Lost Rain
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Outrun - Chapter 215
🕑 Added 2025-02-24 23:04:00 +0000 UTCI arrived at the location Inquisitor Ligh sent me. It was Downtown, just outside of the Corporate Quarter. It was a ‘small’ skyscraper home to dozens, if not hundreds, of different corporations of varying kinds and types. The one Inquisitor Ligh sent to me in particular, though? Dru Industries. I checked it on the Net—it was a kind of security firm specializing in magical defenses.
I caught some eyes as I slowly made my way from the front door, across the lobby, and to the elevators. It wasn’t hard to figure out why. I was still covered in blood, to the point that my footsteps left behind small trails of the stuff. And yet no one approached.
Mostly thanks to the Fear the Reaper. Yeah, I had it on at full blast. I didn't want anyone approaching about the mess I was making. Not my property, not my blood, not my problem. Stay over there, far from me, please.
A man waited at the elevator with the button already pressed. The elevator dinged, though the man ‘got a phone call’, causing him to leave the elevator just to me. The gonk pulled out his wallet instead of his phone though.
Still, couldn’t really blame him. I had Fear the Reaper active and I was covered in blood. I'd be scared too. Usually, at least. I pulled down my hat slightly, my hand immediately getting soaked in blood. Unfortunate.
I wiped it off, hit the button for the sixty-third floor, and sat down against the back wall to wait. My legs weren’t in the best condition. The sooner I got back to somewhere safe to rest, the better.
I rolled up my pant leg to check. They were absolutely covered in gnarly-looking bruises. Burst Step was to blame, of course, but my condition only worsened after carting Inquisitor Varus out of the Underground. I rubbed at the back of my neck as I settled down for the long ride up to the top of the building.
After a while, the elevator doors dinged- only to reveal the site of a massacre. The floor was covered in blood with corpses scattered around. What once would’ve been a quite nice foyer had turned into a field of the dead. Gunshots marred the walls all over.
I fumbled for my gun, raising it as I stood up and took in the scene. Not quite what I was expecting when the boss sent me to this location… was this his doing though? Surely he didn't summon me into an active battleground, right?
I took a step out, inspecting the bodies as I kept an eye on my surroundings. About a quarter of them seemed to have died from sword slashes. The injuries matched up with what Knight Persha had done back then.
Then about half of them were covered in a large quantity of lacerations as if a maniac with a dagger had struck dozens of times in a single second. No one stood out in my memory as using daggers though, so I had no idea.
The remaining quarter died of good old gunshot wounds. Only, the wounds were weird. None of them were from the front. Instead, it looked almost as if their allies had shot them in the back of the head. Even weirder, about half their guns seemed to be jammed or exploded as if they bought some really cheap weaponry. It was all Raijin products though.
More interestingly, each of the corpses had a tattoo on their arm. It was similar to the Circle’s symbol, only covered in more thorns and the tree looked slightly different. One of the witnesses from Lang Tower mentioned someone with this tattoo, right? Have they stopped making amulets? Or maybe they noticed I grabbed some and shifted to this-
I flinched back as a scream came from further in. I ensured Stalk and Lethargic Presence were on before slowly making my way through the halls of the place. They were in just as much disrepair as the foyer, with the occasional corpse scattered around. Whoever came through here hadn’t spared anyone. Definitely the Crusade though. The more I saw, the more I was assured this was their handiwork.
I made my way to what looked like the boss's office on the other side of a cubicle farm soaked in blood. Squires ambled about the cubicle farm, seemingly taking pictures of the dead. The boss's door lay shattered against the wall, knocked off its hinges by some great force.
Five people were in the boss's room. The Inquisitor and the Crusade Commander stood over a collapsed man leaning against a desk. Two Knights stood at the door protectively. Neither of them noticed me yet, but it was only a matter of time. All four of them, combined with the rest of the floor, were a seriously intimidating sight.
“Inquisitor?” I called out, making my presence known to the men in the room.
I felt the frosty gaze of the two Knights as they stared at me. They relaxed somewhat once they spotted me in Crusade gear, though kept up their surveillance.
