“When you said sewer system, I was really hoping I heard you wrong. Like, violently wrong.”
“Villainy isn’t always shiny pearls, Akemi.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s apparently snake bites from goddesses and face-eating clowns,” Akemi muttered, wincing as she hit her head against the top of the shallow corridor. That had been the sixth time in five minutes; her skull felt like it was vibrating.
After clearing out of the tavern, Akemi finally followed Pyre’s lead towards their true destination: Grimguard Manor, where the viscount and his ledger resided. Of course, it wouldn’t have been very wise to barge in through the front gates, Akemi could understand that, but traveling through rivers of underground piss wasn’t exactly her first choice of route.
“Complain all you want, but there's no other convenient way in but to take this piss-river straight through to their storage vaults. While you were off wasting your time last night, I found a map of Grimguard Manor in the Coterie’s archives. Some other shadow auditor attempted a similar heist back in the day it seems—didn’t go well, judging by the blood splatter decorating half the parchment, and a receipt of his death attached to the back.”
“A death receipt? Did he get purchased at the human-meat section of the grocery store?”
“Something like that,” Pyre said darkly. “The Immortal Marketplace is kind enough to give guilds receipts when their members get … taken … by heroes.”
They turned a sharp corner, torchlight illuminating their way through. Rats skittered across the damp ground. These rats weren’t like the ones back at home, though; they had spikes running up their backs, like tiny dinosaurs. The bigger of the group—a mangy thing the size of a small dog—tried biting at her ankles, but Akemi let Mutt take care of it.
The pika was small, but it could whip its fire tail with surprisingly agility.
*You have defeated a level 3 spikerat - 20xp gained*
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Pyre pinched her nose. “Great, now it smells like flambé’d rat corpse in here, thank you.”
“You’re welcome. And I was just conducting a little experiment,” Akemi said, picking up Mutt and tucking the creature back into her hood. “It looks like anything Mutt defeats also gives me experience. That’s convenient. Maybe we can sick him on one of the bats.”
Pyre scoffed. “You, doing research?”
Akemi met her skepticism with a raised eyebrow, mildly offended. “Why are you so surprised?”
“Oh, I wonder why? Because your whole philosophy seems to be very punch first, think later. I’m surprised you’re not flaming debris in some hero’s campfire by now.”
Akemi’s expression hardened. Her fingers twitched.
“I’m sorry I don’t keep my personality in a straitjacket like you seem to,” she said, oozing sarcasm. “But, if you’d been paying attention, you’d notice that literally all I’ve done since arriving here is research. It’s why I dragged you into that Artificer shop. It’s why I joined the SAC in the first place. I don’t plan on brute-forcing my way to the top.”
She cracked her knuckles.
“And if you want to underestimate me, then fine. Nothing new. I look forward to the expression on your face when you finally catch on.”
She paced in front of Pyre, finding the woman looking slightly stunned.
She expected her to fire some quip back—to keep building the endlessly mounting tension between them with another carefully placed Jenga block. But she didn’t.
Instead, she sat. Balancing herself on a pipe, her robes dipped down in the murky water.
“What are you doing?” Akemi said. “You know that’s piss water, correct?”
“Yes, I do,” Pyre said, smiling without her eyes. It wasn’t friendly, but it wasn’t aggressive, either. “Look, I’m sorry if I’ve misjudged you. But to be fair, you’ve given me every single reason to. You’re cocky. You’re late. You’re inconsiderate. You’re rude. But those traits are fine with me. I don’t give a shit. As long as you can be smart and useful. So if you’re ready to be smart and useful, and take this mission seriously, then you’re going to sit down here with me, in the piss water, and figure out how we rob this city blind.”
Pyre raised her hand, an eyebrow cocked. It was a challenge.
Akemi stared at her outstretched hand.
The other woman wasn’t wrong. Not entirely. Akemi had entered this universe treating it like a videogame. Treating people like little chess pieces. Walking, talking flesh bags full of experience points. But she knew if she was going to survive here—as much as she didn’t want to admit it—compromises had to be made. Friendships, nay, strategic accomplices (beyond the occasional pair of goat brothers) had to be formed.
With a grossed out frown, Akemi took Pyre’s hand, and joined her in the piss water.