Standing in front of door 835, Ken can feel his heartbeat in his chest. This was the room of the ‘Daramotos’. If his hunch is right, behind this door should be the Grey twins and Sora Yamamoto himself.
They can't be this sloppy, right? It's literally a mix of their last names. No, it's too big a coincidence. Wait, focus, focus. This isn't the time to get sidetracked.
Regaining focus, he hesitantly knocks on the door. There's no answer. Listening closely, it sounds like someone is saying something to someone else. Unsure they heard him, he builds up his courage again and knocks on the door again. After a moment, the door unlocks and swings open.
In front of him stood a daunting figure. His gloves barely covered the scars on his hand. His weary eyes scanned Ken with curiosity, yet remained alert for any sign of hostility. A faint smile played across his face, and his dark hair was messy. The jacket he wore looked expensive, but it was no ordinary one. Remembering Senzo's stories, it was the kind of jacket that Slayers received. Stylish yet resilient, more so than the armor the Orderlies wear. Although casual, his presence was terrifying. Right now, Ken faced a monster. The Apex of Strength. Sora Yamamoto.
“Yo, can I help you?” Sora asks calmly.
His heart stops, unsure what to say. He didn't expect this amount of pressure or fear. His mind is blank.
“Uhh, are you okay?” Sora follows up, confused by Ken's silence.
Best to be honest.
“I-I need your help, sir. Baltro is after me because of the young man you have with you,” Ken blurts.
“Oh, I'm not sure what you're talking about. The name Baltro does sound a bit familiar, but I don't see what it has to do with us.”
He's playing dumb, guess it's all or nothing!
“I followed Gearfried Daragoneir from the forest here with a man on his shoulders. He killed Baltro's followers there and brought the man with a dirty suit here! I-” Before he can finish his sentence, Sora pulls him and throws him inside the room, slamming the door behind him.
Standing up and dusting his trench coat, he looks up to find Imino Yamamoto and Gearfried Daragoneir in front of him. From the looks of it, he seems to have interrupted a discussion between the twins.
“What is this?” Gearfried asks Sora.
“He knows about Agami and Baltro,” he responds.
Agami? Is that the name of the target?
Without hesitation, Gearfried grabs Ken's arms and throws him to the couch in the center of the living room. Hearing all the commotion, a man and woman walk in to see what's happening. Looking up, Ken finds himself surrounded. Any mistake could be his last. Sora walks toward him and crouches, his sole presence overpowering the room.
“Get Agami,” Sora instructs Gearfried. Gearfried gives a slight nod and walks toward the hallway. After a brief moment, he returns and looks back, waiting for someone.
The target, Agami, steps forth. Since their last encounter, it seems he was given new clothes, sporting a print shirt with shorts and a new haircut to top it all off. However, while his hair was neater, Ken couldn't help but notice his right arm was a bit bulkier. As Agami stepped forth, his eyes widened in surprise.
“Hey, Agami. This guy says you know him. Is he telling the truth?” The man in glasses calmly asks.
“Yeah. I met him two days ago. I-” Agami's posture suddenly tightens as he puts up his guard. “He was with Phenton!”
The atmosphere in the room becomes more tense after Agami’s change in posture. Ken suddenly hears a gun being loaded.
“Knew it,” Gearfried says, as he immediately pulls out a gun and aims it at Ken's head, immediately pulling the trigger. Ken's eyes shut in reaction, accepting his fate.
Huh? I’m not dead?
Opening his eyes and looking to his left, Sora’s hands are covering the barrel and chamber, stopping the bullet. Sora takes the gun away from Gearfried and tosses the bullet like trash. “Damn it, Gears. How many times do I have to say ‘ask before you shoot’?” Sora reprimands as he unloads the gun and puts it in his coat.
“He could be with Baltro! His being here is a risk.” Gearfried argues.
“Tenmei says that he has no signs of imprints on him,” Agami suddenly interjects.
Imprints?
The two stop arguing, and after a few moments of silence, Gearfried steps back, gesturing at Sora to continue his interrogation.
“Okay.” Taking a deep breath, Sora turns around and looks back at Ken, “Explain yourself.”
