Chapter 113: Investigate! (2)

The group made their way to the first victim's address, situated in the south east district of the town, a run-down townhouse in the middle of 2 other houses.

"Alright, before we knock, I want you to read the addresses of the next 2 victims," Rein said as he handed the paper to Chloe.

"Okay, let's see… number 1 is south east district house 15… number 2 is south east district house 14… and number 3 is south east district house 16… wait, they're all from this townhouse complex!" Chloe realized, which also surprised the rest of the group.

"You're right… How did I miss that?" Clyde thought to himself as he inspected the paper again.

"It's not really a big deal. It just means that this ghost doesn't like people seeing it. The 2 others were probably witnesses to the kidnapping, and were subsequently taken away as well. That fact half confirms my suspicion, but I still need more evidence," Rein explained as he knocked on the door of the first victim, no answer emerging.

"Hey, are you sure someone's home? We don't know if they lived alone or not," Xenia said as nobody responded to the knocks.

"No, I'm sure there's someone home. You hear me, don't you?!" Rein screamed into the house, receiving no answer back.

Suddenly, Rein felt a gaze befall him from inside the house, making him smirk readily.

"There you are," he uttered as he vanished into thin air, appearing on the inside of the house, making the man that was looking out at him shriek in fear.

"AAAH! I'M SORRY! PLEASE DON'T TAKE ME AWAY!" The man curled up into a ball and cowered in fright.

Rein sighed and ducked down to meet the man at eye level, activating his third eye to see if the man was afflicted by a Spring. To his surprise, he saw a black cloud of smoke floating in circles above his head, making his eyes widen in shock. Though he wasn't expecting it, it also confirmed part of his theory.

"Stay still for a second," Rein said to the frightened man as he set his hand on his head, making him close his eyes, thinking he was about to be hurt.

"Huh? What's this? Why won't it work?" Rein furrowed his eyebrows as he tried copying the inverse Spring of the black cloud above the man's head.

To his dismay, it was of no use. Nothing happened. He even tried inverting it directly using warped touch, but again, nothing worked.

"You don't have a Spring, right?" Rein asked the man, who shook his head in affirmation.

Rein then used his newly acquired Spring from Naji, which allowed him to rid the minds of Springless creatures from all states of affliction.

"Alright, you should be safe from the roaming ghost now. You can freely go outside," Rein informed him as he took his hand off of his face.

"Really!? What'd you do?" The man sat up in jubilation.

"My Spring let's me make people immune to occult creatures. Anyway, I've got some questions for you. What was your relationship with the first victim?" Rein interrogated as he tightened his gloves, adjusting them as he stood back up.

"She was my daughter…" the man said.

"Hm. Do you know her general location when she was kidnapped?"

"She was… right outside, in front of the house. She was playing with the neighbours' kids. I was listening to them while reading a book… they were laughing, and talking happily. They played until sunset, which was normal. They did that every day. But on that fateful day, I suddenly stopped hearing their laughter. I thought the sudden switch was weird, so I checked outside, and they were gone. The neighbours and I ran around the village in search, and told the chief about it. That very same night, more abductions were reported, and the chief ordered a lockdown," the man explained as tears ran down his cheeks.

"I see… so they were inside the village then…" Rein muttered to himself. "Well, thank you for your cooperation. My friends and I are Rangers, and we're on the case as we speak. You can rest easy. We'll find your daughter," Rein assured him as he opened his front door, emerging outside where the group was waiting for him, then closing the door behind him.

"What happened? Did you learn something?" Chloe jumped up from sitting down in wait.

"Yeah, I half confirmed my theory. I need a couple more samples to be sure," he informed as he began walking back to the main street.

"What'd you find out? Did the man have some valuable information?" Sho inquired.

"No, but he was afflicted by something. His mind was clouded," Rein revealed as the rest of the group, save Core, reacted suddenly.

"Afflicted? Was it a Spring?" Clyde replied with a quick question.

