Chapter XXVIII (28)- Bloodspawn Hunt

The mixture gurgled as Kizu dumped a few hundred ground up needle ants in. He quickly stirred, spreading everything evenly and dissolving the new ingredient. The color slowly shifted to a pale red as he continued stirring it.

Finally, he extinguished the fire under the cauldron and placed a lid over it. All that was left was to let it sit for half an hour until it cooled.

He wiped his brow with his uniform’s sleeve. This specific brew required more heat than he usually liked to work with. Even with the cooling enchantment on the academy uniform, he was still drenched in sweat. He looked up at the sun through the circular skylight window built into the cavern’s roof. It definitely wasn’t helping him cool off.

“You look horrible.”

Kizu turned and saw Sene standing on the other side of the cave. It may have been Ione, but Kizu sincerely doubted it based on the look of loathing on the girl’s face and the contemptuous edge to her words. Ione was always more teasing than hateful.

“Thanks,” Kizu said. “I really needed that valuable input.” He walked to the well on the side of the cave and pumped some water, drinking straight from the bucket. The cool water spilled over the sides as he gulped it down, soaking the front of his uniform.

“Drinking from lab equipment is not only unsafe, but also poor form.”

“I really don’t care right now,” Kizu said when he finally came up for air. Besides, he had washed the bucket out earlier.

Sene huffed. Then she started on her own project. Another truth potion, by the looks of the ingredients she’d prepared, but a different variant than last time.

Unfortunately, Kizu couldn’t just leave and come back later. He had to stay put and keep an eye on his new potion. There was a chance it could boil over and that would be the source of a whole new fleet of problems.

So he studied Sene as she worked.

“If you use watermelon juice instead of spring water it will delay the side effects a few more hours without compromising the results. As well as get rid of the horrible aftertaste.”

Sene’s posture stiffened. She didn’t acknowledge him. But Kizu noticed that she did, in fact, grab some watermelon juice a few minutes later when she thought he was checking on his brew. That caught Kizu by surprise. He never would have taken Sene as someone who actually listened to advice from her peers. Maybe she actually did care more about results than her pride.

With his potion finished and divided up into nine vials, Kizu left Sene behind. The vials clinked together in his uniform pocket as he walked. He’d brought the vials of the potion he’d brewed earlier in the week as well. Every weapon that he could carry, he did.

The monster he was hunting favored cool, wet areas. Sunlight caused the skin of bloodspawn to blister and peel after just a few moments. Unfortunately, the sun didn’t usually kill them outright. It narrowed down his search, though.

Shinzou’s town proper was bustling, as usual. Kizu kept an eye out, looking for cellar entrances or any signs of basements or crawl spaces, but the only thing he noticed was the occasional porch. He supposed the creature could be hiding under one of those, but he doubted it. It had been given almost an entire week to find a proper hiding spot. If basements were as nonexistent on the island as they appeared to be at first glance, then his best bet would be searching attics.

Unfortunately, he doubted many people in town would welcome a random student into their home or place of business to search for an undisclosed threat. No, his hunt would have to wait until sundown. Even then, his only real plan was to bait the monster out himself. Not perfect at all, but it was the best he could come up with. At the very least, bloodspawn weren’t known for their pragmatism in combat. Apparently, they liked to play with their food. Small comfort.

In the meantime, he perused the market district. Inevitably, a brewing shop caught his eye. The shelves were lined with jars of pickled and preserved ingredients from all over the world. At an enchanted goods store, he found several neat knickknacks, including a lightweight bottle that contained a near limitless supply of water and an unassuming envelope that unfolded into a massive tent. He wished, not for the first time, that his parents had given him a bit of spending money before they’d sent him off to school.

As Kizu continued wandering the streets, he found a potential solution to his financial woes. A notice board stood beside the constable's office. He hadn’t noticed it before when he’d escaped in the dark, but as he examined it, he found it listed dozens of different chores that the locals needed done. As well as rewards.

He looked through the list, searching for something he could complete easily with a few spells. An alligator infestation on a local farm, a lady who needed help moving, a fisherman who needed a temp while his deckhand was ill. Those were all doable. Down the line though were quests that required more experienced mages, like requests to apprehend a thief stealing tomes from private libraries and an enchanted door which had gone berserk, moving all throughout a home.

