"Hey...wake up!"
Trout's helmet shone back on after a nap. He shook his head left and right.
Tinmas, who just woke him up looked at him in confusion, he tried to copy Trout's movement but just ended up with a slight dizziness and took a step back to regain his balance.
Trout stopped shaking his head and looked up to Tinmas who was standing in an awkward pose with his arm holding onto a seat.
"So...the bus just told us that we're close. Should we make a plan beforehand?" Tinmas asked and took his hand off the seat while stepping back from Trout.
He walked to Liones and Scaros who were both leaning towards each other while sleeping. He tapped on Liones's shoulder, she woke up and looked next to her at Scaros who was still asleep.
"Rossy..." she poked on his tummy, yet he remained asleep.
"Wake up Rossy!" She said into his ears before using her small fingers to pinch his cheek.
"Ouch! Stop that!" Scaros slapped her hand away. After realising what he just did, the boy held Liones's hand and blew on them while constantly apologising.
Liones seemed tired from Scaros's childishness. She took her hand away and looked at Tinmas who woke her up not long ago.
"So...do you need us to do anything mister?" She asked. Tinmas seemsled frozen a little, his eyes widened in a quick moment but he shook it away.
"You... don't have to call me mister, Tinmas is fine. And yes I suppose we need a proper plan fo-"
"Planning? Why? It's just a lurker. It's weak. We can just punch it and it will be dead." Scaros jumped in.
"How many time do I have to explain that we don't know it's locatio-"
"HEY! Not my fault you didn't even explain it properly."
"Hah...YOU BARELY LET ME FIN-"
!!!!!
.
.
Trout clapped his hands, stopping the arguement before it get further.
"In my opinion, it would be ideal if we discussed our strategy now." The shine on his helmet remained pure white, so bright people in the bus avoided looking straight at it. Liones and Scaros seemed suprised of Trout speaking. Scaros looked at him hard while Liones only gave him a glimpse before looking away from the light.
Scaros who just stood up from his seat sat back down in resentment while Tinmas adjusted his suit and sat down at the opposite row as Scaros. Trout did not sit down yet remained standing in the middle lane of the bus.
"Yes, you are right... Let's start now." Tinmas said. He took a deep breath and took out his notebook before crossing his legs.
"So. What source of information do we have?" Tinmas asked. He looked around the bus but intentionally avoided eye contact with Scaros who was looking down at the floor and hasn't looked up since.
"Do you have the case's files present?" Trout asked. He looked aside to Tinmas. The dim light from Trout's headwear reflected on his face. Tinmas who got called out shook his head while still reading the notebook.
Trout became silent for a moment. Tinmas closed his notebook and looked at Trout who seemed to be lost in thoughts. Liones and Scaros sat quietly across from each other while whispering something to eachother.
Trout's fingers tapped on the seat. He took a deep breath and snap his fingers.
"Listen. I've taken the case from 'a certain person' that I know. From what I've seen, there are corpses of children around the creature. We could take that into use and find the victim's parents."
Tinmas cut in:
"It's another problem, we don't know who their parents are."
Trout replied:
"You are...correct. Yet it is more possible to search for the parents which is the bigger group other than the creature itself."
Tinmas nodded:
"I see."
..
...
During the exchange, Scaros stayed silent for once. Maybe because Liones was pinching his arm to remind him not to open his mouth, maybe because he couldn't find a chance to interrupt.
Yet after the talked between the other two ended, Scaros took Liones's hand off him.
"Isn't it easy to look for the lurker? It just one small lurker in the outer zone, how hard can it even be"
".."
The bus went silent. Liones just stopped trying to stop her companion and sat quietly. Trout did not bother arguing with him and kept on thinking. But Tinmas was the only one who seemed to have had enough of Scaros. He stood up and pointed at him.
"Can't you just shut up for a little longer?"
"He holds no value. Just ignore him." Trout said without looking, Tinmas exhaled and sat back down muttering something with a grumpy tone.
Scaros who got cut down twice by Trout looked visibly displeased towards him. He took a strong step towards Trout and pointed at his strange headgear.
"YOU! Who do YOU think you are?! NO ONE has EVER talked to me like that before. YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME?!"
Scaros dashed towards Trout who just turned his head to him. The hand was supposed to go for Trout's neck but his negligent movement made it go down for Trout's chest instead.
Just the moment Scaros's finger slightly touched Trout. His wrist was catched. Trout looked down on the pathetic kid and tossed his hand away.
Scaros didn't give up but grabbed Trout's coat with his other hand before falling, his hand went further this time. Trout felt the touch through the fabric. But not the coat itself only. He felt that Scaros touched the handkerchiefs in his pocket. Even just through the coat. Got Scaros, it was a close success of grabbing Trout.
But for Trout, Scaros's hand reaching for the handkerchiefs felt like...theft.
Trout's hand instinctively reached up.
Right at that moment. Tinmas finally reacted and turned around to see that Trout was holding Scaros by the neck while the kid was struggling to breath. Scaros's legs were kicking,his arm desperately try to get himself out of Trout's choke. His mouth opened but couldn't call for help as his oxygen got low.
Trout held the handkerchiefs in his cloth with on hand while choking Scaros with another. The kid's struggles did slow him down. The gloved hands gripped so tight Scaros's face slowly turned purple as his legs stopped kicking.
Before the Scaros past out, the last thing he saw was one cold dim light staring straight at him.
Right at the moment Scaros's pupils began to roll backwards. Trout felt a tackle, he didn't not fall backwards but looked down on who tackled him.
It's Liones's, she was punching him weakly while crying.
"Please let him go! I beg of you...
...he's all I have left...please." she begged desperately while grabbing onto Trout's arm.
Like just realising what he just done, Trout released his hand. Scaros fell hard onto the ground.
Scaros who had just been released wrapped his hand around his neck in pain, he coughed violently, he gasped for air but coughed it all out. Liones sat right down next to him and panicked, she kept asking how he was while Scaros wasn't able to reply to her while desperately trying to balance his breathing.
Tinmas, the person who witnessed everything looked at Trout differently. He kept quiet and read pretending that he didn't see what had happened...
Trout looked down to the kids then looked to his gloved hand. After a little moment, he rubbed his hand onto the coat and sat back down to his seat, seemingly lost in thought.
Tinmas despite witnessing the scene, did not say a word. He turned his head around and focus back on his notebook. No one noticed the sweats on his neck.