The thieves led the two of them through the dark alleyway and to a set of worn out looking cellar doors. The thief who had been trimming his nails with the dagger rushed over to the doors and flung them open, revealing stone steps that lead down into darkness. Hideki didn't like the looks of this, but he didn't know much about thieves' hideouts. He didn't see anything from the street and the leader of the two men gestured irritably for the two of them to follow him, and casually strode down the steps into darkness.

Hideki turned to Megumi and gave her a look, hoping that she would take the hint this time that this was a bad idea. She shrugged at him and stepped down into the cellar first. He wanted to smack the palm of his hand on his forehead out of frustration, but instead hastily followed his charge down the dark stairs. Hideki surveyed the area once he reached the bottom of the stairs and found that the place was just a large empty cellar. Two lanterns hung from the ceiling and lit the room dimly.

This doesn't smell right. She admitted to wanting to kill the king, and they just go along with it that easily? No way.

He paused where he stood and watched as the man headed to the back of the room where a couple dusty barrels lie. Maybe there was some secret switch or something that led to the real thieves' headquarters there? He didn't trust it. As the man bent down behind the barrel, Hideki jumped in front of Megumi. The man jerked up and tossed a dagger straight at them and it connected squarely in his upper chest with a thunk. He fell to the ground from the force of the impact and stared up at the ceiling.

Why does she always get me into this kind of thing? This hurts like hell!

He stayed on the ground for a second, playing dead and listened as the cocky thief began to talk like some villain out of a children's story. 

"Kill the king? You think we'd trust you just because you say something ridiculous like that? You two are fools of the highest order. We're going to not only rob you, princess, but I'm going to let the whole gang rape you as well as punishment for daring to waste our time."

Megumi just sighed and stood where she was. He heard her mumble under her breath. "The hard way it is, then. Such a shame."

"What was that?" the voice of the other thief said from behind.

Megumi turned towards him and a green fireball exploded from her hand towards her target. "Goodbye," she said calmly and turned back towards the man who had hit him with the knife.

A green fireball exploded from her palm and slammed into the man behind them. Hideki heard the man's wails of agony and knew it was time to stop playing dead. He jumped up and faced the leader, who had a look of shock on his face, seeing Hideki on his feet. He drew his sword and once again placed himself between the man and Megumi. Three more daggers came straight at him in a blur. Each one sunk into the front of him, and he staggered backwards, but didn't fall again.

The taste of metal bloomed into existence in his mouth and he felt liquid entering his lungs. He would have been seriously in trouble from the first knife had he been alive, and these three would have been the nail in the coffin if not.

This asshole is really starting to piss me off!

He spat a gob of blood to the side and then charged towards the enemy with his blade raised. 

Damn! Why did I have to be right? Megumi gets me into this shit on purpose, I swear! She must just enjoy watching me get stabbed and blown up!

A sound could be heard behind them as the cellar door had opened again. He stayed focused on his opponent, however, and slashed at the man, who rolled to the side like a nimble cat. The man got in close and slashed for Hideki's throat, but he managed to kick the man squareley in the middle before he could do any more damage. His enhanced strength sent the man flying into the wall with a crash.

Hideki stalked over and rammed his blade into the man's shoulderblade and twisted. The man screamed in agony and and tried in vain to reach up and stab him in the leg. Hideki kicked the man's arm to the side and then stabbed him in the throat. The man gurgled and fell to the side in a heap. The sound of screams off to the side indicated that Megumi was busy with other matters. He finally pulled the blades out of his torso one by one and then took a health potion.

Sweet relief replaced the pain in his chest and he surveyed the carnage that Megumi was causing. Bodies were burning and exploding left and right. It looked like half of the slums had followed them down into this moldy cellar. The girl had a wicked grin on her face and was laying waste to her enemies. There were only a handful of them left, and they were trying to scramble over bodies towards the exit.

They needed information, and they wouldn't be able to get it from corpses. He dashed over towards the scene and cut through three thieves who were dressed in rags before getting to the door. He stood before it and blocked the exit. There were only two thieves left and they raised their hands.

"Spare us! Please! We're just a couple of poor beggars!"

Megumi gestured for the two thieves to step aside. "Get up against the wall if you know what's good for you."