Then a request caught Kizu’s eye. Someone had written a complaint about scraping noises beneath her home, driving her mad and keeping her up at night. Coincidentally, they’d only just started at the beginning of the week. She’d offered 5,000 Yennies to anyone that could flush the pests out from under her home.

Kizu’s heart sped up. He couldn’t decide if it was excitement or complete dread that did it. Either way, he tempered his expectations by reminding himself that it might be nothing more than a person with insomnia. Still, the chance remained.

A bell above the door dinged as he walked into the building. It was a new feature, one that Kizu couldn’t help wondering if they’d added on his behalf. The station looked the same as when he had left it. He found the heavy-set Tainted constable at the counter. His face darkened as Kizu approached. When he reached the counter, it was red as a tomato.

“You have some nerve showing your face here,” the constable growled. His jowls quivered slightly as his hand clenched the wand at his hip.

“I want to take on a job posted outside,” Kizu said, ignoring the hostile behavior.

“Declined,” he spat.

“I haven’t said which job though.”

“Prior criminals don’t qualify for job postings.”

“When did I commit a crime? When I tried to walk into my own home?”

“Destruction of government property!”

Kizu sighed. “I don’t remember being prosecuted for that. Jog my memory.”

The constable grumbled and rubbed his bald scalp. Then he slammed a fist down on the counter.

“Fine. You want the job? Take it. But don’t expect any help from this department.”

“I still haven’t told you which job.”

“Doesn’t matter, because I won’t be giving you any information regardless.” He leaned forward and leered. “And if you tell anyone different, I’ll deny it. No one will believe you over me.”

Kizu stared at him, unphased. “Couldn’t I just come back later with a witness and ask for the details then?”

The constable spluttered for a moment, settling on a glare. “Go ahead and try. We both know a rat like you doesn’t have any friends.”

Kizu just shook his head and left. The door dinged again as he exited. Loud enough, hypothetically, to wake a sleeping constable.

He wandered the streets nearby, looking for someone familiar he could ask a favor of. Eventually, his feet led him away from the throngs and towards the beachside villas. He found himself standing outside Emilia’s door. Unlike the last time he’d been there, it was silent save for the crashing of the tide.

A battle raged inside his mind. On the one hand, she might help him, and it would give him an excuse to spend more time with her. Her personality was relaxed enough that she’d likely take it all in stride. She might not even ask questions, depending on how he pitched it. But on the other hand, it wasn’t exactly a small favor. Even if he sent her off after grilling the constable for information, she’d be tied to the case. And Roba had implied these bloodspawn had a measure of intelligence.

He decided to think about it a bit more.

Kizu took off his shoes and walked down to the beach. A gentle breeze rippled the surface of the ocean. It brought back a distant memory of flying an origami kite with his sister. They had raced alongside one another, trying to get the kite higher and higher. Eventually, he had tripped, and the kite had flown off over the sea. Never to be seen again.

“Mind taking two steps to the left?”

Kizu turned to the voice and found Ione holding a small burlap sack. She wore what looked to be a pair of the academy uniform pants chopped off at the thigh and an oversized blouse. Her ears and nose were tinged red from the sun. He could tell it was Ione and not Sene by the grin on her face.

“Why?” he asked, curious.

“You’re standing over two hermit crab shells.” She gestured at his feet. “I’d rather you didn’t crush them.”

Kizu looked down. Sure enough, two spiraling shells poked up out of the sand. He stepped aside.

Ione knelt and carefully dug the shells out of the sand, brushing them off.

“I collect them,” she explained at his curious look.

“Why?”

“Because I like them. Why shouldn’t I collect them? They’re abandoned. They've been outgrown, and despite all odds, the sea has brought them here to me.”

“I think the odds of seashells washing up on the seashore are pretty high.”

“I’m not talking about shells. I’m talking about this shell.” She lifted the second hermit crab shell.

Kizu examined it, looking for something special about it. It just looked like a normal shell to him. He shrugged, not understanding.

“Shells wash up all the time, sure,” she continued. “But out of all the seabed and all the shores, this shell just happened to wash up on my beach. The odds of that are tiny. Miniscule.”

