and had a lovely smile he found himself warming up to.
Today was supposed to be another day of trying to charm this beauty away. Her brother already agreed to him chasing her so there were no obstacles. She was a prickly pear and hard to gain her affections, but Atid knew he was slowly peeling away her resistance.
Unfortunately, who knew Igor would cause trouble upon arrival? Couldn't this idiot keep it in his pants for one day? However in hindsight, Atid knew it was partially his fault for forgetting how little tolerance his brother had.
Sigh…
He forced a smile and turned to face Igor. He was no stranger to the presence of less-than-savoury people. They didn't scare nor unnerve him however. It was hard to when all of them were just ordinary humans.
Still, that didn't mean he'd let them be wantonly killed in such a public space. There was no supernatural bureau here, meaning no one would clean up and erase memories.
"Hey, Igor. No need to escalate this. It'll be troublesome to clean up."
Igor didn't respond. His focus was on the group of men eyeing him with clear killing intent. He really didn't want to waste time with normal humans, but he was just as willing to stomp them if they tried to make any move—
"Tch! I guess you foreigners don't know the rules in this town."
One of the men with a blue bandana got up and subtly showed his gun. His scruffy beard was lined with white hairs, betraying his middle-age. He chewed a stick of gum and his dark sunglasses could not hide the malicious glint in his eye.
"Follow me outside, kid. You need to be educated on how things work around here."
The rest of the men also stood up, each of them revealing their pistols. There were eight of them in total, and the dangerous aura coming from them unnerved the other customers. The air in the restaurant was tense like a powder-keg waiting to explode.
Nervous eyes tensely watched the standoff, no one daring to make a move. What was common though was how everyone felt sorry for the foreigner. He'd be just another case added to a long stream of backlogs. He wouldn't be the first nor would he be the last—
"This is self-defence."
Whoosh!
It happened suddenly. Right in front of everyone, Igor grabbed two knives from the table next to him and threw them towards the two men who were in the process of aiming their weapons.
*Puchi!* *Puchi!*
He threw them with such force that the knives pierced through their wrists. One had his arm nailed to his thigh and the other to the table.
"AAAAAAAAH!"
"Argh! Fuck! Fuck!! Fuck! FUUUUCK!!!"
Their guns clattered to the floor while the rest of the gang members were in complete shock. These were butter knives—-they didn't have any sharp edges, yet…
"WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS STANDING FOR?!?! KILL HIM—"
It was too late. Igor had already closed the three tables' worth of distance between them. The first thing an unlucky gang member saw was a fist clenched like a tiger's claw heading right for his throat…
*Crunch!*
…before it turned to the last thing he ever saw. One dead, two incapacitated. There were still five members to eliminate.
"Hhmm!"
Igor kept his movements within human limits, but it was far too fast for these untrained bastards. He grabbed the one to his left and performed an over-the-shoulder takedown. The heel of the falling man inadvertently hit his fellow member on the forehead whilst he was being thrown towards the ground.
*Crack!*
The wooden floor cracked from the force of the throw. Igor knew the man wouldn't get up soon so he launched an uppercut to the other member still dazed from his comrade's 'heel-kick'.
*Pa!*
His neck swung back like a spring before he tumbled to the floor, his life and death unknown. Igor grabbed the round-table and flipped it over towards the remaining three men.
*BANG!*
A bullet aimed for him suddenly hit one of the lightbulbs on the ceiling. His action of flipping the table caused one of the three to become unbalanced and fall to the floor, which worked to his favour.
Flipped on its side, the large table was almost three-fourths of a door in height, but Igor demonstrated an insane acrobatic feat by leaping over it. In midair, there were four targets. The man whom he nailed to the table with a knife was now a crying mess on the ground. He wouldn't be a threat for a while.
The wound on his hand had widened so much one could perhaps insert a small ruler. The other three were slowly getting up from the floor, but they were too slow. Conveniently enough, they were very close to each other.
Igor chose the one in the middle and landed on the poor man's arms with his feet, deliberately crushing his elbows in the process. He bent down and grabbed the two remaining gang members to his side by their windpipes and crushed them. It was quick and a swift punch killed the one beneath him.
Now…there was one more left.
"DIE YOU MONSTER!"
