章 7: Deepening The Plot Through Character Discussion
The doorbell rang as Ender opened the door to the Black Cat Bar.
"Welcome," an old man standing behind the bar said while wiping some mugs. He looked at the agent and smiled warmly. "You must be Ender, Emilia told me about you," he said.
Ender walked up towards him, with Marshall following her from behind. "You must be Emilia's grandfather aren't you?" she sat down on the bar table and took a closer look at him.
So far, Emilia didn't see any semblance between the old man and Elliot. The old man has light gray hair and a short beard. He's also impossibly fit for his age. He stood tall and looked at both his customers with his warm yet sharp gaze.
"I am," then he turned towards Marshall, who just stared at him nervously. "And who might you be, young man?"
"Eh? I'm uhh… My name is Marshall, I'm Ender's… friend," Marshall replied nervously.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Ender, Marshall," the barista said. "You can call me Mr. Charles, is there anything I can get you?"
Ender shook her head and took out her purse. "No, I just want to pay the bills for earlier today and the room for tonight," she said. "How much?"
Charles crouched down and took out a logbook. He opened it and browsed through it, frowning a little as he did so. "Ender Light, the food and drink will be 27 Vrells, the room will be 80 vrells a night," he said.
'Cheap room,' Ender thought to herself.
"Also, is it alright if Marshall also stay in my room?" Ender asked.
"I suppose there will be no funny business?"
Ender calmly shook her head. "Nothing like that sir," she patted Marshall's head a little, and the demon blushed in embarrassment. "Marshall here is nocturnal, he sleeps at eight in the morning. He'll be spending his time down here while I sleep upstairs."
"I see," Charles said. "If that's the case I'll allow it."
"Thanks," Ender took out her wallet and fished some bills out of it. "Here you go sir, give the change to Marshall, I'm going upstairs."
Ender was about to stand up when the entrance slammed open. A young man stepped into the bar, closed the door behind him, and took a deep short breath. "Old man… I'm back…" he said before holding out a plastic bag.
"Welcome back Christopher," Charles replied. "Thank you for your help, please take it to the kitchen," he said.
"So that's Christopher," Ender commented. "Where was he from?"
"Outside the town," Charles replied. "Some of the supplies I use aren't available in this town."
Ender took a closer look at Christopher. Physically he's around Marshall's age. The boy has unruly black hair and onyx eyes. He wore a brown jacket under a black shirt. He looked at Ender in interest for a bit before heading straight into the kitchen.
"So Christopher works at the Black Cat Bar?"
Charles nodded a little. "Sometimes I ask him to help me prepare the bar for the night. Sometimes he helps Rena in the kitchen. But usually he's outside doing some errands," he explained.
Ender turned to Marshall. The demon shook his head.
"Well, I really should be going now, it's getting late," she stood up from the chair and turned around. "Get yourself used to the city Marshall, maybe you'll find something interesting in this city," she added.
Ender walked upstairs and found herself staring at a brightly lit hallway. She stopped right in front of her room and heard voices coming from the flat behind her. She checked the time. It's still around seven-thirty, so it's not that late yet.
Should she go eavesdropping? Should she knock and try to join them? Should she just let this be for now and return back into her room?
With a click, Ender unlocked her door and entered the room. She headed straight to her study table and took out her mind map.
'Charles and Christopher,' she wrote their name beside Emilia and Rena. 'Cats are afraid of Marshall and Emilia has a cat,' she wrote Emilia's cat on the paper with some question mark. Then she looked at the room 3.5. 'I should ask Marshall to get something in my room at that hour.'
A tune appeared from Ender's pocket, and she took out her phone.
"Okay Ender, it's done, I've blacklisted yours and Marshall's name from available partner. Now you just need to get him all the way up to A Rank."
"Good, I'll get right into it, thank you Alan,"
"No problem Ender,"
Ender disconnected the call and started writing some questions on her sketchbook. The question also serves as a to-do list for the agent tomorrow. If she can answer all those questions, this case is as good as closed.
It was almost two hours and five pages that Ender managed to compile enough questions. She pocketed them and yawned a little. "I hate detective mission," Ender muttered before walking towards her bed. She plopped herself on the nearest pillow and closed her eyes.
Then, Ender snapped her eyes awake. She took out her flip phone and started writing a short text:
"Marshall, see if Charles is Elliot's in law or actual father. If he's an in law, see if you can find something about Emilia's mother. Listen closely to all customers there, nothing sings louder than a grieving drunken idiot. Also, go up the hallway at 3:30 and see if there's a mysterious door beside my room, if there is, pretend you don't see it and go back down immediately. If you don't have any question, don't bother answering."
