Chapter 213: Face To Face

...

It was a cold Tuesday morning on August 7th. Just shy of 17 degrees indoors while outside it was easily down to 10 degrees.

And that was in Cherwood Borough which could be considered 'warm'.

In East Borough, the temperature easily dropped to 5 degrees. Today was one of the rare days of the year when the temperature could drop to 1 degree when night fell.

Due to the low temperatures, the streets were not as crowded as they used to be, with only the occasional carriage passing by with a driver shivering in the cold and you could hear his teeth chattering if you passed by.

On the sidewalks passed the occasional person who had bundled up as best they could but it could still be considered insufficient, but they had to endure it and still go to their jobs in the factories where at least the heat of the furnaces gave them a little comfort.

But for people who didn't have jobs and weren't very warm... Tomorrow would be another day of collecting bodies.

In these kinds of situations, the only thing these people could do was to seek shelter from the cold snow and huddle with each other for warmth if they wanted to survive.

Of course, those were the homeless who had not yet fallen deeply into drugs... and those were few and far between.

Already if you looked in the alleys it was normal to see a lot of homeless people inhaling the pink powder and getting lost in the pleasure or the pain that this drug could give them.

Some of the people who took this drug did it to escape from the reality in which they lived while the great majority could not even live a day without it.

The most addicted would kill each other to get another puff.

This was now commonplace and people, as with any act that became commonplace, became numb to it ignored it, and went on with their day.

The streets of Sunflower Street didn't have much activity today due to the cold weather, so the only people passing by were workers trying to get to the factories or drunks coming from a night of drinking until they passed out.

Darkholme staggered in his step and collided with a person and he fell to the ground.

"Watch where you're going asshole!" the person he collided with grunted but only looked at him for a few seconds before turning around and continuing on his way with grunts.

Sigh...

Watching as his breath came out white, a stupid grin formed on the man's face who as best he could got back up.

"Hip* Imbecile your sister!" the man replied to the air as he continued his staggering walk.

He was only wearing a faded green shirt along with an old brown jacket covered in patches. The alcohol in his blood keeps him warm, a myth said among drunkards.

"Boss today was fun!" thenman said with a chuckle almost colliding with another person he could barely dodge.

"H-hey watch where you're going!" Darkholme growled with narrowed eyes but was ignored, as all drunks were.

"Ughh killjoy...." The man growled and continued on his way home bitter.

Finally arriving at the doors of his old house, and after much effort of trying to get the keys in the lock, Darkholme entered with a chuckle.

" Honeyrrrr! I'm home!!!!"

There was no response, and the man looked around in confusion before coughing and laughing.

"Hahahahha...I forgot! You're dead! Hip*" 

Laughing, the man staggered until he fell on top of an old couch with several springs sticking out of it. But this drunk didn't care and almost instantly fell asleep.

On the old coffee table in front of the couch was a framed photo with broken glass. In it, he was smiling like an idiot while holding in his arms a woman with curly brown hair and a big bulge in her belly, a clear sign of an advanced pregnancy...

...

Outside the house and watching him from an alleyway. A plain-looking bald-haired man with black gloves on his hands watched the whole process as the man bumped into the stranger and staggered home.

'That idiot forgot to lock the door' the man thought with a dark smile on his face as he began his walk towards the house.

It had been 5 days since he had fed Creeping Hunger with that brat's father and the glove hadn't eaten anything in all that time.

Strangely it seemed as if it had been satisfied with the man even though it hadn't eaten it all, something that had never happened before.

But satiety vanished and the glove wanted to eat again. And this drunken scamp would be the meal of the day.

'I wonder if the brat will work out as well as her father? According to the newspapers, she's now in a church on Rose Street... Maybe I'll visit her later...' The man thought with a dark smile as he walked down the street.

Supposedly this fellow had been investigating him for a few weeks now and had made a bit of a fuss about it.

'Will you scream as much as the last meal? Or are you so drunk you won't know what happened? What is it? What will it be?' the man thought with dark curiosity as he slowly approached the house.

He preferred it to be the former~

That made it more fun, the screams of pain were his favorite part after all.

Reaching the door, he grabbed the handle with his right hand and opened it. As he had seen the genie forgot to lock the door.

Before entering he looked both ways, the street was almost empty. Only a few people in the distance were walking away.

The man smiled sharply and entered calmly. There was no better time than this to feed his pet~.

The moment he entered, he closed the door behind him. His face began to change, under his skin something like worms moved.

In a few seconds, his appearance returned to normal. Gone was the face of a simple man, now he had a wide broad chin and his eyes had turned green with a hint of laughter but with an enormous cruelty behind it.

He calmly put his hair in a bun as he always did. That done, he calmly walked to the room where he had seen the man fall asleep.

He slightly extended his left hand. In the palm of that gloved hand, a mouth full of sharp teeth opened.

Entering the room, the smile on the man's face froze as he saw that the drunk was nowhere to be seen!

He had disappeared!

Before he could think about what had happened, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he instinctively generated a powerful rush of wind around him that sent everything around his body flying.

Turning around to see his attacker, the only thing he could see was the very moment he disappeared into the shadows.

Despite not being able to see his attacker, the man's pupils shrank and he instinctively turned around with his arms crossed. 

Just in time to block a powerful fire-covered kick that sent him a few feet backward.

"You're tougher than I thought." A provoking voice rang out and Qilangos looked at the masked man in front of him.

A light layer of water enveloped his arms and began to slowly heal the burns generated by the man's kick.

"I can't say it's an honor to meet you, Mr. Holmes." The Pirate Admiral growled and veins formed on his neck.

"Same here, deformed chin." Adryan said provocatively. Having sent spirituality to Tauk Millennium, a small holy humming sounded and he could feel his body growing stronger.

Hearing the man's insult, Qilangos growled and waved his hand aggressively at him.

Moving his body to the opposite side, Adryan observed that the place where he was standing showed deep cuts that split in half whatever furniture was there.

'Invisible wind blades...'

Clicking his tongue, Adryan wasted no time and multiple Fire Ravens appeared and lashed out at the pirate.

"Let's have a little dance princess!" Adryan shouted with a sharp grin behind his mask as a Fire Spear formed in his hand.

The fight between the Fire Mage of East Borough and Rear Admiral Hurricane has begun.

+++

A little teaser hehe.

Ain't I bad?

I'll post the next two chapters in a bit.