“I still don’t understand. They all look the same, why does it matter?”

Ione visibly bristled at the comment.

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“Ah, forget I said that,” Kizu said hurriedly. “Anyway, do you think you’ll be out here for a long time?”

“I don’t know. Maybe another hour. Why?”

“I was wondering if you could do me a quick favor on your way back up to the academy.” He began to loosely fill her in on Roba’s mission, omitting the fact that there was a bloodspawn in town. He felt more confident asking her for help than he had Emilia.

“I was planning to take a nap on the beach when I finished,” she lamented. “But I suppose I can change my plans and nap in my dorm. Probably better for my skin anyway.”

Kizu opened his mouth to thank her, but she cut him off.

“But! Only if you do something for me in return.”

“Do you have something in mind?”

“Hm. I’m sure I’ll think of something. But in the meantime, you can help me move that log over there.”

The log in question was a piece of driftwood, the size of a large tree and half buried in the sand.

After a grueling dig, he finally managed to roll it over.

“Well,” Ione said, looking at the divot in the beach that once housed the log. “That’s disappointing. I thought there might be some shells under it.”

“Seriously?” Kizu panted. “And couldn’t you just summon something to move this thing? Isn’t that your specialty?”

“Eh, never mind that. Let’s go check out this constable real fast and see what info he’s got. You didn’t tell him what job you wanted, did you?”

“No, he never gave me the chance.”

“Good, then he won’t bat an eye when I ask him for it.”

“Hold on, I just need you to go with me as a witness, not actually pick up the job yourself.”

She waved off his protests. “It’s easier this way. Constable Albert will find some other way to weasel out of it if he sees you there. Trust me. I know the guy. He used to work for my parents.”

She handed Kizu her burlap sack of shells to carry as they walked. She wouldn’t listen to any more of his arguments - her mind was set. When they reached the constable's office, she took her sack back from him and told him to wait while she ducked into an alleyway. A minute later she came back wearing a university uniform. She’d also redone her hair, combing out the tangles and tying it back in a ponytail.

“How do I look?” she asked.

“Like a university student?”

She nodded approvingly, dropped the sack and swept into the office.

“Excuse me,” she said. But her voice sounded different from usual, a bit more shrill and demanding. “I want to pick up the job about the weird noises occurring at night. Tell me the details.”

The officer actually sounded like he snapped to attention, listing off everything about the job with no further prompting. Kizu marveled at the shift in his demeanor, wondering if Ione had used some sort of charm spell.

When she exited, she visibly slouched as the door closed behind her. She yawned, not bothering to cover her mouth.

“Acting like my sister is so exhausting, you know? Don’t know how she manages it all the time. Gets the job done, though, so credit to her there.”

“Thank you for your help, Ione. I really appreciate it.”

“No worries.”

Kizu expected her to head back up to the academy, but she just waited there expectantly.

“I guess I’ll be on my way,” Kizu finally said. He turned and started heading for the house the constable had described.

One hand in her pocket, the other swinging the sack of shells, Ione trailed after him. At first Kizu tried to ignore her, thinking maybe it was just some sort of strange joke. But when he arrived at the house and the girl was still there, he turned on her.

“Ione, this is a pretty dangerous job. Why are you following me?”

She shrugged. “I’m the one who accepted it. I’m curious to see how it goes. And to be honest, I’m just not as sleepy anymore.”

“Lucky,” Kizu mumbled. He felt like he could fall asleep on his feet. But he always felt like that.

“Anyway, are we going to question this lady or not? I think it’s going to rain. The sooner we get a roof over our heads, the better.”

Kizu glanced up. Clouds had rolled in quickly since they left the beach. Dark, ominous, dangerous looking clouds on the horizon. He hoped they were heading the other direction, but he knew better than to expect it.

He knocked on the door. They waited. He knocked again. The fourth time he knocked, he finally got a response.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Stop banging like a troll for two minutes.”

A woman jerked the door open. She eyed them both, frowning. Her gray hair was a mess, sticking out in every direction all at once, forming a halo of chaos around her head.

“You can tell that cracked cauldron headmaster of yours that no matter how many kids he sends to my door, the answer stays ‘no!’”

