The Seeker | Volume 2

Inside the tall, gothic palace, Emperor Katsuki, who was sitting on his throne and clad in black and orange armor, was waiting for his ambassador. Suddenly the large metal door opened, and a man with neatly combed blonde hair and wearing an extravagant necktie walked in.

"He wasn't there." He said as he bowed.

Emperor Katsuki raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "What do you mean, wasn't there?"

The ambassador sighed as he ran a hand through his neatly combed hair. "It's difficult to explain. When I visited the given address, a tall man accompanied with a child with white hair was living inside of there. When I asked them about the boy who defeated the entity he was confused…"

Katsuki let out a low grunt as he slammed his fist on the armrest of his throne, the sound reverberating across the deathly silent palace.

"Do you know who he was accompanied by? I saw another person in the photograph." Katsuki asked in a low voice.

The ambassador took a deep breath and said with a small frown. "Unfortunately I'm unable to find their identity, but I can confirm there's another person in the photo. It was taken in the heat of the battle, so of course they're blurry and unable to be truly identified."

Upon hearing that Katsuki dismissed the ambassador before turning towards a large stack of papers sitting on the floor beside him, which were either treaties with other nations or requests to add another amendment to the constitution. But one paper on top of them caught his attention.

He picked up and the ends of his lips curled up. It was the Katshin boat tourist schedule. With this, perhaps he could track down anyone who's entering the kingdom and find out if they're connected to him.

"September 24th…" he mumbled to himself as he placed the paper down back onto the pile. Today was September 25th, meaning that the ship had left yesterday. Usually people from Seraphis Kingdom weren't eager to visit the Katshin Empire, but since he had personally approved the two detectives' request to visit there meant that they would return with the chance of knowing the boy's identity.

"Emperor?..." Hazel asked as she stepped into the room, her eyes filled with a tiny pang of worry. Katsuki turned around, his expression softening slightly.

"Yeah?" He asked, his voice still had that slightly solemn end, but whenever he saw Izuku's child he couldn't help but treat her as if she were his own; that's what Izuku would have wanted. 

After a few moments Hazel took a deep breath. "I want to check on dad…"

Upon hearing that, Katsuki's eyes softened. His voice gradually grew shakier as he spoke. "Well, I suppose we could go, whatever you say."

He suddenly stood up and took the little girl by the hand, leading her down the numerous corridors and down the long flight of stairs. At the end of the dimly lit hallway Katsuki opened the door and allowed a tiny amount of light to shine through.

Izuku, who was chained in the center of the room, closed his eyes and let out a tiny growl. Katsuki frowned as he approached his friend, kneeling down in front of him before speaking in a hushed voice. 

"One day, Izuku…" he suddenly pulled out a piece of rye bread and placed it in front of Izuku. The green haired boy knelt down and began chewing the bread like a rabid animal, the loud sounds of his chewing and smacking made Katsuki grimace. He was usually one to be very nit-picky about things like that, but with Izuku's current condition Katsuki couldn't help but allow it.

The lack of sunlight had made Izuku's body appear paler and more frail. His ribs were almost showing beneath his thin shirt. Katsuki looked down at Izuku's frail form and he felt his heart break, his gut sinking as well, and he couldn't help but allow a few vulnerable tears to flow from his softening eyes.

…

Cosette approached the mailbox of the Pan Marché de Bolivar complex and opened it up, peering inside curiously. When she spotted the letter addressed to her and her brother her eyes widened as she quickly removed it, tearing open it and reading its contents.

Upon hearing about my request in my female form for the given information, upon realizing I granted her a Seeker characteristic in the stamp made her even more astonished, and the fact that I wanted to sell it was rather reasonable. In the last week she had found numerous miscellaneous sources about potion formulas and information about the previous epochs and the numerous families and events of the time.

Upon returning to the historical society she approached her brother and whispered to him.

"Well, I have a letter from him. He gave me a Seeker characteristic to sell in the SSC meeting next week."

Arden's eyes widened as he stood up, putting his thick book on the desk beside him. "Why couldn't we just host a small meeting with voluntary participation?"

