Jin’s POV
   ““The Detroit Hammerheads”? Really? Are they supposed to be a mercenary group, or an American football team?” Jin couldn’t help but ask.

   “According to one of their victims, one of the members bragged that they used to be part of a local football team.” Shannon informs. “After thorough investigation, we found that no football team with a similar name was ever founded.”

   “As if they’ll make things easier for us. And I assume that none of the members ever exposed their mug?”

   “No.”

   And thus, those mercenaries are being protected from the effect of Clairvoyant, which for some reason requires the caster to know the look of the person whom he/she is looking for.

   “Have you encountered any of the members so far?” Audrey asks Shannon.

   “None at all.” comes the reply. “They are so efficient in their operation they were long gone by the time we arrived at the scene.”

   “You would think that for a group like this, they would stay back for a while and assert their dominance or something. But nope, they just do their job, take their payment and vamoose.” Randall says.

   Jin shrugs. “Does it matter what they’re thinking? All we have to do is give them a good thrashing and lock them up.”

   Shannon lets out a sigh.

   “I was hoping that you would solve this matter peacefully, but I see that it is impossible.”

   “I doubt that they would listen if I just go talk to them. It would be much faster and more efficient if I do this the hard way.”

   Jin looks at the card once more. There’s a phone number printed right below where the name of the group is.

   “Have you ever tried calling this number?” Jin asks Shannon.

   “I have. Unfortunately, they disconnected the call before I could ask about the location of their hideout.”

   “...You actually asked them that?”

   Shannon gives Jin a blank look.

   “Yes. Is there a problem?”

   “Um, no criminal is actually stupid enough to tell you where they’re hiding.”

   “I, um, of course I know that. I was merely testing their intelligence!” Shannon explains way too enthusiastically.

   “Uh-huh.”

   The Graylock sisters are sneaking glances towards each other, as if they couldn’t believe what they just heard. Buckley, Randall and Silva, on the other hand, are trying their absolute best not to burst out laughing.

   “I shall call them once more. This time, I am telling them that we have a creature that needs exterminating.” Shannon offers as she takes out her phone.

   “And where do we find such creatures?” Jin asks.

   “Um, well…”

   Shannon failed to answer his question.

   “If there isn’t one, they would just conclude that it’s a trap and will just leave. That only leaves one solution-”

   “By waiting for a real creature to appear so that these mercenaries have a target?” Shannon asks hopefully.

   Jin nods approvingly. “That’s it. I know this is basically fishing, but it’s the best shot we got.”

   Shannon gets up from her seat.

   “Please excuse me as I contact my colleagues so that they could get to work.”

   “How is your cousin faring after the incident with the mercenary group?” Audrey asks Randall while Shannon is busy.

   ““Bad” isn’t enough to cover it. The monster that appeared completely wrecked his farm, which is his only source of income. And to top it all off, he’s homeless after he had to sell his house.” the female cook replies grimly.

   “And the government isn’t doing anything to help unfortunate souls like him.” Buckley adds. “As usual.”

   “I’ll tell Diana that you said that.” Silva says to him impishly.

   Buckley gasps in horror as he finally realizes what he had just said.

   “Wait! I’m not implying that President Clark isn’t doing his job!”

   “Good luck convincing Diana that.”

   “Well she doesn’t have to know, does she? I’ll pay for your food for a whole week! How about it??”

   “You got yourself a deal.”

   Buckley lets out a huge sigh of relief.

   “I was never this scared in my life…” he mumbles.

“Is Shannon-san that scary when she’s mad?” Jin asks curiously.

   “You have no idea, boy. And it’s best if you never have to find out.”

   “She’s a kind and sweet person and all, but boy can she rage when the President is involved.” Randall adds.

   Jin finishes up the rest of his second lunch.

   “Thanks for the food. They were all very delicious.” he compliments.

   Aldenia nods enthusiastically in agreement. Buckley and Randall smile warmly at them.

