Kotori stared at the building in front of them.
To an observer, it would look like another warehouse on the docks, but according to Yukio this was where Gerard would hold his “toys”
The building was made of stacked brick and wood.
It was quite a normal building, nothing gave any indication that it was holding contraband.
These buildings were contracted out and rarely searched. The goods being held by merchants were their own business after all.
Kotori was told that the basement of the building held cellars where the women were held. They only had one target. If they found any other women being held their they would ignore them
Kotori brought her whole party along. She didn’t know what they would run into and wanted to be sure. Hopefully, security was low.
In truth, Kotori was surprised that Fawks even approved entering the building in the first place.
All he said was
“It’s not like we have any option, try to keep it discreet” before waving them off.
Kotori and her party made their way past the main door and moved to the side door. Yukio told them this was how they could avoid most of the overnight guards. They were covering their faces so it would be difficult for Kotori to use her [Charm] skill which requires face-to-face contact.
Umi sliced the lock with a water blade and it fell to the ground with a clink.
Kotori briefly considered whether kicking in the door would be the best option but she decided against it. If there was anybody on the other side of the door she would have Hikari deal with them.
She slowly pushed the door open and was relieved to find it was empty. In front of her were shelves upon shelves of tightly sealed jars.
Kotori assumed that they were Sweet Leaf jars.
According to Fawks, to activate the drug properties in Sweet Leaf the leaves of the plant had to be first mixed with a solution made from it’s roots and then put in a jar to ferment. The plant to make Sweet Leaf was a common weed.
Kotori could tell based on how tightly the jars were sealed that they were holding sweet leaf. Since this was near the dock’s guards would patrol this area and the scent of the fermenting plant would easily tip them off if the jars were not sealed.
There seemed to be no immediate guards in the area which was helpful. Kotori could hear the sound of footsteps and she sent out shards or Hikari to scout further. The shard would creep on the ground and alert Kotori if a Guard was getting close.
[This kinda feels like a video game stealth mission no?]
While Kotori was creeping around she could almost feel like an “!” marker would appear above the guard's heads.
The stairs toward the basement were at the back of the warehouse so Kotori and her party moved along. Shards of Hikari were slowly floating around the factory incapacitating any guards they came across.
Kotori found several slumped bodies along the path they were taking. Their chests were still rising indicating they were still alive. Kotori was avoiding trying to kill any of the guards since although they worked for Mr. Gerard it wasn’t like they were all bad people.
[Really, I gotta thank Winry for making me this.] Kotori thought touching Hikari. It was really a useful tool. Even if Hikari wouldn’t kill gods it had already paid herself back in how much it had help Kotori along her journey.
The entrance to the basement was a locked trapdoor.
Kotori had Umi cut the lock again and they ventured even deeper inside. A steep ladder led down in dark hallway.
Kotori walked down first. The room was a long hallway. Since it was underground it felt slightly chilly.
Walking deeper into the hallway several cells lined the walls. Inside them were several women slumped against the wall. Many of them were unresponsive or looked at Kotori in fear.
Kotori had her party start searching for the girl that was mentioned by Yukio. According to him, she was a pale freckled girl with greenish hair.
“Kotori!” Amelie called out near a cell farther to the back.
Kotori walked over to a cell. Inside was a young girl around 18 years of age huddled against the wall. Like many of the women in basement, she was quite pretty, but not beautiful. Her green eyes were glazed over.
[It seems like she’s already addicted] Kotori thought.
Kotori had her group remove the girl from the cell. Shu who was the strongest among them was holding the girl in a firefighter carry. She was thin, likely a result of malnutrition.
Kotori spotted a desk nearby with several logbooks.
[This could be useful..]
Kotori didn’t know what the books could contain but if they were being held in the basement of this building it was likely it would contain even more information.
She grabbed a few volumes and they walked past the unconscious guard bodies. Kotori also grabbed a jar of the sweet leaf.
Since the girl was likely addicted to it. She would have to have some on hand for her, rehabilitation. She didn’t know how drugs worked in this world, but if it was anything like the world she came from, rehab would be a tough process for this girl.
Patreon
Bad decision by Kotori here, covering her tracks would be easier if she released all the women
And she does get repercussions for it!
chapter after this one.
But weren't most of the women unresponsive, and the rest of them were quite scared, would they even run away?
@soldieroffortune813 doesn’t matter, the mere act of freeing them would make it less obvious why she was there. They’d still find her of course but they wouldn’t be as sure what she was after
Seems to me a double edged sword, on the one hand it would obscure your motive but on the other hand it'd be a clear assault that would raise his guard. At least this way it could just be a guard getting ideas beyond his station.
@Adam_Kafei except if a single captive goes missing all you have to do is then find out who said captive is connected to and follow those leads. If they all go missing then he's likely to assume that it was either done by a rival or by some anti-slavery/drug activist.
That assumes he cares enough to keep track of his "toys" and that someone keeps a proper inventory of them, it also assumes that one going missing prompts him to believe there was a reason for that specific person which, while a good precaution, is not necessarily the case especially when we know he's all too happy to throw them to the wayside when he gets bored of them.
It's also worth noting that Humans are beings of convenience, it's a lot more convenient to believe that some guard got ideas than it is to believe some opposing organisation attacked you for a single person, even less so that one person and her spirits raided your warehouse. I'm a lot more concerned about the logbooks she took, THOSE are likely to raise red flags.