[Common Region] Kikka

[Apollymi]

The customer had all but scurried off and there was now a strange confrontation taking place. Kajun stayed rather quiet during the start of this exchange, as she'd figured out her role in this particular endeavor was to be the 'calmer personality'. While she waited to interject a bit her fingers dragged along the jewels as she looked at them. As Hawks leaned into the table, a jump came from the merchant, his nervous tick seemed to develop as he began to rub a single finger against the tip of his nose. "What you'd do?" he questioned not liking how the questioning was already going. Hawks final act would be an intense bit of threatening. Whether or not this man would actually carry through on this threat or not wasn't really important, the accompanying hand slam seemed to shake the greasy little man to his core. He looked to Kajun for help maybe confirmation and she looked up from the jewels and shrugged. "I'm not in control of him or anything... best to just tell us everything you know," she said raising her eyes with a most vacant expression.

"Alright alright. Look don't be too hasty..." he said still sweating bullets. "I didn't actually take any of these things, I don't know where this stuff comes from. There are some guys, and they go places and look for things. And they go through them, and then they sell me the left overs at a discount, and I sell them to the good people," he explained this situation. "I literally don't know anything... I'm literally the bottom tier of this whole thing. I just move jewels and it isn't really my job to know where they come from and that's the truth," he finished his explanation hoping this wouldn't go any further. Granted he hadn't said anything about the people who sold to him or anything like that, and it was necessary information.

[Bloodedge]

Hawks' grin widened as Kajun fell right in line with this little role-play he'd initiated. He could see its effects taking place through the expression of the merchant, and it wasn't long at all before he was hearing it as well. Everything this man said could have easily been a lie, but Hawks didn't believe this to be the case. "You know what I don't like about lies?" he asked rhetorically. The rhetoric would be shown when he immediately rolled into his next statement, which answered the question itself. "Lies take too long. There's so much detail thrown into an explanation, and bad liars can't even keep up. I like you, though. You're no liar. Know how I can tell?"

Whether the merchant knew or not, Hawks' most recent question was also rhetorical. A slight pause followed as if he was awaiting a response, but even if one were to begin, Hawks quickly slammed his other hand against the table as well. "Because everything important is missing! Don't screw with us; who are you getting it from, and where are you supposed to meet them once you unload what you have now?"

[Apollymi]

The jeweler seemed to be in the clear, until of course, Hawks began to speak rhetorically about lies. A deep swallow came from merchant, he didn't know what he expected from Magic Knights, but these two seemed to be a bit more brains that he was prepared to deal with. But still he thought to contribute a bit to the conversation, trying to formulate an answer to his secondary question. "How..." before he could even get the question out, Hawks' fist slammed onto the table again. A jump ensued as did a soon to be covered smile from Kajun who simply shook her head from left to right. It seemed that the jig was up so to speak, as Hawks did a good enough mental job of following along to know that he hadn't gotten any real details. "I... but... it's..." he stammered repeatedly apparently scared. Now would be the time that Kajun participated once more, adding a bit of sweet to the obvious threats given by Hawks. "Look we don't want to hold you up? And you don't want to be in danger, it's easier for everyone if you just... answer the angry man's questions," she said while flickering her gaze over him. A sigh would ensue as the man began to spill his proverbial guts about his business partner.

"Alright, look. When I am done here. I meet someone on the east end of Kikka. We don't meet in the Black Market because it's too crowded. Anyways, there is a guy who has greasy slick back hair, muscular with a bad attitude and a leather jacket. He will show up after dark every day. He'll be able to tell you more than I will. I swear... I am just trying to make a little money," he confessed. As far as Kajun was concerned this man was definitely a little fish, but the breadcrumbs would eventually add up. Still there was a great deal left to do, and Kajun could take it that this man had nothing else to offer, but they still needed to confiscate his stock to have it returned to the people it actually belonged to.

[Bloodedge]

At long last, the pair of Magic Knights had all the information they needed from this man. At this point, all they needed to do was follow through. "Well, you're not gonna get any more money out of..." Hawks was in the middle of inspecting the jewels, and a pause was brought to his speech as he discovered a certain box labeled with an insignia depicting an eyeball and various hieroglyph-like accents surrounding it. Hawks collected this first and foremost, completing his clause only as he did so. "... this. Two seconds left until you should really not be anywhere I can see you. Go. Now," he demanded. A sigh would follow, during the time he expected this man to be scurrying off. Only when he was gone did Hawks intend to begin speaking again. "Alright. Good work there, Kajun. Think it's worth it to just follow him to make sure he's not leading us astray? He doesn't have this lot anymore, so he might be dumb enough to already be going for the next supply drop."