”Ah! Zuku! Come in, come in.” The Inquisitor waved at me. As he turned around, he slammed his foot down onto the downed guy’s kneecap seemingly by accident.
”GAAHHHHH!” The guy screamed horribly as his leg became digitigrade.
The Commander backhanded their captured prisoner, sending him to the floor and abruptly ending his scream. “Oh shut it, you child. It’s not even that bad yet… but it could be if you don’t start giving us answers.”
Ah, torture then? Is that what we’re going for? Surely this breaks several kinds of laws… then again, who’s going to arrest them? The city council probably wouldn’t care about anything but results anyway.
”L-look, I really don’t k-know anything.” The prisoner whimpered as he tried to force himself back up into a sitting position.
“Lie.” One of the Knights coldly called out.
The Commander shook his head in disappointment. “And here I thought we could all leave in one piece…”
He held out his hand. A moment later, shadows seemed to surge and coalesce into a small, pure black dagger. Without hesitation, the commander plunged the dagger into one of the guy’s arms. The one marked with the Circle tattoo. So he was the maniac with the knife? “Now then, we’re going to play a fun game where we see just how many daggers I can put into you before you break, okay?”
”Zuku, let’s- uh, head to the other room to talk. Noishy.” The Inquisitor called out to me, thankfully giving me an excuse to get out of here.
”Right behind you, sir.” I felt a chill go down my spine as the Commander summoned yet another shadow dagger. I could've sworn I felt his eyes on me as I followed the Inquisitor out. I really, really didn’t want to get on his bad side.
The screams continued as we headed back into the cubicle farm. The Inquisitor visibly relaxed away from the Commander “Sho? What’d you guysh find?”
I sat down and gave a quick breakdown of our trip down into the Underground. This time, there wasn’t much to leave out of the story. Inquisitor Varus had done most of the fighting and damage in the first place, so I mainly just talked about him and what we found down there. And I had a feeling lying would be a bad idea. That knight seemed to be able to detect lies.
By the end of my tale, the Inquisitor leaned against the wall, rubbing at his mask. “Hmm… I’ll admit, I don’t much about these- theshe Fallen or ritual magic… shtill, Varush shaid there’d be a third?”
”Chek. I did some math- the third one would either be out in the middle of the bay or off in the Outskirts. Neither of which makes much sense.” I rifled through my bag, pulling out my deck. I quickly pulled up a map to show him what I was talking about.
”Shupercarrier Phalanx?” The Inquisitor mumbled as he stared at the map.
”What?” Why was he- wait… it lined up. Were those crazy bastards planning on having their third ritual circle on Sentinel’s ship? That- that’s insane! No way they could get on there, let alone take it over… right?
”Good work, Shquire… We‘ll need to call in some favorsh to go check out Shentinel’s ship. How much time do you still need? No matter. You have three days to wrap up whatever it ish you're doing. It’sh all handsh on deck if I can get us aboard the ship.” The Inquisitor pushed off the wall, heading back to the other Crusaders. “I’ll tell the Commander.”
”Any word on Inquisitor Varus?” I asked as I stood up.
The Inquisitor paused momentarily before nodding. “He’s recovering. Already awake at Medtech's hospital… leave the written report to him. He’ll need shomething to do now that he’sh injured.”
”Chek.” The Inquisitor entered the office once more. I took it for a dismissal and headed back for the elevator before clicking back down to the bottom floor. I flicked on Fear the Reaper once more. I had to uphold the dignity of the Crusade, right?
I stepped out, tracking even more blood than the first time onto the freshly cleaned floor of the building’s foyer. A janitor with a mop looked up just as he was about to leave, sighing deeply as I re-walked over where he just cleaned. He started moving my way once more. Unlike the others, his Cues didn’t reveal any fear. Just annoyance.
”The guys up there are way worse than me. Might as well get it in one sweep.” I nodded my head to the elevator.
The janitor slowly nodded back and then went off to do something else, leaving a trail of bloody footprints as I left the building. Next stop? My apartment.
