At least the locals here were welcoming and not racist or haughty.
Zrahel arrived in front of a three-story wooden building with writing in an unknown language.
"I guess this is it."
He pushed open the door, and the smell of alcohol entered his nostrils.
The bar was noisy and lively, filled with patrons seated around frothy pints and steaming dishes. Laughter echoed between the worn wooden walls, while some gamblers, eyes sharp, rolled dice or shuffled cards on the tables. Looking up, Zrahel noticed an upper floor where clandestine gaming rooms hosted feverish bettors, surrounded by thick clouds of smoke.
"This is extremely dirty… I should clean it up." He didn't even want to breathe this air, just clean the environment that had far too many microbes and humanoid waste.
Just as he was about to turn the area into a mess of bloody flesh, an apparition caught his attention.
A hooded figure sat at the counter, tapped, and placed a few coins.
"Give me whatever you've got strongest!"
The bartender was silent, as were all the others present. Several patrons exchanged nervous glances. Some slid their hands toward their weapons.
The woman smiled, amused.
"Relax. I'm not here to cause trouble."
The others remained skeptical, but the bartender began preparing his punch.
The reason for the others' aversion was actually her uniform, which bore a Spade symbol on the back. And this was a den of small-time criminals. They were obviously afraid of her.
Zrahel approached her:
"Ashera? No—"
She pivoted abruptly and already had a dagger under his throat.
"Don't make any sudden moves!" she whispered, looking him in the eyes.
It obviously wasn't Ashera. Under her hood, she had short black hair and four red eyes fixing him with a murderous gaze. And above all, she was very beautiful, but with an angular face, much more so than Ashera's doll-like face.
"Hmmm." Zrahel looked at her for a few seconds but then shifted his attention to the room. Everyone had drawn their weapons.
He raised an eyebrow.
"I thought you just wanted a drink."
"I'm the one asking the questions." Then, without taking her eyes off Zrahel, she warned the others: "And I advise you to put your weapons away. I can slit your throat before you even blink."
A man, his face covered in sweat, backed toward the exit. Seeing that she didn't stop him, the bartender and the others hastily followed suit.
In a few seconds, they were alone.
"I suppose your ability relies on speed."
The woman, who seemed to be part of the Universal Guardians Spade, pressed her knife, but noticed that her blade couldn't go any further, blocked a few millimeters from his throat.
He narrowed his eyes.
"Too bad..."
With a swift movement, he tried to grab her, but her silhouette blurred, and he felt another knife press against his throat from behind. A fraction of a second later, the remaining image from before shattered.
Zrahel was surprised by her extreme speed.
"To make an afterimage tangible, you'd have to exceed the speed of light…" Even he only reached 200,000 m/s at top speed.
Anyway, it's not like speed could do everything.
In his mind, Zrahel thought of numerous ways to kill her.
"How do you know Ashera?" she asked.
"Oh~ You know her too?! She's so popular?"
The young woman remained silent and jumped back just a fraction of a second before wooden spikes landed where she had been standing.
"Telekinesis!" She frowned. "Who are you?"
With a glance, he shattered all the glasses nearby. The first group transformed into a chair where he sat, while the others spun around, putting his attacker on the defensive.
"Zrahel Trinity Nihil. But it's rather me who should ask you. You've been following me since I crash-landed on this planet."
"You detected that too." She seemed surprised.
Spinning rapidly around herself, she could become invisible as long as she still had Neon, but this guy, who had massacred Universal Guardians, had still seen her. She had been tracking him since the atmosphere of Gamma-4, and she had even come to this bar to continue her espionage.
'He must be a wanted criminal. I should check the terminal,' she thought.
"Rest assured, I didn't see you. Let's just say my ears are quite sensitive. With all the noise you were making, I felt like razing a city."
She swallowed. Should she confront him or gather information as she had been doing before?
She had come to gather information, but this individual actually knew Ashera, which put her senses on alert.
Quickly, her silhouette blurred and split into dozens, then scores.
"I don't want to fight," Zrahel raised his hands. "I just want a way to find Ashera."
"Find her?"
"Once again, I'll introduce myself. My name is Zrahel. Ashera and I were supposed to go to Gamma-12 to fix a gravitational fluctuation problem, but we were attacked. And now, I find myself here. We're quite close, Ashera and I, and I suppose you know her too. So we can come to an understanding."
She frowned.
"Close? Ashera has never been close to a guy, except my big brother. Anyway, whoever you are, you killed a lieutenant—"
"That's true."
"Are you an idiot?"
The guy was way too weird. Admitting to killing a lieutenant when he risked three million years of imprisonment…
"I don't think so. I've simply lost my memory."
"…"
There was a silence, and she sheathed her dagger. "You said you were attacked. And where is Ashera now?"
"I just said I'm looking for her. Maybe you're the idiot, after all."
"What did you just say?!"
"Calm down, Kid."
"Hmph!"
Then, after a meaningful look, she added in a more measured tone: "Since you're so handsome, I'll believe you."
"Ah… And if I were ugly?"
She ignored him and continued:
"Follow me. I'm heading back to HQ. I'm sure you'll find her there, or at least learn more about this attack."
"Alright."
"I'm Colonel Agathe Ibn Sarri, under Ashera's command."
"Hmmm. Good to know."