Ender sent the message and let herself float into the realm of dreams.
[[[UPF]]]
05:12 - Black Cat Cafe
It was five in the morning. Ender stretched her arms and yawned a little. She smiled a little in satisfaction after noticing the time. Eight hours of sleep is a luxury for someone like her, and it's all thanks to her nocturnal partner that it's possible.
Ender walked out of the room and straight to the bathroom near the stairs. It's slightly open, and she walked right into it. It's a simple bathroom. There is no bathtub, only a shower, and a toilet. There's also a towel nearby and a place to hang her clothes.
After taking ten minutes shower, she put her clothes back on. It's still clean, it cannot get dirty actually, that's what she loves about Foundation Standard clothes. She doesn't need to bring a change in any of her mission.
With that, the girl walked out of the bathroom. It's still early in the morning, so the cafe isn't open yet. She walked down the stairs, an empty restaurant. The chairs are upturned on the table, except for the table in the corner where a certain demon boy sat.
The demon was reading a large brown book. The leather cover reads 'Cracking the Circle Incarnate.' He looks very observed in his reading and almost didn't notice Ender walking towards him.
"Ah, ma'am, I mean, Ender," Marshall put down his book. "Good morning,"
Ender sat down next to him. "Good morning Marshall," she took out her pen and her notes. "Let's get down to it, what did you find?"
"I didn't get to talk much with Charles, but I did talk with Christopher. Charles is apparently Elliot's in laws. Her daughter's name was Alicia Charles," he explained. "Then there's the thing about the door… I didn't find any door but I did saw Emilia walking out of her room. She told me she was just going to the bathroom. She wasn't lying."
"Any rumour about the city?"
Marshall nodded a little. "Almost all customers who went here are simply letting out their stress from working and everyday life. The only one who isn't there to relax is a guy complaining about some restaurant nearby,"
"Restaurant?"
"Yes, he said that he used to eat some sort of a secret menu from the restaurant. But it seems that it doesn't sell it anymore,"
If the situation was any different, Ender wouldn't give it a second thought. But this town is one heck of weird utopia, and any sort of weirdness piqued her interest. "What's the restaurant called?"
"Secret Garden, are you going there Ender?"
"For lunch today, yes,"
The two of them spend the rest of the morning talking about their next move. Ender would ask him some questions while making up some narrative hypotheses. Marshall then makes up some ridiculous scenarios.
"The cats were once humans," Marshall said. "I mean, that does sound likely isn't it?"
Ender looked at the notes in front of her. It is Ender and Marshall's experience when entering the town written like a novel summary. Now they're just predicting the most likely scenario that would happen to make the 'story' more interesting.
This is one of the methods the department of pataphysics came up with to investigate anomalous scenarios. Almost all agents use this method to make investigations faster and to prepare for all sorts of situations.
"So you're saying that these cats were the bad humans?" Ender asked.
"Yes and there's probably an Anti meme that made people forgot that those who were turned into cats once existed in the first place,"
"Well… That kinda explains the restaurant thing. Maybe there's a cook there who knows how to make this 'secret menu' but her recipe is erased along with her existence."
Marshall grinned a little. "Right? That sounds likely isn't it?"
Ender rolled her eyes. "I have my own hypothesis. What if the cats in this city are anomalously calming and soothing? Like, these cats acts as sponge and or repellent to all negative energy?" she asked.
"That doesn't explain the secret menu thing."
"Well, what if the secret menu is just a red herring? And this scenario explains why the cats are scared of you, you're dripping with negative energy."
Marshall nodded a little. "I see… But what about the room 3.5?"
Ender clicked her tongue. "I have no idea, but Emilia is somehow connected to it," she looked at the story summary. "What sort of twist would make this much more interesting?"
"The obvious one is that Emilia is the one behind everything?"
"But Elliot doesn't have that sort of power,"
"Then it's Emilia's mother's power,"
Ender looked down in deep thought. She thought about Elliot's power, complete molecular fabrication. He was basically a living, breathing, 3D printer. However, he cannot make a living being. Even if he were to make a perfect copy of a human being, all he gets is a hyper-realistic corpse.
Now, what would her mother's power be to be able to create a living creature like cats?
章 8: Gone Fishing~
With that, Ender walked away from the stall and continued her trek through the beautiful park. She sat down on the nearest bench, and a gray cat sat down next to her. She smiled at the cat and start petting it a little with her free hand.