She attempted to slam the door on them, but Kizu wedged his foot between the door and the frame a second before she closed it. He winced at the impact but kept it there.

“The headmaster didn’t send us.” Technically true. Roba had been the one to pass on the assignment. Not that he thought that was what she was talking about anyway. “We’re here about that notice you put on the job board.”

“Oh, that.” She yanked the door back open. “Get in here then. And take off those grimy shoes. Barbaric, the practices they employ up at that sad building they call an academy. Absolutely barbaric!”

Kizu nursed his newly bruised foot as he removed his shoes. Ione slipped out of her sandals and stuffed them in her bag of shells.

The word ‘cluttered' wasn’t quite enough to describe the house. It was suffocating. There were only slight meandering paths through the hoard. Shelves full of junk teetered, threatening to fall and crush them as they walked through. In the living room, the lady shoved a cat off a chair and gestured for them to sit down. For herself, she pushed some clutter to the side and sat down on a large metal box.

Not knowing how both he and Ione were supposed to fit on the small chair, he let Ione sit while he squatted down next to her.

“Tea?” the lady asked. She reached behind her and pulled up a chipped teacup covered in cat hair.

“No thanks, I’m not really thirsty at the moment,” Kizu lied. “How about we cut to the source of the problem?”

“All business and no pleasure? No fun at all.” The lady turned to Ione. “Surprised you stick with him. You’re too cute for that. Must have other qualities that make up for his manners.” Then she tossed the cup back into the sea of clutter behind her.

Ione snickered softly.

“My name is Kaga Kizu,” Kizu said, deciding to try a more polite approach. He didn’t know what she was implying but he had every intention of steering the conversation away from whatever it was. “And you? The constable didn’t share your name and you didn’t post it.”

“And I intend to keep it that way from rude boys like you who don't know how to sweet talk.”

“What kind of noises have you been hearing?” Kizu asked.

“Oh, it started off as moaning. Now it’s more like scratching and panting. Like an animal got trapped in my floorboards. I’m no mage, though, so no way am I about to peel them up. Likely I’ll get attacked by some spatial squid dog or something. Boy, you better know what you’re doing. I don’t want a fire breathing turtle burning my house down.”

Kizu sighed. “Of course. What time do the noises usually start and at what part of the house?”

“Cheesewhiskers usually notices it first. She’ll spook and run in circles like a dog chasing its tail. Absolutely silly behavior for a cat. She does it over there by the icebox. First time I saw it I thought it was a new trick to bum more food off of me. The fat thing will do anything for a bit more milk. That’s why she’s named Cheesewhiskers. Got it all over her face the day I brought her home.”

“By the icebox? Can you show us?” Kizu asked, cutting through the rambling tangent.

“Hmph. I just sat down. Go find it for yourself, boy. Your lovely lady friend will keep me company.”

Kizu stood and noticed Ione’s eyes flickered from him to the lady. They begged him not to leave her. She opened her mouth, probably to try to make an excuse, but Kizu spoke first.

“That’s a great idea. Especially if you have any more details about the first day you noticed the noise. Divide and conquer, as they say. I’ll just get out of your hair.”

Ione looked like she wanted to break his kneecaps, but she stayed there while Kizu slipped away into the kitchen.

Cheesewhiskers, the cat, sat perched on the icebox. And she was indeed a fat cat. She purred as Kizu approached.

“Hey girl. Any chance you know what’s under the floorboards?”

The cat didn’t understand him, of course. Instead, she hopped off the icebox, landing on the floor with a thump, and looked hopefully up at him.

Kizu opened the icebox and, sure enough, found a block of cheese amongst all the food. He broke off a corner and tossed it to the cat.

A rhythmic ping-ping-ping of rain on the roof started as the cat pounced on her meal. She purred with delight as she gobbled it down.

Kizu went to set the cheese back inside, pushing aside some frozen fish. Then something caught his eye. There, in the corner of the icebox, was a hole the size of his fist.

He studied the icebox further, noting the warded enchantments carved into the sides. Wards weren’t necessary for every enchantment, but they helped for those in constant use. They were especially helpful in this case, since the icebox was leaking its chill air straight through the gaping hole. He tried to push it aside to see the floor beneath it, but it was too far wedged into place by the woman’s other junk to move more than a couple centimeters.