   “Glad you love them. Come back again if you feel like eating them again.”

   “We’ll be sure to.”

   The others waited a while longer before Shannon was finally done with her phone call.

   “All of my colleagues are now paying attention to all phone calls across the country. As soon as they find one being made to the mercenary group, they will report it to me.” she reports.

   “Hold on a second. Isn’t that what you call phone tapping?” Jin asks.

   “There is no invasion of privacy if we disconnect the calls that do not concern us.” Shannon assures.

   “That’s not reassuring at all, but whatever I guess.”

   “What shall we do in the meantime?” Audrey asks Jin.

   He thinks about it for a while.

   “We could go back to Japan and wait, or we could patrol the country from the sky to pass the time.”

   “Patrolling!” Aldenia casts her vote enthusiastically.

   Audrey narrows her eyes.

   “You are merely trying to stall for time so that you do not have to attend class, are you not?” She accuses her half sister.

   Said half sister averts her eyes guiltily.

   Jin gets up from his seat.

   “I’ll go patrolling.” he decides. “I’ve already skipped school, so I don’t feel like going back this early. You coming, Audrey?”

   Audrey got up from her seat as well.

   “I shall be accompanying you.”

   “And you, Aldenia?”

   “Well, if nee-san is fine with it…”

   “Of course I am fine with it.”

   Aldenia punches the air excitedly with her right fist.

   “All right!”

   “Try being a little less excited about it, Al.”

   “Well, we’re off. Please give me a call if your colleague got something.” Jin tells Shannon.

   “Will do. Good luck.”

   After saying a simple farewell, the trio leave the cafeteria. Along the way to the exit, Jin equips his armor once more. The Graylock siblings have also put on their masks.

   “Say Min-I mean, Silver Wolf. Do you want to make a bet to make this more interesting?” Aldenia asks Jin out of the blue.

   “Sure, why not? What do you have in mind?”

   “We compete on finding a monster to be used as bait, or even better, one of the Hammerheads. The winner gets to order the loser to do one thing. Within reason, of course.”

   “Sounds fun. All right, you’re on.”

   Aldenia shows an evil grin.

   “If I win, you have to ask Esty out on a date until she agrees!”

   Jin rolls his eyes even though no one could see him doing it under his helmet.

   “Somehow, I’m not surprised that your order would involve Von Mantus…” he mutters.

   “Don’t you dare chicken out at this point!”

   “I won’t. By the way, you have to stop reading BL for one whole month if I happen to win.”

   Aldenia gasps in horror.

   “You monster! How could you?” she demands while being close to tears.

   Jin shrugs. “It’s fine if you win, right?”

   “Fine, that’s exactly what I’ll do! What about you, nee-san? You feel like joining this?”

   “I am afraid that I am declining. I-”

   “You could force your sister to study more.” Jin suggests before Audrey could finish her sentence.

   Another gasp of horror from Aldenia, only it’s much louder this time.

   “Hey!”

   Audrey considers the suggestion for a moment.

   “I shall be joining in the bet.” she declares.

   “Gah! Look ar what you did!”

   Jin raises up his left fist and knocks his left temple.

   “Whoops, my bad. Tee-hee.”

   “Don’t you dare act cutesy! It’s gross!”

   Audrey clears her throat.

   “May we get started with this?” she asks.

   “Of course we can.” Jin replies. “We would have started already if it wasn’t for Aldenia’s ranting.”

   “Me? It was you who-”

   “I shall be off. Good luck and please be careful, you two.”

   Before waiting for a reply, Audrey flew off by using her wind magic.

   “Well, I guess I better get started too if I don’t want to lose against the two of you. See you later.” Aldenia says to Jin.

   “Sure. See you later.”

   As Aldenia is flying towards the opposite direction of her elder sister, Jin has also chosen another direction that didn’t coincide with the siblings. Without having any particular destination in mind, all he did for the first few minutes was fly close to a road he chose at random and follow it.

