The crystal chandelier overhead cast a warm yellow glow across the room.
Richard Braddock sat on a luxurious leather sofa, gently swirling a glass of whiskey in his hand.
"Mr. Dean, my son, Scott, has already moved in to get close to that girl, Patty."
Richard asked tentatively, "But is that woman's body truly worth the massive price we're paying?"
The old man addressed as Dean looked up and smiled thinly. "That is not a matter for your concern, Mr. Richard."
"Our Armitage family possesses top-tier neurosurgery technology and specialized psychological treatment. We are dedicated to finding the most perfect vessels for the world's most powerful figures."
Dean took a sip of the red wine in his glass, his tone slow and deliberate. "So, do not ask too many questions. It is better for both you and me."
Cold sweat broke out across Richard's back at those words. He was about to offer an explanation when the private phone in his breast pocket suddenly vibrated.
His expression shifted slightly. He gave Dean an apologetic look and waited until the old man gave a slight nod of permission before answering the call.
A few seconds later, Richard bolted upright from the sofa. "What? Say that again?! Wasn't he on a trip with his classmates?"
"Mr. Braddock, please remain calm. Young Master Scott was involved in a serious car accident on East Route 9. Currently, only the wreckage of the vehicle and three bodies have been found at the scene..."
The sheriff on the other end of the line spoke with a cautious tone; after all, he was dealing with one of the state's major taxpayers.
"And your son, Scott, is missing..."
Richard swayed, nearly dropping his phone.
Given his understanding of how things worked in this territory, he knew all too well that "missing" usually meant dead, it just meant the body hadn't been recovered yet.
If this were truly a kidnapping for ransom, the extortion call would have arrived much faster than the police notification.
"Have you figured out who did this? What about his classmates?" Richard roared, his anger barely suppressed.
Scott was his designated sole heir, and now the police were telling him his son had died so inexplicably on some highway?
"Mr. Richard, you have to understand our situation. That stretch of interstate has no traffic cameras, and there isn't even a cell signal."
"Furthermore, the incident occurred right on the border, involving cross-state jurisdiction. The department's current budget simply won't allow for a large-scale search and rescue operation..."
"Bullshit! A bunch of useless hacks!"
Richard cursed, the veins on his forehead bulging.
When these people were asking for money at unions and gala dinners, their words were smoother than silk.
Now that his only son was in trouble, these idiots actually had the nerve to pass the buck using goddamn jurisdiction and budgets as excuses.
Hearing the fury on the other end of the line, the sheriff quickly added, "However, we didn't come away entirely empty-handed."
"The only survivor from the scene is a girl named Patty Lowell. She appeared in Poho County not long ago, and she was accompanied by an unidentified Asian youth."
"Find them... I want every single detail."
Having said this, Richard hung up the phone decisively.
Since he couldn't rely on these freeloading bureaucrats, he had plenty of cash to get professionals from the underworld to hunt these two down.
...
—--
"Hey, handsome, are you always this quiet on the road?"
A spacious and comfortable minivan was driving along a trail deep in the mountains.
The interior of the vehicle was filled with the scents of various perfumes.
Whitney leaned forward slightly, her loose strap failing to contain a generous expanse of fair skin, revealing a deep, bottomless cleavage.
"Or are you just not interested in us 'bad girls' from the art department?"
Sephirot leaned back in a comfortable captain's chair, his expression lazy.
Through the idle chit-chat and probing questions along the way, he had already figured out the backgrounds of the women in the car.
Aside from the blonde bombshell named Axelle sitting at the very back of the van, the other three girls were all students from the same university's art department.
They were traveling together during spring break, looking for inspiration for their sketches.
Axelle was merely a professional model hired by the school for figure drawing, and she was the one who had recommended this trip to the small town.
The one currently launching an offensive on Sephirot was Whitney, the most open-minded of the three students, who sat directly across from him.
As the conversation grew spirited, Whitney simply kicked off her high heels and crossed her smooth, white legs. Her lines were sleek and firm, and her toes, painted with black nail polish, brushed against the hem of Sephirot's trousers seemingly by accident.
Sephirot's expression remained calm as he naturally moved his legs to the side, smiling politely. "Sorry, I'm just more interested in how to make money."
Seeing the handsome man before her remain indifferent to the figure she took such pride in, Whitney didn't feel discouraged; instead, she found his cold demeanor quite challenging.
She giggled and gestured toward the girl sitting quietly nearby reading a book, teasing, "Well, if I'm not your type, you should take a closer look at Beth."