Ken feels his pulse tighten again; he’s unsure if it's because of the atmosphere or the lack of sleep, but he knows he has no room for error.
After thinking for a moment, Ken speaks, “My name is Ken. I used to work for Phenton and recently assassinated Markov Vordier.” Hearing that, Sora’s eyes sharpen, and Gearfried stands upright. He quickly glances at Agami and notices his face is twisted in grief and shock. He didn’t know. Noticing their reaction to his story, he understands he is treading dangerous ground.“Right now, without Phenton’s protection and the assassination, it is only a matter of time before Baltro comes after me. I was hoping to seek your help,” Ken continues.
Gearfried walks over to the computers behind him, while Sora scratches his head and lets out a sigh, dismissively saying, “Why should we help you with Baltro? It sounds like you're already comfortable with benefactors; it should be easy to find one to back you up.” After finishing, he looks towards Imino Yamamoto, who has been silently watching, and tells her, “Imino, go get Vito and Maria out of here. Danzo, monitor the situation,” Sora commands, whereafter Imino and the man behind him execute their tasks without delay.
Damn it, they are planning to relocate. I can’t let this opportunity slip, especially now.
“Please, I need your help. I’m already sticking my neck out here by doing this. I can help you find him.” Ken says, trying his best to convince them to help him.
“I can’t see anything yet,” the man with glasses suddenly says.
“Me neither.” Gearfried adds.
“I-...I think we should trust him,” Agami adds, surprisingly coming to the aid of Ken.
“Sorry, kid. But I have no way of knowing if he is telling the truth or not. Can’t take any risks that he is with Baltro.” Sora tells him, scratching his head and doing some light stretches.
Agami walks toward Ken and whispers, “Come on, I want to help you. Is there anything you can do to convince them?”
Ken looks at him in surprise and pauses.
Why is the guy who killed Phenton trying to help me? No, there are more pressing issues. There has got to be something I can do…Igor’s tool, pointless. Burner, not helpful. Byro- No, they would have already moved. Damn it, think, think, think! Wait! That thing. The ability to bet or something. I can use it here. But how? I need to do something drastic, something to gain their attention.
Ken suddenly has a flashback to when he lost his arm while fighting Markov. Before he took him out, it caught him by surprise when his arm disappeared.
Okay, a bet and what I'm paying… Okay, slow down. I want to get them on my side, to trust me, so what will make it harder to convince them? Money, no, my mouth, but how will I get them to listen? My arms and eyes? Gestures, they can’t look me in the eye to verify, nor will I have hands to gesture, it may creep them out and make them less likely to trust me…wait, that could work. Got it, how does it go? I bet my arms and eyes that I will be able to convince Sora Yamamoto to trust me by only telling the truth, and nothing else.
The familiar loud and boisterous voice suddenly reappears and announces, “THE BET HAS BEEN MADE AND THE STAKE HAS BEEN DECLARED! I WILL TAKE THE STAKES UNTIL THE RESULTS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED.”
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Suddenly, the world goes dark, and Ken loses feeling in his arms, which seems the bet was made successfully.
“The hell is this?!” He hears Agami say, probably surprised to see the transformation Ken has undergone.
“Hmm, what’s wron- HOLY HELL, WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!” He hears Sora shout in surprise, also noticing what happened to Ken.
“I-I- DON’T KNOW, IT JUST HAPPENED!” Agami screams as well. The room suddenly becomes unnervingly silent.
After a brief moment of silence, Ken decides to explain what has happened, “Do not be alarmed, I sacrificed my limbs and eyes. If I am to tell a lie, they will be forever lost. This is the only way I can get you to believe me.”
The room goes quiet again, but after a brief moment, he hears Sora sigh and speak again, “Okay. Ummm, really got me in a bind here. So if you lie, you’re stuck like this?” Ken nods his head.
“I-...I have the ability to give something up as long as I meet its conditions. After the bet, I can get everything back as long as I have held my end of the bargain. In this case, I gave up my arms and eyes to tell you the truth. Once the interrogation is over and I have earned your trust, they should return as long as I haven’t lied.” Ken responds.