The frightened would-be-predators complied. Hideki noted that both of them had pissed themselves. It was pitiful. These men were the lowest of the low.  He eyed their captives warily before turning to Megumi.

"You just had to tell them outright about killing the king? Seriously, Megumi?"

The small girl just looked at him with a grin and shrugged. 

"Megu's got more than one plan. There was a good chance this would happen. We're here to exterminate these vermin anyway, so it was worth a shot."

She raised her staff slightly and then two corpses next to them stood back up. The thieves continued to cower in fear against the wall and begged for mercy, but their pleas fell upon deaf ears.

"Megu only needs one of them alive."

"Wait! Wait! I'll tell you anything. Just don't kill me! Kill him, instead!" the one on the left shouted.

The two began to argue and Hideki solved the argument for them by walking up to the tight lipped one and stabbing him in the chest. "I guess that makes you wthe winner, now spill."

The man's haw hung open for a moment and he licked his lips before speaking. "I'll tell you everything, just ask. Please, just let me live."

They were lucky that this ambush had been attempted by utter weaklings. The only one with even an ounce of skill had been the one who had treated him like a pin cushion. 

"Where is your hideout. The real one. If you show us, Megu will spare you." She stepped up next to Hideki and stared the man down.

"I'll tell you where it is, but I won't take you there. The boss will kill me for sure if he knew I helped you."

"Fine. Mark it on this map." Megumi tossed a map of the Capital they had picked up back in Rivean at the man's feet.

"I-I... d-don't have anything to write with."

"There's plenty of blood on the ground. Use it," Megumi said casually.

The man bent down and poked his index finger into his ally's wound before raising his trembling hand to the map and marking a spot on it. Hideki stepped over to the man and grabbed the map, examining it. The thief had marked a street crossing in the market district of the city. "C-Can I go now? I need to l-leave the city."

Hideki stepped back, intending to let the thief go when the two raised undead minions rushed over from behind Hideki and grabbed the man by the shoulders and lifted him up against the wall.

"Poro-tan, you might want to go away for this last part. You see... Megu doesn't believe this man. We need to be certain, so we don't fall into another trap."

She's going to fucking torture this guy now? This is turning into a sick habit of hers. I hope it won't continue.

"This isn't right. He gave us what we wanted. Torture is wrong!"

"You'd trust the word of a thief at face value? Look at what they tried to do to us." Megumi swept her hand out to the side.

He gritted his teeth. He hated this. Torture was something bad guys did. He thought she was headed in the right direction, but he was being a fool. She hadn't changed much at all. She was still a monster.

"Whatever. You aren't going to listen to me, anyway. At least you aren't making me participate or watch. Thanks for that. I'll wait outside." He stepped through the carnage and over to the cellar doors. While he was on his way, Megumi had summoned three more undead who were headed over to her location.

"Please! I told you the truth! I didn't lie!!!" The man wailed, pleading for his miserable life as Hideki opened up the doors and stepped outside into the cool mountain air.

He shut the doors behind him and slumped against the wall of the filthy alleyway. Screams could be heard from inside the cellar and he did his best to block them out.  He wished that she would trust him enough to at least tell him her plans so that he wouldn't be shocked when she revealed crazy plans to their enemies. Time crawled by and he was amazed at how long the man screamed before absolute silence filled the alleyway once more. He thought he might be sick. He hoped that when his time came again, that he would have a quick clean death where he could die like a man instead of being broken like a dog.

After a few more moments, the cellar doors swung open once more and Megumi climbed out.

"Well? Did you at least get anything more out of him?"

Megumi offered him a grin in response. "Megu was right. That first location he had marked was a trap. The place is rigged with all sorts of nasty surprises for anyone who goes in. He gave up two more safe house locations before he died. One in the entertainment district, and one in a different part of the market district in a little shop. We should still be careful, none of these people were ranked high in the organization it seems. They were all something like initiates, except for the one who hit you with all those knives. He was something akin to middle management."

"So we're going to go to the safehouses and clear them out?"

She nodded. "There are too many eyes here in the slums. We need to make a move as fast as possible, because if we wait, at the very least Megu is sure we'll only find empty safe houses or traps waiting for us."

Great. Just wonderful. Our fun filled day of adventure continues!.

