Earth Land, Ishgar, Stella, Altair.
October 8, x791.
"This should be it." Alfonzo said to himself while looking down at the address displayed on his lPhone. "*sigh* If I could get a satellite or two up in the air, I could add GPS to the list of lPhone apps. But like computers, I just can't seem to get the shit to work."
Shaking off the thoughts of his many failures, Alfonzo put his lPhone away and stepped up to the front door of the inn where he was set to meet with the quest's client, Kurapika.
"Hmm… I don't like the vibe in this place." Alfonzo muttered to himself while looking around the inn's lobby. "Kinda feels like I'm being watched. But nothing is showing up with [Magic Power Detection]."
Though the inn itself was nothing special, Alfonzo could not shake the feeling that he was being watched. And because of that, he could not let his guard down. As a result, he used his [Electromagnetism Magic] to cycle through several different EM wavelengths to get a better feel of the building, its layout, and all the people inside.
And just as he expected, there was more to the building than could be seen at first glance.
'What the hell?' Alfonzo asked himself while [Archiving] the building's layout. 'Was this place built by a clan of fucking ninjas? There are more hidden rooms in this little inn than should be possible.'
Though Alfonzo called them hidden rooms, they were more like crawl spaces used for surveillance. Even so, Alfonzo did his best not to show his surprise in his expression as he stepped up to the front desk.
"Good afternoon, Sir." A pretty young woman with an olive skin tone, green eyes, and wavy black hair said with a professional smile as Alfonzo approached. "Would you like to book a room for the evening?"
"Nah, I'm here to meet someone." Alfonzo replied casually. He then leaned on the desk with a smile on his face as he continued. "There's a guy staying here. His name is Kurapika. Can you tell me his room number?"
When Alfonzo leaned forward, he noticed that the woman flinched ever so slightly. At the same time, he saw that her right hand dropped down to her thigh, resting a little higher than what would be natural had her hand just hung loosely.
'There's definitely more to this inn than meets the eye.' Alfonzo thought to himself while not changing his expression. 'This woman isn't a wizard. But she's carrying several weapons. They're all hidden pretty well, too. In fact, if it wasn't for my [Metal Magic], I wouldn't have noticed them, either.'
While Alfonzo was thinking, the woman, with her hand resting atop the hilt of a concealed dagger, did not show that she was wary of him at all. However, when she realized that Alfonzo did not intend to do anything, she relaxed slightly. Though, she did not move her hand away from the dagger.
The woman was not the only one who tensed at Alfonzo's movement. All the people who had been watching Alfonzo since he neared the inn tensed, as well. But just like the women behind the desk, they did not make any hostile moves, either.
"Oh, is someone looking for me?" A male voice, sounding as if its owner was only in his mid-teens, said, breaking the tense atmosphere.
At the sound of the voice, both Alfonzo and the woman turned to look in the voice's direction. When they did, their eyes fell on a young man standing at about 5'7": tall with medium-length blond hair and dark grey eyes wearing a blue tabard with red hems over a white training outfit and black Chinese-style flats stepping through the inn's front doors.
At the same time, the young man, Kurapika's eyes fell on the two at the front desk. When he saw Alfonzo, he noticed Alfonzo slightly raising his shirt, revealing the Fairy Tail emblem on the right side of his lower abdomen. He immediately understood why Alfonzo mentioned his name. And that caused his eyes to glow in an intense scarlet red color for a moment.
"Ah! I've been waiting for you." Kurapika said calmly. He then nodded to the woman manning the front desk and continued. "Don't worry, Amelia. He's a guest of mine from out of town."
Receiving a nod from the woman at the front desk, Amelia, Kurapika gestured for Alfonzo to follow him as he started walking through the inn's main hall and making his way towards the stairs.
Alfonzo, on the other hand, nodded at Amelia with a smile before turning to follow Kurapika. Though, he did notice that she did not lower her guard by much after Kurapika's reassurance.