The room remains silent for a brief moment before Sora continues, “Okay, okay, okay.” Sora says to himself, pushing past recent events and resuming his questioning, “Are you working with Baltro?”
“No.”
“What is my name?” He hears Gearfried ask.
“What? Why are you asking that?” Sora replies.
“I am setting a baseline. We don’t know much about his ability or what he exactly promised, but if he is telling the truth about this deal he made, we still don’t know what conditions he gave. So we make him tell us something factual, and if he can’t answer it, we’ll know if he has been lying the entire time.”
Nothing goes unnoticed by him.
“Hm, makes sense.” Sora says, “Answer him.”
“Your name is Gearfried Daragoneir. One of the grey twins.” Ken replies, hoping it was Gearfried that spoke earlier. Ken anxiously waits for a brief moment, worried the voice would declare the bet has failed. After a couple of seconds, he concluded that he was right and could feel his shoulders lighten.
“Okay. Now that that's out of the way, let’s continue. Can you help us find Baltro?”
“Yes. I am an excellent tracker… And, I have connections.” Ken responds, confident in his abilities and being direct.
“How did you find us?”
“I was initially looking for clues on the man behind you. When I was looking for him, Baltro’s people had already found him, so I followed them. I saw Gearfried attack those people and bring Agami here. After I did some digging in the hotel's database and found you,” Ken finishes, doing his best to hide and protect his contacts, taking sole responsibility.
“Why did you kill Markov if you knew Baltro was going to come after you?” Sora continues.
“It wasn’t my choice. I was only following Phenton's orders.”
“Why then?” Sora continues asking.
“Because I was in debt with The Maximus.”
“The Maximus? Why would you get into debt with someone like him?” Sora’s voice responds confusedly.
“It wasn’t my choice. My father sold me to him to cover his debts. He is a horrible man, selling anyone and anything as long as he doesn’t face the consequences. I was just collateral to him.” Ken answers, doing his best to hold in his resentment.
“Why do you want our help?” Sora asks.
“Phenton wanted Markov dead because he was embarrassed by him. So much so that he lost nearly all his followers. I was loaned to him so that I could send a message to Baltro. I didn’t expect Phenton to be killable and thought he would cover me.” Ken pauses, remembering that morning and unable to stop his situation from washing over him, “Heh, but even if he were alive, he would have sold me out immediately. There was no way I was going to live.”
He suddenly hears Sora snap his fingers in front of his face, realizing he had drifted off, Ken apologizes, “Oh, sorry, I got lost in my thoughts. I-...I want to live. I need to make sure that my father pays. And to achieve my goal, I need to live. Because if I don’t stop him, who will?”
After Ken finishes, Sora goes silent.
“You think we can trust him?” He hears Gearfried ask.
“Danzo?” Sora says, leaving Gearfried's question unanswered.
“I don’t see anything still. So he should be fine,” A voice says.
Ken hears Sora take a deep sigh and speak to him again, “Alright. I acknowledge your words.”
“THE BET HAS NOW CONCLUDED AND THE PLAYER HAS FULFILLED THE CONDITIONS. THE WINNINGS ALONGSIDE THE ORIGINAL STAKE SHALL BE RETURNED!” The voice suddenly announces. After it finishes, Kens' arms and eyes return, both feeling fresh and invigorated.
“Thank you,” Ken says as he stands up. Looking towards Agami, he can see the relief on his face.
He will probably be haunted by what he has contributed to. He doesn’t deserve this burden.
Looking over to Agami, he smiles and says, “Don’t worry about what you’ve done. You have helped me more than you realise,” trying his best to alleviate the horror that Agami feels after finding out he was an accessory to a murder.
Deciding not to linger, he walks toward Sora, who is waiting for him by the front door. Stepping outside, Sora speaks, “Okay then, now that that’s settled, I have your next task.”
“Y-yes, of course,” Ken says in surprise at the sudden request.
“I’m going to need you to track Baltro’s whereabouts. We are currently trying to find him, but with your connections and supposed skills, maybe you will be able to look under stones we weren’t able to.”
Ken feels nervous about the task handed to him; instead of running from the hive, he will find the queen.