[Apollymi]

It seemed the merchant wouldn't even be allowed to keep the merchandise he'd already paid for. "But... I..." the timing of two seconds left the man scrambling out of the Black Market at record speeds. He couldn't help but be immediately scared. In his own mind, the worst case scenario would involve him needing to resupply before his suppliers got busted and that would only take but so long. Meanwhile as he ran away, Kajun's grimoire opened briefly. A small rose seed would find itself planted in the man's skin at the nape of his neck and hairline, imperceptible to the naked eye. Moving right along she looked over the box with the eye and hieroglyphs while listening to Hawks speak. 'I've never seen this symbol before, I wonder what it means...' she thought only to look up at Hawks. His methods were quite strange, but she couldn't deny the results he'd attained. "Arigatou Gozaimasu, Vaude-senpai. You did well to get so much information out of him..." she muttered as she finally picked up the articles bagging them to be taken back to the Magic Knights Headquarters to eventually be returned to where they belonged. "It isn't necessary to follow directly. I put a seed on him to track him, it will allow us to go to any place he goes until the seed grows into a rose and falls off. We have time to return these goods to Headquarters... and plan our next move," she said calmly. "And time to make sure he gets good and worried about what might happen to him," she mentioned with a gentle nod of her head. "Have you ever seen this symbol before now?" she asked pointing out the strange eye with the hieroglyphs it seemed a bit abnormal compared to most of what they'd come across so far, and it made her wonder if it was some sort of clue.

[Bloodedge]

Hawks had become furious. He couldn't allow it to show for the sake of progressing the mission without unnecessary baggage, but the rage was there underneath. "Yeah. You rolled with that nicely. Good teamwork," he said, noting that she had done something with her grimoire as the merchant ran off. Apparently, she had affixed him with some sort of tracer seed, so they didn't quite need to follow him per se. Before they went about returning the stolen items, Kajun questioned the box he held, or rather the symbol upon it. "It's nothing special. Well... it won't do anything for us, anyway." Hawks took a moment to turn toward her, opening his coat to reveal the black shirt he wore beneath, which bore a tamer form of the same engravings. "This box... They took it from my family's house."

[Apollymi]

Hawks change in emotional status was barely noticeable to Kajun. It could have even simply been related to his normal excitement and she would have never known the difference. He did however comment that they had good teamwork which led her to nod her head in agreement. Though she didn't understand why her Captain had initially sent her out with this particular individual, things always seemed to turn out right when Sibylla made the decisions, as such she did as the woman asked without question. 'I have to give credit where it is due. He is good, and Danchou makes great team choices, even if it isn't obvious at first...' she thought. Only to have attention brought to the strange object they'd seen and that Hawks seemed to be looking at a great deal more than anything else. Soon enough it was revealed why he was so interested in it, as it bore similar markings to ones on his very clothes. The clothes of nobles and royalty always seemed to link back to their families and Kajun knew this, as such she was only mildly surprised when Vaude mentioned the box came from his house. Still the girl managed to feel for the man she was with, not knowing how he felt about the situation. "Sou ka... Vaude-senpai, would you like to go there and make sure everything is okay?" she asked first and foremost, in a moment of worry for any potential losses he may have suffered. Though there was more than one reason to go to this man's family home and check it out, there was also a sudden and rather important question looming on the horizon. "What was in that box?" she questioned making the assumption that said box was now empty.

[Bloodedge]

"... No," Hawks said, even as he looked at the box with eyes full of remorse. "The mission comes first. If we take these guys out as soon as possible, then we keep them from doing anything to anyone else," he continued. The box itself was soon stored in his coat pocket, and with that, he was ready to move out again. An open grimoire from Hawks resulted in a large pair of black-feathered wings sprouting from his back. These wings were folded around the piles of jewelry to carry the items using their feathers. When asked about the contents of the box, he sighed. "It's not important. Let's go."

[Apollymi]

There was remorse in Hawks face even as he stated that he didn't want to visit his family home. He went on to claim that for the sake of the mission he was willing to forego this, even though it would have made just as much sense in Kajun's mind for him to want to go and check up on it. Her eyes widened at the assertion, because this was the level of self-sacrificing that she'd become used to being part of the Silver Eagles. It gave Kajun a better overall view of the man she was with, and it made her respect him more as her senior. "Hai, that is true. Let's go finish this mission up then... so you can check on your family," she said with an encouraging nod. If he didn't think what had been in the box mattered, perhaps it didn't. Still, it might come up again at some other point in time. Regardless she'd lead the way to the Magic Knight Headquarters in town to drop off all the stolen merchandise.

A few moments after all of this had been cleared up, she'd be waiting in front of the building with an open grimoire casting a different spell altogether. "Briar Magic: Rose Petal Tracking..." she murmured. This immediately created a three dimensional make up of the town out of briars and then got to watch as she searched for the pollen signatures across the town. These were easy enough to see, and highlighted in yellow with higher density where their tracked criminal spent more time. "Sou ka, he really is going straight to the east end of the town. After having spent a bit of time in a bar, perhaps gathering his courage or trying to shake off his earlier encounter with us... would you like to follow this... Vaude-senpai?" she asked thinking about it more and giving a bit more reasoning. "We could interrupt a potential purchase and find the guys he buys from directly. Catching them all at this moment would be an easy way to get rid of that whole aspect of the group at once," she mentioned.