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
It was the sunglasses-wearing man who's hand he nailed to his thigh with the knife. Seeing his compatriots killed drove him to insanity, overriding the pain and filling him with the desire to kill this murderer.
"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!!!!!!"
The table was torn apart by a barrage of bullets. Anyone standing behind it would still be hit—yet the man did not think to aim low.
"AAAAAAAAH!"
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *Click!* *Click!* *Click!* *Click!*
The leader maniacally kept pressing the trigger as if magically hoping the gun would reload itself. It was unfortunate but he'd completely lost his composure. This blonde sissy shorter than him had suddenly killed the men he'd worked with for years and now…he would die too.
*BANG!*…*BANG!*…*BANG!*
Three shots coming from behind the table rang out in succession. The frantic sound of boots against wood could be heard along with pleading wails.
"W-Wait! Please no!"
A man scrambled away on all fours. It was the person Igor had nailed to the table earlier with the knife. The fear on his face was visible. Cold fright and sweat were only enhanced by his bloodshot eyes. Adrenaline coursed through his body and numbed the pain in his hand. How could he care about pain when he saw the blonde shoot his partners in the head? He didn't want to die!
"Don't kill me! Please don't kill m—"
*BANG!*
A bullet tore through his head and lodged into the wood below. The man fell on the floor with a thump. His head lulled to the side, which gave the leader a horrifying view of his subordinate's haunting visage.
Right in the middle of his forehead was a gaping wound. Blood and brain matter gushed out. He died with his eyes open—and those lifeless eyes were staring right at him, almost as if they were blaming him for this entire ordeal.
In a way, this was his fault. He shouldn't have provoked this monster. If he'd known, he never would've come here!
*gu*…*gu*…*gu*…
Haunting footsteps graced his ears. He saw a foot mid-stride along with the red fringes of a coat…the devil's coat. Time seemed to slow and he desperately wished it would reverse, but time obeyed no man.
Igor calmly walked out from behind the table. Not a single speck of blood or dust dirtied his coat nor his sandals. His expression was neutral like he didn't just kill seven men.
The moment the leader saw those cool blue eyes, he shakily raised his gun and pointed it not at Igor, but to the side of his head.
*Click!* *Click!* *Click!* *Click!*
Each chamber of his revolver spun, yet there was no magic bullet to take him out of his misery. Igor walked towards him with slow, almost deliberate steps—and that was more terrifying than anything he'd ever seen.
"W-Wait…please…no…"
Under the astonished gaze of the customers, the leader, the one who so casually invited the blonde outside for a chat, now relieved his bladder in fear. Some got up from under the tables to witness this surprising sight. This foreigner just effortlessly took out an entire group of gun-wielding men in seconds. Such a sight would be memorable for the rest of their lives.
"W-wait!"
The man tossed away his gun and knelt on the puddle of piss. Tears streamed down his face when he saw Igor raise his pistol.
"Please spare me! I beg you! Please spare me! I swear I will change! You will never see me again!"
In front of the man's plea, Igor showed no care. He didn't even look at him.
"Atid. Do you know where their headquarters are? If I'm going to enjoy this place's food, I'd rather not have interruptions."
*BANG!*
.
|DxD|
.
A few moments prior…
.
Renata's pov
.
This week was supposed to be another normal one in this quiet yet dangerous town of hers, but mishap after mishap continuously happened one after the other. Her older brother was taken by the pests of their town for trying to be a hero.
It happened so suddenly. One moment, her brother was taking the truck to make another supply run. The next, three men came into the bar and told him they took her brother for re-education. She knew how horrifying that was. Anyone who ever badmouthed a gang would never return the same once taken.
To save him, she has to seduce the friend she'd made in the past few months and make him divulge information about himself. It was sick of them to demand this of her as ransom, but she was caught between two walls.
*Glance…*
Eight members of the Black Power—all of them sent here to monitor her. They were definitely wary of her trying to tip off the 'cash cow', as they so fondly called him.
[Atid. Please…please don't come.]
But she knew he would. Over the past four months, he's never missed an appointment date. Why a clearly rich man like him bothered to visit a poor girl like her from a broken town, she didn't dare imagine.