   The road eventually brings Jin to a small abandoned town. Intrigued by actually finding a place like this, Jin decides to land and take a look around.

   All the buildings are made of wood, a sign that they’ve been here for at least four to five decades. They also have a wooden sign hanging on top of the wooden doors. Some of them read “Tavern”, “Motel”, and “Store”, just to name a few.

   A few seconds later, a thick mist appears out of nowhere. At the next moment, the whole town is full of spirits of the dead. Jin has no idea how or where they appeared from, but here they are.

   Huh, so this is the reason this town has been left alone and wasn’t demolished. It’s either that or someone has tried to do something about this and failed.

   Upon closer look, all of the spirits are half-transparent. There are men and women of all ages with the same blonde hair and either blue or green eyes. They’re also wearing old-fashioned clothes, evidence that they had been dead for a very long time.

   Jin waits for a few seconds in case they do something. A few seconds had passed, and none of them did a thing. All they’re doing is standing quietly and staring into nothingness.

   Jin stands in front of a random spirit. This one is an elderly man who was probably in his sixties when he died. Jin waves his left hand in front of the ghost. No reaction from him whatsoever. Next, Jin tried to touch the man. His hand goes right through the man’s body. The man didn’t react to Jin’s touching, either.

   Earthbound spirits, maybe? Jin could exorcize all of them easily enough. Even so, he’s not going to since these spirits could be used to lure out the mercenary group with the ridiculous name. He takes out his phone and messages the Graylock siblings.

   “Found anything? I did. A whole town full of ghosts.” he texts them.

   He also snapped a few pictures of said ghosts to show as evidence. Thankfully, they can actually be caught on camera.

   A reply arrived from Aldenia almost at once.

   “Seriously? How lucky can you be? I couldn’t find a thing!” she writes.

   “What a shame. What about you, Audrey?”

   “I have nothing on my end. It would seem that you have won the competition, Minase-san.” Audrey reports.

   “Indeed I have. More importantly, Aldenia lost. You remember our bet, right?” Jin writes.

   “Yes, yes. Of course I remember. Man, to think that I have to part with my beloved collection for one whole month.ONE. WHOLE. MONTH! Boo-hoo, the agony…”

   The message ended with a lot of crying-face emojis.

   “Allow me to thank you from the bottom of my heart, Minase-san.” Audrey writes.

   “You’re very much welcome.” Jin replies.

   “You’re supposed to be on my side, nee-san! And Minase? I’ll definitely pay you back for this!”

   Jin was about to type a reply when he noticed movements from the corner of his eyes. All the ghosts have turned their bodies and are now staring in a certain direction. At the next moment, they all start walking to a destination only known to them.

   “The ghosts have started to move. Get over here ASAP.” Jin quickly types.

   He also sent the sisters his location so that they could find him.

   “Understood. I shall be right there.”

   “Me too.”

   As Jin watches, the ghosts are slowly but surely leaving the town. Jin flies up the sky so that he could estimate their destination. After looking around for a while, he notices an abandoned mine not far from the town.

   Ah, so this is a mining town. Not that it really matters. What matters is that the ghosts are being controlled by someone or something to go there. Instead of heading over there immediately, Jin waits patiently until the siblings arrive. Three seconds later, a portal opens right next to Jin, and out comes Audrey. Similar to Jin, she’s also using wind magic to make herself float in midair.

   “My apologies for making you wait, Silver Wolf-san.” she apologizes.

   “No worries. It’s not like the ghosts are making lots of progress.” he tells her.

   Audrey takes a good look at them.

   “Pray tell, do you have any idea where they are heading to?” she asks Jin.

   Wordlessly, Jin points towards the mine.

   “At least, I think that’s where they’re going. Can’t really be sure until they stop.”

   “I guess that we shall see. Now then, where is Al?”

   As if on cue, Jin sees Aldenia flying towards them.