'Hmm… I guess they don't like wizards too much here.' Alfonzo thought to himself while ignoring all the gazes on him. 'Well, I don't blame them. I mean, even though wizards aren't so bad in Fiore, there are a lot of them all over the continent that think they are superior to civilians.'
Alfonzo then turned his attention back to Kurapika, who was just reaching the top of the stairs.
'And his eyes flickered red when he noticed my guild mark.' Alfonzo continued thinking to himself. 'The question is, why can't I sense any magic power from him? Doesn't Aura translate to magic power in this world?'
As that thought ran through his head, Alfonzo focused his [Magic Power Detection] more closely, making sure that he did not miss anything. A moment later, after checking Kurapika's magic power more precisely, he noticed that he did, in fact, miss something.
'Damn… He's got a lot of magic power, actually.' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'But it's not awakened yet. But that's weird. With something as traumatic as losing his whole clan, it should have awakened on its own.'
"Please, come in." Kurapika said while holding the door to a room open. "We can talk inside."
While Alfonzo was lost in his thoughts, Kurapika had reached his room. Then, with a nod, Alfonzo stepped inside with Kurapika following behind him and closing the door behind them.
Entering the room, Alfonzo saw that it was a standard inn room containing a double bed, a small table with a pair of chairs on either side, a small, two person couch, and a wooden wardrobe for the guests to store their clothing.
Once inside, before doing anything, Alfonzo produced the quest sheet and held it out to Kurapika.
"There's no need for that." Kurapika said while shaking his head lightly. "As soon as I saw your guild emblem, I knew exactly who you were. The leader of the Grand Magic Games championship team and one of the Ten Wizard Saints, Alfonzo Marcus. Otherwise known as the Master of Metal."
"Yeah, that's me." Alfonzo replied with a shrug before putting the quest sheet away.
"I don't mean to doubt you, Mr. Marcus." Kurapika said after taking a seat at the table. "But you didn't come alone to complete this quest, did you?"
"No, I brought nine more." Alfonzo said with a shrug as he took a seat cross from Kurapika. "All S-Classes. Though, if I went all out, this quest wouldn't be much of a challenge. Oh, yeah. There's one more on teh way. But he travelled separte from the rest of us."
Though he did not show it, Kurapika was skeptical about what Alfonzo said. In fact, he even thought that a total of eleven S-Class wizards were not enough to complete such a quest. But it was none of his business if Alfonzo got his group killed by being over confident. He had a plan to get his revenge if they failed anyway.
However, if Kurapika had any idea just how strong Alfonzo and the other ten were when they released their [soul Armaments], his thoughts would be completely different. But since he was only a civilian at the moment, even though he had heard about their feats in the Grand Magic Games, Kurapika had no way of knowing just how strong the wizards of Fairy Tail were.
"Anyway…" Alfonzo said, noticing that Kurapika was unconvinced. "In the request, it said that the exchange for the Curta Clan's eyes would take place in two days."
"That's right." Kurapika replied in a cool tone.
"Any idea where?' Alfonzo asked as he leaned back in his chair. "Also, are you sure your source is trustworthy?"
In response, Kurapika did not show any dissatisfaction that his intel was being doubted. Instead, he shook his head lightly.
"To be honest, I'm not." Kurapika replied. "Getting the information was far too easy. There's a good chance that it could be a trap. But…"
"But?" Alfonzo asked curiously with one eyebrow raised.
"There is some other information that make me think the lead is true." Kurapika said. A moment later, he continued after Alfonzo gestured for him to go on. "I got information that a certain minister of this country was the one who hired the Spiders for the job."
As he mentioned the Phantom Troupe's nickname, Kurapika's eyes once again glowed red. However, the red color did not fade like it had back in the main hall.
"And doo you have a name for this minister?" Alfonzo asked as his eyes narrowed while remembering a certain minister who defected from Fiore a few years ago.