Not knowing what else to do, Kizu replaced the fish over the hole and closed the icebox. He said nothing as he returned to the living room.

The regret was evident on Ione’s face as she weathered the barrage of small talk from the hoarder. Her eyes lit up when she saw Kizu, the irritation turning to desperation. Please, they seemed to say, save me from this hell.

“We should really be going,” Kizu said. “We’ll be back to investigate tonight. If it’s still making noise, we should be able to find it.”

“Nonsense! I won’t have you leaving in the middle of a typhoon. Take a seat and make yourself comfortable, I was just telling your pretty friend here about my brother’s second wife. She used to get into all sorts of shenanigans, like the time she filled three separate hats to the brim with stolen cherries from our great aunt’s orchard. Let me tell you-”

“Don’t worry about us,” Kizu cut in. “We’re third year mages. We know enough elemental magic to handle a bit of rain.”

The lady continued to protest, but Kizu ushered Ione up and they both scrambled to the front door as quickly as they politely could.

Outside on the porch, Kizu continued to nod and graciously thank the lady while Ione slowly closed the door. Finally, with a click, the door shut, cutting her babble short.

They both sighed in relief.

“I assume you were lying about knowing how to keep us dry?” Ione asked, eyeing the rain streaming down from the roof of the house. It was coming down in a torrent now. She held a hand out from under the eaves. In a moment, she brought it back to show her cupped palm had been filled.

“Yes,” Kizu admitted. “But that doesn’t matter. I found something. I’m almost certain the creature I’m looking for is living underneath this house.”

“So, we won’t be going back inside for more questions? I’ll try to contain my disappointment.”

“Don’t get too excited. I’m going under now and it’s going to be more dangerous than an old lady talking about a hat of cherries. Of course, I don’t think you should follow me. You should head back to the academy and take that nap.”

She scoffed. “In this rain? Please. I’m waiting it out. And if you’re going under the house, that sounds like the perfect place for me to stay dry.”

Kizu sighed. He had warned her.

He briefly ducked out from under the eaves to get down on the ground by the porch. Even in just that second, his hair was soaked to his scalp. One nice thing about the rain, though, was how it completely covered up the sound of him kicking a hole in the wooden skirt beneath the porch. He pried the surrounding planks out until the gap was just big enough for him to crawl through.

A moment after he’d finished squeezing himself in, he felt Ione shove his feet to the side and crawl in after him. Surprisingly, she felt dry as she huddled up next to him.

“You smell like a wet dog,” she told him. Somehow, it didn’t sound like an insult. Just another observation.

“Once again, you’re welcome to head back the way you came.”

He could practically hear her eyes roll as she let out a breath.

“Fine,” he said. “I’m going on ahead. I think I know which way to go to get under the kitchen.”

Kizu razed entire civilizations of spiders and their webs as he inched his way forward. He also slammed his head into wooden beams on three separate occasions. The stony ground offered little comfort. But eventually he reached an area that felt cooler than the others. It opened up slightly, enough to where he could actually sit without his head pressing against the wood floor above him.

“Why don’t you use your scrying orb to give us some light?” Ione asked after she bumped into his back.

Kizu grimaced. He could see just fine because of his bond with Mort, albeit in shades of gray. He’d forgotten that Ione didn’t have something like that. She must have just been blindly following the sound of him. Or the smell, maybe.

“I don’t want whatever is down here to see us coming,” he lied.

“You sound like-”

He shushed her, cutting her off. A pile of dirt stirred slightly on the rocky ground to his left. The shift was just barely noticeable. He looked above it. Sure enough, a small hole had been cut into the floor. And he was willing to bet it led straight into the icebox.

Painstakingly slowly, he reached into his uniform pocket and withdrew a glass vial. Then, like he was flinging a dagger, he tossed it at the mound of dirt.

It clinked on the ground and rolled away.

“What was that?” Ione whispered.

“It was supposed to break,” Kizu admitted. He palmed another vial, but before he could throw it with more conviction, the mound of dirt shifted.

Scarlet eyes flickered open as a face stirred out of the dirt. The creature’s jaw opened wide, revealing rows of jagged teeth.

It reached for Kizu.