"Relationship built on lies huh?" Ender ate the last bit of chocolate from her crepes. "Should I tell Emilia the truth about her father?" she ate some of the crepe wraps before looking at the cat. "What do you think, possibly intelligent cat?"
The cat simply meowed at her. Ender, who couldn't speak to animals like Alan, can only guess that it's asking for her Crepe. She then leaned on the bench and finished her sweet, sweet breakfast.
Then, a funky tune came from her flip phone. Ender quickly answered it.
"Ender! I noticed a temporal disturbance!"
"Yeah, that was me, chill,"
"Really? Oh, thank goodness… Are you alright? It's unusual for you to use that thing,"
"I'm fine, just feeling a bit lazy… Where are you now?"
"I was just going to sleep,"
"Well, go to sleep Marshall, I'll take it from here," Ender hanged up and pocketed her flip phone. She looked at the gray cat from earlier and found it sleeping beside her.
[[[UPF]]]
After sitting there for almost an hour, Ender stood up and exhaled a deep breath. True to Alan's words, she did enjoy this mission. It's relaxing and peaceful, unlike the demon purge mission where she and Marshall were sent to all sorts of hostile environments.
Except for the part where she fought an angry reality warper, but then again, it never happened in the first place.
The agent walked through the park once again. She glanced at the crepe stall in the distance and saw that it's selling nicely. The park itself is adjacent to the woods, with dense and thick foliage that people seldom traverse to.
However, Ender found some footprints going into the woods. It belongs to that of small children, and Ender decided to follow it. Maybe she'll find some demonic human meat farm? Who knows?
After walking through the woods for about fifteen minutes, Ender found herself staring at the floating city's edge. A large lake stretches forever into the mountain range in the distance.
Not only that, but Ender also found the children, apparently fishing, at the edge of the town. Judging by the lighting, the water right in front of them directly drops into the bottom of the lake, and she really hopes they know how to swim.
Ender approached the children. There's two of them, both are little girls Emilia's age. One of them has short dark hair and black eyes wearing a blue T-shirt. The other has long blonde hair and bright blue eyes wearing a green dress. The former is holding the fishing rod, and the latter just watched from the sidelines.
Then, Ender noticed that the rod is just a stick, and the fishing line is literally just a regular string tied on it. She narrowed her eyes when she saw a bucket filled with water near them that actually has a couple of fish in it. 'How is that possible?' Ender thought to herself.
"Hello," Ender greeted them.
The two of them looked at Ender. "Hi!" the one holding the rod replied. "Are you going fishing too?" she asked.
"Ah, no, I'm actually not good at fishing," Ender lied. "I'm just here enjoying the view," she sat down near them and took a closer look at the fishes in the bucket. Another odd thing, the fish doesn't even look wounded by the fishing hook. Their mouth looked clean and unblemished.
After a moment, something tugged on their string. The dark-haired girl grinned and started pulling on the rod. A decently sized fish jumped out from the water, and the girl pulled the rod with all her might. The fish flew across the air, and…
'Smack' it hits her right in the face.
"Ah! I'm hit!" the girl exclaimed though she managed to catch the fish. She pulled out her bait from the fish's mouth, revealing… a candy. Like, literally just a candy, she somehow fished a large fish with a candy. "Got another one," she said before putting the fish into the bucket.
Ender blinked owlishly after seeing that. She considered asking them, but something tells her that even they have no idea what's going on. So she decided to go with an indirect approach. "Wow, that's a nice catch,"
The little girls smiled. "Thanks miss!" she said.
"Call me Ender," Ender replied.
The fisher girl grinned after hearing that. "Whoa, that's a cool name, is that really your name?"
Ender chuckled a little. "My parents were an odd bunch," she replied. Then she looked at the three fishes swimming in the bucket of water. "Where did you learn how to fish?" Ender asked.
"I just know how to do it," she said before throwing the fishing line once more.
"And what inspired you to start fishing?"
"Well, it was when I made that bet with Em-" the other girl covered her mouth and stopped her from talking.
"Sh-she saw it on the tv once," the other girl said nervously.
Ender nodded a little. "I see…"
'Okay, Emilia definitely has some sort of power. Now if I can somehow make her show me her power and let me gauge it, my mission is done. Sure I can just use the Fragmented Time to reverse time after having Marshall push her to the limit, but where's the fun in that?'