   “Oh, there she is now.”

   While approaching Jin and Audrey, Aldenia has been focusing on the ghosts.

   “Where are they going?” she asks no one in particular.

   Jin points at the mine again.

   “Towards that mine, probably.”

   “Maybe we should check it out.”

   “Definitely.” Jin agrees. “You got any issue with it, Audrey?”

   Audrey shakes her head. “Not at all. Luring out the mercenaries are certainly important, but this is quite an incident as well.”

   “Right. Well, let’s go.”

   The entrance to the mine is nothing to write home about. Just a hole with one lantern on each side, and that’s about it. Jin activates his Eye of Truth to scan for any potential danger. He found none.

   “I got nothing. You girls see anything?” he asks the siblings without leaving his sight from the entrance.

   “Nothing from my end, as well.” Audrey reports.

   “Same here.” Aldenia says. “That said, this mine is going to be haunted soon enough, so that’s something, right?”

   Wordlessly, Jin turns his neck to stare at Aldenia. Her elder sister is also doing the same.

   “Sorry, I just couldn’t help myself there. Tee-hee!” Aldenia apologizes playfully.

   “Well, that’s assuming this is where the ghosts are heading. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

   The three of them fly to the sky once more to observe the activity of the ghosts. Sure enough, they are indeed heading for the mine. It has to be said, though, they’re really taking their time to get there. It’s been almost thirty minutes, and they’re only halfway there. Anyone with a normal stamina would have completed the journey in less than half the time.

   Aldenia groans. “Can’t they walk a bit faster?”

   “They’re probably taking their time since they want to drag on the inevitable for as long as possible.” Jin takes a guess.

   “For what? Being part of a demonic ritual? They don’t look like they have free will to me.”

   “No, to work. They were miners when they were still alive. Even after they die, they still hate the idea that they have to set foot in their workplace.”

   “Then how do you explain the fact that there are female ghosts?”

   Jin can’t.

   “I’m telling you, they’re being used for a ritual!” Aldenia insists.

   “Maybe. Again, we shall see.”

   At this moment, Jin finally notices that Audrey has been silent for quite a while. He sneaks a glance at her. The elder Graylock seems to be deep in thought. It’s either that or she’s just observing. Jin can’t tell at all since her mask is blocking her expression.

   “Thinking about something?” Jin asks her.

   “Yes. Do you not find it odd that the town has been prevented from being demolished, even though it is common for such an ancient town to be made way for a new one?”

   Jin shrugs. “Maybe it’s been marked as a heritage site. There probably aren’t any back at Ifezan, but these sites were left alone on purpose so that there’s places for history maniacs to explore.”

   “If so, please answer me this question. Out of all the towns to preserve, why is a haunted one chosen?”

   For the second time, Jin can’t answer the question. It might have been a coincidence, but even he has started to suspect that something is really wrong.

   Suddenly, Aldenia lets out a sigh of relief. Jin looks downwards and sees that the ghosts are just a minute or two from entering the mines.

   “So, are we going to purify them?” Aldenia asks.

   Jin thinks about it.

   “Let’s wait for a bit,” he decides. “I’m kind of curious about what they are going to do there.”

   “While we wait, I shall do an investigation of my own.” Audrey says.

   Right after she’s done talking, a book appears out of nowhere and lands right on top of Audrey’s hand. The book looks very old and has at least two hundred pages. Most disturbingly, it’s letting out a sinister aura.

   “This is a book written by an experienced necromancer. We might find the answer we seek if I read through it.” Audrey explains as she starts to flip the pages and look through the contents.

   “Are you sure that it’s safe to read that without going insane or have something equally bad or worse happening to you?” Jin couldn’t help but ask.

   “There is no cause for concern. I made sure to cast several Spells before I took this book out.” Audrey assures.

   “All right, then. As long as you know what you’re doing.”

   As Jin and Audrey are having a conversation, the ghosts have silently entered the mine.