A Few Days Later

 

“Uriel,” Yuki said. His head was resting on his hand as he looked at a screen in front of him. “Call Yuna in.”

“Are you planning to start it?” she asked.

“Yes. Gather the others.”

“Will do, boss.”

Uriel disappeared, leaving Yuki alone inside of his dim office. He looked at the holographic screen before him with a contemplative gaze before standing. With a wave of his hand, he closed the screen. The image of Yuna’s LIA profile disappeared with it and the room was swallowed by darkness.

---

 

Yuna’s week was quickly coming to a close and she had not found any new information on the Valkyries. It wasn’t because of a lack of effort on her part. The Valkyries just hadn’t sent her any new notifications.

‘And I can’t find more information without actually talking with their members.’

She shoved her head into her bed pillow and released a soft sigh. It was a late Friday night. For the past three days, she had went to the Hideout multiple times to see if there was anyone she could talk to but every staff member seemed to be oblivious to the existence of the Valkyries. 

‘I can’t force people to talk,’ she thought as she turned around on her bed. ‘I don’t know how to and I don’t think I would like doing that even if I knew how.’

Yuna knew that if she found nothing, it wouldn’t affect the case as a whole that greatly. All the captain was looking for was more evidence to justify an upgrade to the case’s status. It wasn’t required that she find more information, but the way the captain phrased his instructions made it seemed that it was of utter importance to do. 

‘And I don’t want to let the captain down. Especially because I just became an officer.’

But that wasn’t to say that the entire week was unproductive. She had met one person that was part of the guild and chatted with him for a bit. The person had stopped by the bar to grab a quick drink before he headed back out to his job. Through a conversation that was somehow both generic and vague, Yuna managed to figure out that the guild was very small. There were seven elites and fifteen members. Most of the fifteen members were split and rarely ever gathered together.

‘I think I only saw around nine of the members in my first visit. I know I talked to two of them at the bar and two more on the hovercraft. Then in the base there was Gatekeeper, the one person in the transport room who didn’t tell me her name, and the cook who was working by himself in the kitchen. Then there were a couple in the lobby.’

That left around thirteen members still unaccounted for. Yuna didn’t know who the elites were so she decided to lump them all as one group. She also tried to find out why the person she was talking to joined the guild but she only received a smile and a single sentence reply.

“For the same reason everyone else did,” the man said. After that, he bade farewell to Yuna and left.

‘The problem is I don’t know the reason everyone else did,’ Yuna grumbled. Then she let out a long sigh and rolled over to her side. ‘Oh well. I need to get some sleep. I still have a few more days to find what I can.’

She did a mental nod and shifted around in her bed to make herself comfortable before closing her eyes. As her consciousness slowly began to fade, her watch vibrated. She had just received a notification.

‘Who would message me this late?’ she thought as she tapped on the screen of her watch. The message expanded and her eyes widened as she read the text.

“Drop by the Hideout tomorrow at 8:00. Someone will be waiting. Have a nice rest~.”

The message hovered in front of her for a few more seconds before fading away and deleting itself. Yuna blinked as she thought over what the words meant.

‘Well. Now I have an opportunity, I guess?’

She laid there as her mind began to race. Possibilities started to flood her head as she started considering her next move. Worries followed them as she tried to guess the reason behind the sudden notification.

‘Ah, I worry about this later. I’m going to sleep.’

---

 

The next morning, Yuna woke up with a yawn at 7:00 and went into her dorm kitchen to eat. She had long given up on trying to cook for herself. The few times she tried, she had ended up with a mass of burnt something in her pan. And so, she always grabbed a few precooked meals from the Academy’s mess hall and brought them to her dorm to reheat whenever she wanted to eat.

‘Cooking should have been taught in LIA.’

She turned on the television as she stuck her plate of pancakes into the reheater. She hadn’t been keeping up with the news for the last couple of days because of her mission and classes. But now that it was the weekend, she had some time before she had to go back out.

“—pdate with our previous story. For our viewers who are just tuning in, there has been a reported mass murder within the city of Vii,” the newscaster announced.

‘Vii? Isn’t that the city where a lot of the wealthy people live?’

“At around 18:30 last night, the second wife of Mason Incorporated branch manager Carlo Rache arrived at her home to find her husband as well as three other people dead,” the anchorman continued. “The identities of the other three have not been released to the public but we have word that they may the butler and the guards. No motive has been reported and no suspect has been announced. We will update this story as we receive more information.”

The newscaster then shifted to a story about new some new gadgets that were being released this month. Yuna tuned out the news in her head and focused on her meal. 

‘I’m glad I won’t be investigating that.’

She finished her meal and went through her daily routine. After a quick shower, she put on some casual clothes. She deliberated whether or not to bring her sword with her and decided against it.

‘I’ve been practicing my close quarters combat. A sword would just attract attention. I should ask the captain for a storage unit in the future.’

Then she left the dorm and started off to the Hideout. According to her watch, she still had around twenty minutes to make the trek. She arrived there in ten and sat at the bar as she looked around the room. There were considerably fewer people early in the morning than during the night. Most of the people were eating breakfast and some were just chatting with each other.

‘This place shouldn’t really be called a bar. It’s more like a cafe that also serves alcohol.’

“Hey there,” a cheerful voice called out to her. “What can I get you?”

Yuna glanced over at the source of the voice and was met with the radiant face of the violet eyed woman she had met the first time she came to the Hideout. The lady was giving her a dazzling smile that made Yuna forget how to speak.

“Hello~? Anyone in there?” the lady asked, the smile dimming a little as she tilted her head. “I can come back later if you’re not ready.”

“No, don’t go,” Yuna rushed. Then she cringed as she thought about the way she worded her sentence. “I mean, I’m ready to order.”

“Alright then. What do you want?” the lady said. She tapped on the table and a screen popped up.

“You’re Erika, right?” Yuna asked. The memory of her chat with the other bartender replayed in her mind.

“I’m sorry, we don’t have You’re Erica here,” the lady smiled. “Would you like something else?”

Yuna stared at the woman who may be named Erica before the woman let out a small giggle.

“You don’t have to look so confused, you know? It was a joke,” she laughed. “Yes, my name is Erika. Now do you want something to eat or just a drink?”

‘I’m an idiot,’ Yuna groaned to herself.

“I’m sorry,” she said out loud. “I don’t do well with jokes. It takes me a while to understand them.”

“Oh, really? Well, it’s fine. I just have a bad habit of making jokes,” Erica replied. “But really, what’s your order going to be?”

“Um, a drink?” Yuna replied. She glanced at her watch and saw that her scheduled meeting time was fast approaching. “I already ate and I don’t think I’ll have time for a snack.”

“Time?” Erica said, tilting her head. “You have a date with someone?”

“No, no,” Yuna shook her head. “I don’t do those types of things. I don’t have the time for that.”

“Aww, that sucks. Maybe I can help you with that,” Erica winked. Yuna stared at her again and Erica let out another small giggle. “I’m sorry. I’ll stop making jokes for now. Now what kind of drink do you want?”

“Just water would be fine, thank you,” Yuna said quickly. 

“You sure you don’t want something like a soda or something?” Erica asked. “I know you don’t drink but sodas are nice once in a while. They’re sweet. Like you.”

Yuna waited for Erica to follow that up by saying that it was a joke but she just walked away. As Yuna replayed Erica’s last words, she felt her face heat up.

‘What did she mean?’ Yuna thought as she buried her face in her hands. ‘Sweet? Whaaa…?’¹Yuna is a bit of a dork if you couldn't tell by now.