'Problem is, Alicia doesn't trust me one bit. Without Alicia's trust I won't be able to get near Emilia. This is troublesome, I should've took the hint and not take Marshall with me when the cats started running away from him. Aaaaah, so frustrating, but no use crying over spilled milk. Focus Endie, you gotta earn her trust somehow…'
'The easiest way to earn someone's trust is to save their life. But this town is anomalously peaceful so there is literally nothing I need to safe her from. Should I make a fake threat? No, Alicia will be suspicious of me. Okay, this is a much harder mission than I expected…'
'Well, first off, I need to get along with all of Emilia's friends. These two are definitely her friends,'
Ender nodded, satisfied with her conclusion. She stood up and walked towards the fish they just collected. "So, what are you going to do with these fishes?" she asked.
The blonde-haired girl answered her question. "I'm going to cook them,"
"So you know how to cook?" Ender asked.
"Yes, Robyn's cousin taught me how to do it," she pointed at the fisher girl. "She works in a restaurant near the round fountain."
"Oh really? What's it called?"
"It's called the Secret Garden,"
'Bingo!' Ender thought to herself
"Oh, I've heard of that place," Ender said in interest. "So, are you going to cook them here, camper style, or are you going to take it to the Secret Garden?"
"We're going to roast it here/take it to the restaurant," they both said simultaneously.
They looked at each other, and the fisher spoke up. "Come on Annie, let's cook it here! I'll grab some stick and we can cook it on top of fire, like the marshmallow we had for picnic," she said.
"It's not that simple Robyn, we need to properly clean, gut, and skin the fish before we can cook it," Annie replied, "Besides, are you sure you're going to eat fish without proper seasoning?"
"I brought some clean water!" Robyn took a large bottle of drinking water and a bottle of soy sauce out of nowhere. "I also have salted soy sauce, I came fully prepared!"
"Still, it's not that simple!" Annie replied.
Ender chuckled at their bantering and realized that it's a perfect opportunity for her. "Alright, settle down you two," she told them. "What if I help you cook the fish? I know something about outdoor cooking myself."
Robyn looked at me with stars in her eyes. "You know?" she asked.
Ender nodded a little. "Of course, I'm used to travelling," she took out her retractable blade from her pocket. Then Ender extends the bottom edge that is much shorter and smaller than the primary blade. "I can skin, gut, and clean the fish before roasting," she explained.
Annie looked at her in suspicion. "How do you know if it's hygiene?"
Yeah, that's a risk we all have to take shorty, Ender wanted to say. But she just smiled sheepishly at her. "Well… I don't, but we have clean water there, so… worth a try?"
Robyn nodded vigorously while Annie just sighed in defeat.
With that, Ender grabbed one of the fish. She sat down on the ground and put the fish on her lap. "Don't worry, my clothes are enchanted, it cannot get dirty."
Their eyes widened after hearing that. "Whoa! Seriously?" Robyn asked. "Isn't enchantment super duper expensive?"
"Well… I did save a lot for this," she told her before looking at the fish on her lap. It's decently sized, about twice the size of her hand. "Annie, have you ever killed a fish before?"
The girl shook her head a little. "No… miss Lala did all that…" she said.
"Well, no better time for you to learn then," Ender looked at her smaller blade. It seems like a spear point, but there's a short, thin spike at the end of it. "First thing you do, is to stab it right in the brain, that way it doesn't feel that much pain,"
Ender held her blade with one hand and the fish with the other. Then she stabbed the fish right through its head. It spasms in her grip before going limp. Robyn already averted her eyes, but Annie kept watching.
"Okay, now the fish is dead, however, its heart is still beating," Ender lifted up the fish and cut through one of its gills. "One," she cut the other gill. "Two," then she stabbed the back of its tail. "Three, and that's how you help remove the blood."
Ender dunked the fish back into the lake and gently massaged it. She thought about the next step to destroy its spine, but she doesn't really have the proper equipment. After about half a minute, she pulled out the fish and put it on her lap once again.
"Okay, now we can start cleaning it," Ender told them. "First is to shave off all the scales," she dragged the back of her blade against the scales' direction. She kept at it for a few minutes until it's done. "Second, open up the fish from the base of the tail."
With that, she opened up the fish and started gutting it. "Now, we start scooping up the inside of it," she used her bare hand to scoop up the fish innards. She noticed that Robyn is staring at the rest of the fish with a slightly nauseous look on her face while Annie is staring intently.
Ender dunked the fish back into the lake after she's done, clean it some more before taking it out. "Now this fish is ready to be roasted," Robyn snapped her attention back to her after hearing that. "However, we want to make this taste good, no?"