"I'm not exactly sure. It could've been a Spring, it could've been some sort of curse, or it could've just been that he was high on drugs. That's why I need some other samples to confirm it," Rein stated.

"Ok then, who should be the next sample? Should we go to another victim's address?" Chloe questioned as she looked over the paper again.

"No. That wouldn't be much of a diverse sample group. We should go to a house that had nothing to do with the abductions. Like this one for example," Rein pointed to a random house on his right and turned to it, knocking on it's door 3 times and waiting.

"Ugh, why aren't people answering? It's still daytime, they shouldn't be so scared," Xenia complained.

"I do not want to hear it coming from you," Clyde teased, making her slightly angry as she glared at him.

Suddenly, they heard a squeaky creek coming from the door as it opened ever so slightly, a timid voice emerging from behind it.

"Wh- who are you people? What do you want from me?" The timid woman raised.

"We're Rangers hired by chief Akah. Could you cooperate with us for a few brief moments?" Rein kindly asked.

"S-sure? What do you need?"

Rein activated third eye, seeing the same black cloud above the woman that he saw with the previous guy.

"I knew it," he muttered under his breath.

"Hm?" She queried.

"Nothing. Say, do you have a Spring by any chance ma'am?"

"Oh, yes I do. Though, it's not very strong. I can make paint from my fingertips. See?" She held her hand out as it began dripping white paint onto the dirt ground.

"I- I see…" Rein replied, a tone of pity in his voice as he tried his hardest not to laugh.

"Do you need anything else?" The woman asked.

"No ma'am. Thank you for your cooperation," he bowed down as the woman closed the door.

"You saw it again, didn't you? How the hell can you even tell?" Xenia grilled him.

"Using the power of friendship. Anyway, that confirms that any ordinary civilian is also afflicted by this 'thing'," Rein concluded, feeling slightly bad that he couldn't cancel the effect out because the woman had a Spring.

"It also confirms that Springless civilians aren't the only ones affected. Alright, now onto the final test," Rein began marching to the north of the town as the group followed him.

"Hey Core, you've been really quiet so far. Aren't you supposed to be smart? Do you have anything to say?" Chloe spoke out, still harboring distrust for the immortal man.

"Huh? Nope, I've got nothing. Besides, Rein looks like he's having fun cracking this mystery. Why would I try stealing that away?" He laughed, which irritated the rest.

"Some help would be great actually…" Rein thought as he checked his charge on memory flip.

"I figured out that I could divide up my 10 minutes of memory flip into 1 minute per use, so technically I can use memory flip 10 times, 1 minute each time. I've only got 4 minutes left, so 4 uses left. I'd better make 'em count," he thought to himself as they reached the northern edge of the town.

"Yo, Rein? Have you tried seeing if we're afflicted by this 'thing' you were talking about?" Sho brought up, which reminded Rein.

"Ah, right. I should probably do that."

As he checked each person, he saw no black cloud hovering over anyone's head, they were all clear.

"Nope, nothing. If I'm right about this, then I think I know why. We're almost at the third person I want to test," Rein claimed as he turned to the north exit of the town and continued walking.

"Hold on, you're going outside the village? Why?" Xenia put forward as Clyde doubtlessly followed Rein.

"I think I know why. The third person you want to test is old man Gorg, the man Chief Akah spoke of," Clyde theorized, to which Rein gave a laugh of affirmation.

"If he's also afflicted by this 'thing', then we can get some pretty big info out of that. Same thing with if he isn't. He's also the only one who witnessed the incidents actually occur, so he's a valuable source of information regardless," Rein explained as he saw the house not far from the border of town, with small patches of vegetables growing in the lawn of the home.

Suddenly, they saw a short, gray haired old man emerge from behind the house, hoe in hand as he wiped the sweat off his face.

"It looks like the man is already outside. Saves us the trouble of knocking on his door," Sho remarked as they approached him.

Rein activated his third eye from a distance, the expression of shock suddenly appearing on his face.