At those words, Beth looked up, closed her book, and gave her best friend a helpless look.
Ignoring her reaction, Whitney leaned closer to Sephirot and said in a slightly exaggerated tone:
"Beth is a low-key billionaire. How rich is she? Rich enough to easily buy several private islands to use as back gardens."
"If you can win her over, you won't ever have to worry about how to make money for the rest of your life."
Hearing this, Beth frowned slightly. She had always kept a low profile. Being on a remote road in an unfamiliar place and having her family background casually revealed to a stranger she had just met made her very uncomfortable.
Still, her friend had always been like this, completely defenseless toward unfamiliar environments and people, so she couldn't say much.
"To buy several islands? That sounds like... an investment with great taste."
Upon hearing this, Sephirot's attitude toward Beth became noticeably warmer.
He skillfully pulled a business card from his pocket and handed it over. "Let's introduce ourselves properly."
"Sephirot. I mainly work as a private detective, and I also take on various types of high-end security and supernatural incident handling. Miss Beth, if you have any special troubles in the future, you can contact me anytime."
Beth was caught off guard by Sephirot's sudden enthusiasm.
She hesitantly took the card and saw the name of the Agency: "Devil May Cry." She racked her brain for a moment but hadn't heard of this firm.
Beth could only offer a polite smile. "Thank you for the offer. If the need arises... I will."
Sitting at the very back of the van, Axelle watched Sephirot's reaction, a trace of an undetectable sneer flashing in the depths of her eyes.
Sitting beside Sephirot, Patty curled her lip and crossed her arms over her chest, muttering to herself, "A bunch of airheaded bimbos."
"Guys, I think we're here."
At that moment, the buck-toothed girl driving, Lorna, suddenly shouted, interrupting their conversation.
Ahead, an ancient cluster of buildings revealed itself amidst the mountains.
(Translated by yourtl.app)
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TL NOTES — CROSSOVER GUIDE
Some references in this chapter come from source universes that may be unfamiliar to some readers. The notes below provide the context needed to understand them without leaving the page.
SOURCE UNIVERSES
Get Out (2017) — A psychological horror film written and directed by Jordan Peele. It follows Chris Washington, a young Black man who visits the family estate of his white girlfriend and gradually discovers a horrifying secret: the family uses a neurosurgical procedure to transplant the consciousness of wealthy, aging white patrons into the bodies of young Black people, who are hypnotized into a suppressed state of awareness and kept as unwilling hosts. The patriarch of the family is Dean Armitage, a neurosurgeon, assisted by his wife Missy Armitage, a hypnotherapist. Their operation markets itself as providing "perfect vessels" to elite clients. This chapter confirms that the Armitage family (first mentioned by Scott in chapter 30) is operating in this story's world, with Richard Braddock serving as a paying client and Scott having been dispatched to get close to Patty as a prospective vessel.
Hostel Part II — The sequel to Hostel. Where the first film followed male backpackers, Part II centers on a group of American female art students on spring break who are lured to a small Eastern European town and its spa hotel by a woman they meet along the way. The same criminal organization from the first film, Elite Hunting, is running the operation: victims' profiles are auctioned on the dark web to wealthy clients who pay for the right to torture and kill them on-site. This chapter introduces the four women from the film by name and places them in the exact scenario of the movie, with Sephirot inserted as an additional target who has already seen through the whole scheme.
CHARACTERS
Dean Armitage — The head of the Armitage family and the lead surgeon behind the Coagula procedure. In the film, he presents himself as a progressive, welcoming host while secretly running a body-snatching operation for wealthy clients. His line "Do not ask too many questions. It is better for both you and me" is consistent with his character: calm, clinical, and quietly menacing.
Beth Salinger — The protagonist of Hostel Part II. A quietly wealthy American art student with a reserved, composed demeanor. Her family fortune is established early in the film, and it ultimately becomes her means of survival: she negotiates her release by purchasing a membership in Elite Hunting. In the film she is the only one of the main trio to make it out alive.
Whitney — One of Beth's fellow art students. More outgoing and bold than Beth, she is targeted early by the organization and meets a brutal end in the film.
Lorna — The third art student in the group. Timid, excitable, and the most naive of the three, she is lured in most easily by the promise of romance and adventure. She is the first of the trio to be killed in the film.
Axelle — The woman who recruits the group into the trap. In Hostel Part II, Axelle is not a fellow traveler but a paid operative of Elite Hunting who deliberately befriends the girls at a spa in Rome and engineers the invitation to the town.