A yawn ripped apart my jaw as I returned home. I immediately stripped and took a shower, washing the day’s blood off of me.
My clothes took some effort to get fully cleaned after that, but my poncho and trench coat thankfully caught most of it. They were much easier to clean off. Unfortunately, my Crusade ball cap wasn’t as easy to clean. It was now permanently marked with blood. At least, unless I wanted to take it to the Crusade’s cleaner. That granny could probably get it out.
I stumbled over to my bed, finally allowing the interface to pop up into my vision.
「Melee Weapons - 5>6」
「Intimidation - 4>5」
「Cleaning - 4>5」
Nothing too crazy, but levels were levels. With that taken care of, I moved on to the last thing on my agenda before I could go to bed and heal.
I pulled out my Crusade phone and sent a message to that unknown number. There was a high chance they were the shoemaker. ‘Yes, my wage. I want it.’
A couple minutes later, they replied. ‘Hmm… I’ll split it with you. Half.’
’Half? Are you insane? I keep getting thrown to Death’s door by this damn job, and I can’t even leave now.’
’ Three-quarters to you. Lowest I’ll go. Otherwise, I could slip a report into the right person’s hands and just make a new shoe to get my monthly ‘bonus’.’ The person replied. 'I'll offer other benefits, though. No need to worry about exposure.'
’Fine. How much is three-quarters anyway?’ I didn’t actually know how much the Crusade paid their Squires. I’d never asked, and no one had ever told me.
’You’re getting paid four thousand a month. Three thousand with my cut to ensure it all goes smoothly and you remain undetected… although the pay raises with each piece of armor accumulated. Try for a promotion, yeah? Both of us will make more.’ The shoemaker said as if getting a promotion was easy.
I took a sharp breath. This bastard had made at least twelve thousand Rayn off my labor- Rayn I’d never see… just thinking about it spiked my system with rage. I barely managed to calm myself down.
At least I’d be getting three thousand from now on… and it seemed as though this guy would try and keep my identity safe? He was making money off me after all, so he had the incentive. It was some protection against internal scrutiny, at least.
‘Fast-track me for promotion then. We both profit.’ I sent back.
There was a few minutes' delay before they replied. ‘Not that simple. But sure, I’ll see what I can do. Do something major and it’ll be even easier.’
What counted as major? I do ‘major’ things all the time for the Crusade- or at least, that’s how it felt to me… still, three thousand Rayn a month would be nice. It was enough to take care of all of my monthly expenses. All my gig money could be saved up now for other projects without having to worry about rent.
I tossed the phone to the side, lying down as I tiredly wrapped my arm over my face. My hair was still wet, but I was just so tired. My eyes closed of their own will as I faded into sleep.
Comments
Lost Rain
Thank you! It’s fixed.
Psyren G
By the end of my tail > By the end of my tale
Lost Rain
Ah hah... yes... that was all intentional... You made it sound so much better than what I wrote. :')
Halycon404
Sounds like a guild system. Apprentice, Journeyman, Master. Just Squires are under a Inquisitor/Knight and get more visible notations of accomplishment along the way to gaining the titles themselves. Aspirants are required to be able to do most things at a base level. Squires are expected to have mastery in at least one area while building toward mastery of all. Inquisitors/Knights are required to have mastery over all skillsets needed for the job.
Lost Rain
Assume yes. I don’t like having to figure out taxes IRL, let alone for Outrun. I probably need to reword the final part a bit. Promotion isn’t quite the right word. The way the Crusade works is Aspirant > Squire > Inquisitor/Knight. Between Squire and Knight though, they ‘earn’ their Crusade armor with each piece raising their wages while they remain under their Inquisitor/Knight and hold the same responsibilities. It’s like gold stars almost? A bit of a weird system to be honest.
lenkite
Is her income taxed as well ? It may not be 3 thousand real, lol. The VERY last thing I expected her is asking for a promotion - does she want even more of her time sucked in ?
Lumex
Ty for the chapter 🙏