Life wasn't a fairytale and she wasn't some pretty damsel in distress. She only had her brother left in this life, and she'd do everything she could to save him, even if it meant dying for him. But first, she had to make sure Atid never came back to this town after today.
Still…
[Please don't come…]
…she hoped he wouldn't walk through those d—
*Ding~* *Ding~*
The bell rang when the doors opened and in walked the very person she hoped wouldn't come.
[No…]
Her breath hitched and her face fell. It was like a lump suddenly formed in her chest, but she quickly put on a smile. She had to. Her mask could not crumble before him.
"Atid! So good to see you again."
"Hey Rena! As if I'd delay my visit any further."
She watched him walk forward with a charming smile as always. On most days, she'd have giggled at what was clearly his boyish attempt at looking handsome. That infectious smile was something even her older brother had found amusing.
He leaned over the table towards her. She noticed how he subtly made sure his expensive watch was in view—along with an eyeful of his chest.
"So, Rena. I brought my friend here behind me. We're looking to order some…"
Renata didn't hear the rest of his words as her eyes rested on the blonde.
[?!?!]
Red…Dear God he was wearing red. Her immediate thought was his red coat made him part of the Mongrel Mob, but he was clearly a foreigner.
Her eyes darted towards the gang members in fear and apprehension. Her hands tightly grabbed the pistol beneath the counter. If anything happened, to hell with her plans. She'd kill all of them or die tryi—
"Don't do anything, Renata."
"H-Huh?"
Her attention was brought back to Atid. The expression on his face was dead serious, far more serious than anything she'd ever seen from him.
"Nothing will happen to you."
"..."
What…what did he mean? Did he think she was worried about herself at this moment?! His friend was eyeing those pests directly in the eye—
"If you want me to kill you, just say so."
.
.
.
Silence…
The entire…the WHOLE restaurant—went silent in complete shock. Chairs creaked in nervousness as people debated whether to risk running out the door or to remain seated. Foreheads were covered in sweat while some muttered prayers.
Renata felt like she was on the verge of a heart attack. Her courage faltered in the face of imminent reality. Her hands shook and her heartbeat skyrocketed with every tense second passing by.
Her brother was taken and she could do nothing. Now someone else would be killed and she still couldn't do anything. She…was she useless?
"You don't want to see this, Rena."
"?!"
Atid suddenly covered her eyes and before she could act, a gentle surge of energy forced her to calm down. The words in her throat vanished and her grip on the gun slackened. She found her hearing gradually dull under this wave of energy, yet no panic manifested.
Was she drugged? She didn't know, but no sooner did this unwanted bliss come, did it leave just as quickly. When she opened her eyes, reality had changed completely.
Eight people were on the floor, dead as could be. People were coming from under the tables in shock and horror. Some mystical sight clearly happened and she couldn't even imagine how eight members died.
The one at the centre of it all was adjusting the cuffs of his coat like it was just another Friday for him. Renata saw bullet holes littered the table and multiple casings were on the floor.
"Atid. Do you know where their headquarters are? If I'm going to enjoy this place's food, I'd rather not have interruptions."
"..."
Renata found it hard to readjust to reality. Eight members of the Black Power were dead as could be. The silence in the restaurant was stiffening, but the smiles and subtle clicks of disgust could not be hidden.
Numerous eyes were on the blonde, the very person responsible for all of this. Renata was transfixed at what was clearly a momentous occasion, but she had no clue of anything.
[W-What…what just happened?]
"Hey, Rena. My brother just asked a question. Where are the headquarters of these guys? And where's Edward? I thought he'd be here."
"..."
.
AN
.
Thanks for reading the chapter. I hope it's to your tastes. Thank you onion_ninja from webnovel for your review. It truly means a lot to me. I'll do my best to "keep cooking" as you said.
Thank you warnerashley45, LazyTyrant, cobin.michael, and Rhino242 from fanfiction.net for your reviews and comments. I'll do my best to meet your expectations.
Then I'd like to thank Empty Embrace from RoyalRoad. Since Season 1, you've been there dropping encouraging comments. Thank you very much, brother. They kept me going.
As always, I sifted through the chapters for spelling errors, typos, missing punctuation, etc, to the best of my ability. If I missed anything, hit me in the comments.
Until the next chapter.