Before he can answer, Sora interrupts him, “Oh, don’t worry. We will do our best to support and keep in contact with you, albeit discreetly.” He then opens the door and shouts, “OLYA, come here!”
“No need to shout, I’m right here,” A woman says as she peeks from the kitchen. Looking at her, Ken notices that she is wearing a neat white dress with a denim jacket. Her brown hair is complemented by her hazel eyes. As she walked toward them, he couldn’t help but notice her legs clad in dark armor.
Closing the door behind her and joining them, Sora continues, “This lovely lady here is going to be our way of helping. I’m also going to assign Agami to you.”
“Should I quickly call him?” She giggles.
“Not yet, I need to say something to you guys first. Agami is still new to all of this and won’t have the intuition set in just yet. I need you guys to be extra careful and patient with him. Also, do not leave him alone, I’m afraid to know what could happen to him if he got into the wrong hands. If anything were to happen to him,” Ken suddenly feels a large pressure emanate from Sora as the atmosphere suddenly becomes tense, “You will not get off lightly.”
As Sora said that, Ken could feel his throat tighten and his heart tense in fear, but as if nothing had happened, his demeanor suddenly became light again, and the atmosphere changed again. He quickly glances toward Olya and sees that even she was unnerved by his change in demeanor. Sora opens the door again and shouts, “AGAMI!, COME HERE PLEASE!”
The neighbors must love him.
Agami walks out the door with a confused look on his face. As he walks toward them, Sora grabs him by the shoulder and announces, “Olya and Agami here will be your first point of contact!”
Agami looks to Sora in surprise, then to Ken, and back to Sora. Agami can only respond, “I’m too tired for this. Tenmei, you take over…Tenmei?” Looking at his arm. He suddenly has a confused look on his face and looks in the hotel room for someone.
“Nice try, but looks like you’re stuck with us,” Olya says to him with an optimistic smile.
Agami and Ken look awkwardly at each other, both unsure of what to say.
“I'm trusting you to do a good job on this, alright,” Sora says as he looks at Agami.
“Uh, sure,” a confused Agami replies.
“Alright then,” Ken says as he walks away, “I will-”
“Wait a minute,” Gearfried says, stepping out the door to interrupt.
“A burner,” Ken says in confusion.
“Wrong. This is just a normal phone. It's your direct line to me. Once you have something, don't hesitate to use it.” Once Gearfried finishes, he returns to the room.
“Well, you heard the man. Keep us in the loop.” Sora says. Giving a small wave goodbye, he returns as well. Agami and Olya follow suit, wishing him luck before he leaves.
Exhausted, Ken slowly makes his way back to his room. Upon reaching the elevator, it seemed slower than ever. Finally, entering his room, he locks the door behind him and uses the coat rack to block the door. After doing so, he does another quick check around the room. Confirming the room is fully safe, he finally lowers his guard, and a larger wave of exhaustion washes over him. Sitting on the sofa, he recounts the events of the day.
What a horrible past couple of…what is that awful smell?!
He immediately stands up and smells himself. He is instantly awakened by the horrible smell.
When was the last time I cleaned myself?
Wasting no time, he rushes to the shower. Throwing his clothes in the provided washing machine, he pays for a single wash and dry. While that occurs, he uses the facilities and after enters the shower to give himself a thorough cleaning. The water turned murky with dirt.
After showering, he puts on the complimentary gown and sits on the bed.
When was the last time I lied down? Oh, right. Stella's place.
Getting ready to turn in, he lies under the sheets, his mind stirring over recent events.
Today was quite productive. I met my favorite band, got a bounty put on me, and survived speaking to death. Before I start tomorrow, I should eat something. It has been a while…I'm surprised I managed to convince them. I was scared I lied by accident.
He turns over to face the other side of the bed.
I need to thank Igor for his help. Without his contact…without his contact?
Ken suddenly realises a contradiction in the bet he made earlier.
Wait, wasn't the thing about me digging a lie? If so, why did I still win? I should have lost, right? Why did it ignore-
Before Ken could finish his thought, he immediately fell asleep, his tiredness finally defeating him.