[Bloodedge]

"Hai. That sounds like the best plan." Having agreed to the plan of action, Hawks carried the stolen goods to the headquarters as needed, bar the box belonging to his family home. Upon returning to the outside world after leaving everything else behind, he met with Kajun again to determine their next course of action. He looked at the map she produced, noting each stop made by the man she was tracking. His location choices were to be expected of a shady individual, but what mattered most was the end of the route. "If we wait until he stops, I could get us there before they finish their exchange. We could cut them off without risking getting caught. Aside from that suggestion, I've got nothing different in mind from what you said."

[Apollymi]

A nod came from Kajun, she aimed to be reassuring but she didn't often have much to say in moments like these. They found themselves delivering the stolen merchandise then going over a little something resembling a plan. Her analysis of the situation was added to by Hawks who seemed to think it might be pertinent to wait for the stop of their target, as such she continued to watch the movement of his golden dust on the map. And only when he reached the far eastern part of the city did he stop. "There, he's stopped for real...." she said with general acceptance of this man's plan as she dispersed the magic only after making sure that Hawks got a good enough look at it to know where they were going.

When they arrived, the sketchy merchant who'd been slowly mulling around, stopped in front of something which looked like an abandoned shack. It had no lights and was exceedingly dark beyond that, but it didn't really matter. He fully intended to get his next round of merchandise and get out before anything bad could happen. As such he knocked on the door still looking around from side to side. "Open up, I need the rest of what you got!" the sleazy man claimed without restraint.

[Bloodedge]

Hawks waited until Kajun confirmed the ceased movements of their target. Once this confirmation was given, he chose to make haste by once again grabbing Kajun by the midsection and taking flight. As one who flew around so often, he had a good enough lay of the land from his typical birds-eye view to know exactly where he needed to be from only a moment spent looking at the map.

Meanwhile, the merchant these two Magic Knights dealt with earlier was at the designated location for his next supply. The sun had set, but the time was a bit earlier than what would be expected. As such, the male figure who stepped out of the dark shack did so while wearing a quizzical expression. This man was fairly tall and slender with blue pineapple-shaped hair and a long ponytail. His left eye was blue, and his right eye remained closed as it always was. "Nufufu~. You're early today. Don't tell me you sold all that so soon; I'll have to charge extra for your next supply if you did."

[Apollymi]

For his part in this, the shady merchant had reached his destination quite a bit earlier than he normally did. Even so, the man he usually met in this spot was indeed here, and as the greasy man looked up at him and his one closed eye he sighed. "Look man cut me some slack. You can't charge me extra for doing what you ask. I buy and move things from you, no questions asked..." he said having thought the better of explaining what likely happened with the last set of supplies he had. "Anyways, I'll take whatever else you have right now, if it is nothing just go ahead and say so..." he mentioned still looking around himself as if nervous. That being said, this wasn't exactly the most legal of activity so a bit of tension was normal for the situation. All the while, Kajun was being carried towards this destination by Hawks in the hopes of busting multiple levels of this ever expanding crime ring.

[Bloodedge]

"I can charge whatever I like. You're the one flipping my hard-earned work for profit; you should have more than enough to cover inflation by now," the blue-haired man replied. In actuality, he was keen on the knowledge Magic Knights had of this business. He stood against the door frame while discussing business with the portly man, crossing his arms while blocking any path to the shack's interior. "If you want everything I have now, it's going to cost you a hundred thousand yul. Everyone's been hitting major places, so we're stocked to the brim. Hell, even I did some solid work earlier today." With that said, this man held out his left hand, as if expecting immediate payment. "Upfront, chop chop."

Hawks' flight made it possible for Kajun and himself to reach the skies above this shack in no time at all. In fact, just as the blue-haired man held out his hand, Hawks was landing on a nearby rooftop in the best cover of darkness he could find. Looking down into the alley, he could see all but maximum confirmation of the deal they were to be interrupting. "Figures. This isn't the place he tried sending us to at all. There's a parallel street that probably would've given him enough time to finish this deal and get out, if we'd actually gone that way on foot."

[Apollymi]

"Inflation cuts into my profits, and I am the one taking the most risks. I should get a discount you fucking crook," this portly man seemed to be upset about the price increase, but he didn't really have time to argue. As far as he was concerned the sooner he paid and got his his new product the sooner he could disappear no questions asked. "A fucking hundred thousand yul... I can't believe you people," he griped. Even so, he brought a large pouch of coin out of his pocket which would be the amount that had been asked for and placed it within this man's outstretched hand. "Fine fine... take it and give me what I need," he said apparently his rush was real and he looked around himself again, not seeing Hawks and his female charge land on a nearby rooftop but still getting a tingling feeling along the back of his head that he was being watched.

Meanwhile, Kajun got low and heard the words stated by Hawks. She nodded her appreciation of their apparently wrongly given location versus the one which they were actually at right now. "I mean, he is an actual criminal. I guess we couldn't expect him to do anything but try and get his last score," she mentioned, which was why she'd put a tracer on him in the first place. Confirmation was necessary when dealing with the words of the untrustworthy. As their mark placed coinage within the hands of the man there she looked with wide eyes. "It looks like it's about time..." she mentioned, knowing that it was very likely that they'd have to storm this place to work on the next part.