Ender cut the fish just behind the top of its head and gently filleted it halfway, revealing the pinkish-white flesh underneath it. "Say, where's the clean water?"
Robyn handed Ender her bottle, and the latter carefully pour in the water while scrubbing the fish clean. Soon enough, it's clean enough and ready to be roasted. "Okay, it is done," Ender looked at the children and smiled sheepishly. "I forgot to tell you guys to prepare a fire."
Robyn stood up with a proud look on her face. "I'll go look for fire wood," she said before running back into the woods.
"Make sure you choose the wood near fruit trees," Ender shouted.
Ender looked at a bottle of soy sauce beside Annie. "Annie, can you get me that?"
Annie handed her the soy sauce, and Ender started pouring a little bit on the filleted part and incision near the tail. "Ano, miss Ender," she looked at Ender. "I've never seen you before, are you a tourist?"
Ender smiled a little. "Yes, I'm currently staying at the Black Cat Cafe," she said.
"Black Cat Cafe?" an excited smile formed on her face. "Does that mean you know Emilia?"
"Of course, Rena and Christopher too," she replied. "Are you Emilia's friend?"
Annie nodded a little. "Yes, Emilia is my classmate, we used to play alot," then her smile faltered a little. "Well… We wanted to play with her again but she's too busy with her work… But we'll meet her again after our vacation."
'Vacation?' Ender thought to herself. 'I honestly thought that she didn't go to school. Damn it, I should've asked Rena.'
After about ten minutes, Robyn returned with a bunch of sticks and a large branch. She's stronger than she looks, Ender has to admit. She put down the wood in front of Annie and folded her arms. "Okay, now what?"
Ender grabbed a stick and started shaving off all bark and resin, leaving a clean pointy stick. Then she stabbed the fish straight through its mouth. Ender held the stick with one hand and handed it to Annie. "Hold this while I prepare the fire," she said.
Annie grabbed the fish on a stick, and she looked at Ender, who's already cutting off the larger branch. She wondered if Ender is one of those famous adventurers she saw on television. She's not even surprised if her name is a fake one to keep her identity a secret.
Then, Ender took out a match stick from her pocket, and the wood started to burn. "Nice…" she said. "Okay, you can start smoking the fish now," she said.
Robyn and Annie hold the fish together. The smell of smoke combined with soy sauce made an odd yet pleasant combination. "Not too close, you'll burn the fish."
It was then that they realized that Ender is already cleaning the second fish. However, unlike before, she's doing it in quick succession without explaining every part. She finished it in under five minutes before she too started roasting the fish.
"I'll take this fish as my payment," Ender said with a mischievous smile.
After almost half an hour of roasting plus smoking the fish, the fish is ready to eat. It looked quite appetizing for something cooked with just one ingredient in the wilderness. So far, everyone was satisfied with how it looks.
"Hold on, let me try it first," Ender took a bite of the fish. It's salty on the outside and stale on the inside. But when she started chewing on it, she couldn't help but smile with pride. "Not bad, not as good as oven roasted, but beggars can't be choosy."
Robyn and Annie looked at each other. Then they took a bite at each side of the fish. They, too, smiled a little after eating it. Not because it's delicious, but it's because it tastes much better than they expected.
"I wouldn't mind eating this again," Robyn said.
"Maybe next time we should bring something else other than soy sauce," Annie commented. "And a proper grill."
Everyone just burst out laughing after hearing that. Ender herself was immensely enjoying the little girl's company. They're so lively and much more fun to hang out with than Emilia. She thought about how much more fun it will be to bring Emilia along.
Then, Ender remembered something. She took out her flip phone, it's very old fashioned, but it has a camera function. Not an HD kind of camera, but good enough. "Hey, can I take your photo?" she asked.
Robyn and Annie made eating pose together, and Ender captured it with her phone camera. Then she turned around for a selfie action. It's a bit hard without a front camera, but she trusted her instinct somewhat. "Cheese!"
All in all, Ender spent almost three hours with her new friends, and it's already 13:00. She stood up from her position and simply tapped on her clothing a little. True to her words, her clothes are still clean, and no trace of filth visible.
"Wow, must be great to have enchanted clothes," Robyn said. "I don't have to take a bath ever again.
"Of course I need to take a bath," Ender said. "It just means I don't have to change my clothes if I don't want to," she explained.
"Still, it's pretty convenient," Annie looked at her dress that's just a little dirty. "I don't have to worry about getting yelled at when I get home."
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