"It's exactly who you're thinking it is." Kurapika replied, his tone filled with bloodlust. "All the evidence points to the Minister of State, Zash Caine."
"I see." Alfonzo said with a grin on his face. "Looks like we'll get two rewards when we're done with this quest."
Once again, Kurapika felt that Alfonzo was being over confident. However, this time, he could not keep it to himself, as he shook his head in slight disappointment at Alfonzo's declaration. Even so, Alfonzo decided to ignore him completely. He had a few calls to make to the Fiore Royal Family, after all.
"Well, we'll handle recon." Alfonzo said as he stood up from his chair. "You just wait for the good news. You should hear from us the day after the supposed exchange. If your intel was correct, that is. If not, there's not really anything we can do about it."
"I understand." Kurapika replied calmly. "Well then, I hope that it was. But even if it wasn't, I'll find a way to get my own revenge."
Instead of replying, Alfonzo simply turned towards the door and made his way out of the room before heading back to his hotel.
Meanwhile, Elicia was walking around the city looking at all the clothing stores she came across. However, that was only a front for her actual operation. While looking to be simply enjoying herself, Elicia's [Magic Power Detection] was spread to its limit. On top of that, she was using [Thread Detection] to track things that she could not sense with [Magic Power Detection]
And thanks to her magic power control, Elicia's threads were so thin that they were invisible to the naked eye. Thanks to that, she could spread them throughout the entire city without anyone being the wiser. She could even pick up conversations if the person speaking was close enough to the threads to make them vibrate.
Even so, Elicia had yet to pick up anything about the Phantom Troupe, whether it be strong magic power signatures or snippets of conversations.
That did not seem to bother her too much, though.
"Ooh!" Elicia squealed as she ran up to a store front and looked a t a dress in the window. "That is so~ cute!"
'Someone cut my threads.' Elicia thought to herself while continuing to outwardly gush over the dresses in the window. 'But I don't' sense anyone with [MPD]. Looks like there's someone with stealth moving around the city.'
["You're not going to check it out?"} Scylla asked curiously. ["Usually, you would run in without a plan."]
'If we were facing anyone other than the Phantom Troupe, I would.' Elicia replied internally. 'But I have a pretty good idea of who did it. And she's kind of a murder machine. Plus, her magic should be similar to mine.'
["So, you think it's her?"] Scylla asked. ["Yeah, she would probably be a good match for you if you don't use me. But if you unseal me, she shouldn't even be a warm up."]
'I know that.' Elicia replied. 'But it's not the fight that I'm worried about. Instead, I'm worried about falling into a trap. Or even worse, being spotted. Because I have no doubt that they would recognize me.'
["I see."] Scylla replied, sounding a bit shocked. ["If you get caught, your [Camouflage Magic] won't mean anything."]
'Exactly.' Elicia said.
["Still, I can't believe you're actually thinking before saying or doing something."] Scylla muttered in a disbelieving tone. ["Kinda feels like I'm gonna see three suns rising from the north tomorrow morning."]
Elicia's excited expression immediately turned into a pout. Meanwhile, Scylla's laughter echoed throughout Elicia's inner world.
At the same time, a short, blue-eyed young woman with messy, mid-back-length pink hair wearing a short sleeved, white uwagi, a black obi, tight black shorts, fingerless black gloves, with a pin cushion strapped to the back of her left hand, white tabi, and pink leg warmers around her lower legs was inspecting the almost invisible threads she just severed with her own [Thread Magic]. Yet, before she could start tracing them to their source, the threads were dispelled.
"Someone is keeping tabs on the city." The young woman said in a nearly emotionless tone. "I don't' have any proof, but they are more than likely looking for the Troupe. I should report this to the leader."
With that, the young woman shot threads toward the nearest rooftop before bounding up the side of the building and dashing towards the outskirts of the city to report what she found to the rest of the Troupe.