The two of them left the alleyway and back to the main street. The street was a lot emptier than it had been before, and that was probably because most of the vagrants who had been out here were now dead in that cellar. Even so, there were still people who looked at them with prying eyes. It didn't help things that there was blood splattered all over his clothes.

Once they got out of the slums, the next closest destination that had been marked on the map was the entertainment district. Just as they were about to turn towards their new destination, they walked into a group of guards, however.

"Halt! You're covered in blood! You'll be coming with us."

"We're from the Adventurers Guild. Megu and Poro-tan just dealt with a portion of your city's thief problem." Megumi held out her ID card for the four guards to see.

"Where?"

"Back where we came from in the slums, you'll find a cellar with what remains of them. Our work isn't done yet though, we need to go."

The guards gave each other looks before the leader replied, "If you have more information, we should go with you and deal with them in force. We've been trying to root out their hideout for months now, but keep hitting dead ends. They're a slippery lot, I don't see how the two of you could have made such quick work of them. You're probably headed into one of their traps."

"We'll take our chances. They'll bolt if they see a group of guards heading to their location and it will only delay things. Megu intends to finish this job and collect the reward from the Adventurer's Guild."

"I'd hate to see someone so young snuffed out. I have a daughter your age. Listen to reason. You may have taken out a few of them, but I'm willing to bet you got lucky. Trust me when I say that they're tricky. You're probably walking into something nasty. Reward money isn't worth your life, girl."

"We can take care of ourselves, thanks." Megumi pushed past the four guards and continued on her way. Hideki sighed and continued onward. The reward money did sound good, especially considering how broke they always were, but they had been through a lot lately and it would be nice to take it easy for a while. The guards would know more about the problems around here than they did as well, and it was pretty brash of them to ignore their advice.

"Why not lat least let the guards take care of one of the safe houses?" he whispered to her once he caught up.

"And ruin all our fun? No thanks."

He sighed and figured that he should have known it would be something like that. They up the main road a bit longer before reaching the fork leading off towards the entertainment district. It was unlike any place he had ever seen before and was so colorful that it almost gave him a headache.

Street performers were on every corner and performed for people passing by. There was a woman who laid on a bed of spikes, and a man who ate fire. He saw several musicians and there was even a temporary stage set up where people were performing some kind of puppet show. The district was loud and they had to shove their way through the crowds. He stared at the woman on the spikes as they went by, she was wearing hardly anything at all, and a man was placing heavy looking weights onto her stomach one by one. 

That looks like it could end really badly. I wonder how it works. Does she have some sort of iron skin skill?

They continued on their way and he stared in awe as he saw people juggling knives, which seemed crazy to him. People gave sighs of excitement as the blades spun through the air and he caught parts of a dozen different stories along their pathway.

People must have a lot more free time in the capital than in other places, I guess if they can stand around all night and watch people do this stuff. I wonder how good a living these people make.

After what felt like ages of pushing themselves through the crowd, they arrived at the building that had been marked on their map. A large sign above the store read, Tantalus Stage Plays. There was a large alleyway behind the building and they headed into it. The lights and sounds of the lively theater district faded as they trudged along the dirty alleyway. A couple minutes later and they arrived at the spot. Across from the side building on the map was a mural of a huge purple dragon facing off against a knight on horseback wielding a heavy looking lance. 

All of the homes in this district were squeezed in-between the main streets down long alleyways, and there were entrances to many homes here, but none had any lights shining through their windows. 

"You sure this is the place?" he asked.

"He said it was the house with the head of the dragon in front of it. This has to be it. You should go first, to be on the safe side since you're more... durable. Megu will stay back a few feet."

Hideki sighed, he knew that what she really meant, was that he was expendable. He was more than a little used to being used as bait now, but he still didn't like it. Being stabbed and hit by bone shrapnel from exploding corpses still hurt like a bitch even though it wasn't fatal for him in his undead state. He thanked his lucky stars that his sense of pain was dampened a little since he had become undead, though, or those stab wounds in the cellar earlier would've incapacitated him from the pain alone instead of simply annoying him.

He cautiously approached the building and tried looking through the boarded up windows. He couldn't really see anything, and the place looked to be abandoned as far as he could tell, but looks could be deceiving.

Here goes nothing. he thought as he pushed the door open and took a wary step inside the foreboding structure.