"Well, it's complicated. I'm not sure Mr. Dwane always is below the complex building, it wouldn't be polite to intrude randomly and host a meeting without his permission. We don't even know anyone at the meeting besides Sylvie; who left weeks ago and fled in hopes of finding the cards."

"Well, why not we just see if Mr. Dwane is down there and have a one on three meeting with him. He could possibly buy the characteristic Isaac found and in exchange, give us something in return we could use to help him."

Upon hearing Arden's suggestion, Cosette nodded slowly as she agreed with her brother. The two left the building in time for the interns to enter and begin their own shifts. When they arrived at the Pan Marché de Bolivar complex they entered without saying a word before descending into the basement and entering Mr. Dwane's office.

The man looked up at the two siblings and smiled. "What is it?" he asked in a neutral voice.

Without saying a word, Cosette placed her hand over the stamp. The symbol began to glow, and a cube composed of meat, flesh and tentacle rose from the stamp, forming before Mr. Dwane. The man's eyes widened as he slowly grabbed the cube of kraken meat and admired it.

"A seeker Characteristic embedded within the stamp? Who could do this?"

Arden suddenly spoke up. "Since Isabella was unable to attend the meeting she instead binded the characteristic into the stamp and sent it to us."

Cosette turned towards her brother. "She's hoping to sell it in exchange for information about potion formulas and the Zoruist Family."

…

On the ship heading to the Katshin Empire, numerous barons and nobles sat in their private sections chatting amongst each other and sipping wine imported from the Indun Empire; the best wine you could get if you had enough money, power, connections, or prestige. But since barons were considered the lowest among nobility, they didn't get as much wine as the ones who had more power and influence.

One of the nobles, a woman wearing an expensive pink silk dress and a large sunhat, sat inside the lobby whilst an afternoon lunch was being hosted. Beside her was a place of neatly cut sandwiches with salmon, caviar and dried fish eggs. Even with the combination appearing foul, it was considered a delicacy, and the average person would have to work for about a month to have a complete serving.

"Greetings, Madame." A young man wearing an extravagant suit with a necktie approached her and sat across from her, he was also having the caviar sandwich. The woman had long black hair neatly folded into a bun, but it wasn't visible under her hat. She didn't say much for a few moments before finally speaking up.

"One of my cousins was murdered about a month ago." She said firmly as she brought some tea to her lips. 

The man raised an eyebrow. "Madame Fitzgerald?"

The woman nodded. "Yes, her. The police brought a sealed artifact to her estate yesterday and investigated the crime scene thoroughly. When they conducted an autopsy on her corpse they found a silver bullet lodged inside of her."

"Do they have any leads?" The baron asked as he bit into his caviar sandwich.

The woman nodded as she suddenly took out an envelope that was neatly folded in her pocket. It had red trim around the edges and had the Seraphis Criminal Detection Agency badge on its cover. She unfolded the letter and saw two items inside of it.

She took the first one out, a small image also folded up. When she unfolded it she saw a drawn portrait of an older looking man, about in his 50's or 60's. On the bottom below the drawing was a name. Aaron Salista. 

"Is that who killed her?" The baron asked as he leaned in closer to inspect the photo. The woman nodded slowly, animosity in her eyes as she gazed into Aaron's drawn features. She took out the second item, another piece of paper.

It was a letter, written to her by the SCDA.

"They say they want to hire someone to murder him, or anyone he's related to." She muttered as she read its contents.

The baron almost spit out his drink upon hearing that. "How about I do it?" He asked with some charm in his voice. 

The woman looked back at the baron and sighed. "Unfortunately I don't think your fighting prowess is enough to take on the possibility of multiple people. Who knows who Aaron has connections with."

"One of the sealed artifacts was able to pry into his memories, and we saw that he was a member of the secret organization in control of the Nova and Luma Routeways: The Nightshades. But he left them following incidents I don't feel like prying into."

"Incidents?" The baron asked in curiosity. 

"I told you I didn't know. You can always jump off the boat and swim back to Seraphis Kingdom; go and ask them yourself. All I know is that she had a party the Sunday before she was murdered, or exactly one day before that…"