Rade's Demon Elimination Service

Chapter 6: The Immortal's Mail

The shop was a simple café, and Rade was still rather confused.

She was invited to go up the stairs where she was greeted with a strong aroma of steeping tea. Rade was led to a traditional Japanese room, cozy and comfortable. There was only a small wooden table at the very center of the room and the mat was very soft under Rade's feet that were only wearing her socks. Close behind her were the young demon boy and Kalleid. Kalleid and Megumi, the older demon woman, assured Rade that they would explain everything clearly to her.

"Sis Nina," Kalleid greeted the woman inside the room, her plump cheeks were full of tea and she spat it out on her porcelain cup as soon as the three of them entered the room.

Kalleid's expression was complicated as he looked at the tea on the cup, little bubbles were floating at the surface of it. Rade suddenly felt anxious to drink any more tea from the cups around the table, but the demon boy ushered them inside and went to a sliding door, which revealed a cupboard of cups and porcelain utensils such as little plates. Making sure all was seated and settled on their positions, the demon boy then poured the tea from the fairly small teapot into the new teacups, the aroma of jasmine filling the air softly. It oddly released some tension on Rade's shoulders and soon, she felt relaxed though her fists were still clenching tightly on her sides.

Instead of just doing any pleasantries or even just introductions of their names (Rade guessed that all of them have already known her name), Kalleid jumped right into business.

"How much the core was appraised for, Sis Nina?" Kalleid said, opening a conversation seamlessly, while Rade also sniffed at the newly poured teacup, smoke was still floating around it and it was indeed fragrant.

Nina sighed a deep breath before answering Kalleid, "Why don't you ask Lyu, eh?" She nodded towards the boy that just served them tea.

Rade looked at the boy— an immortal half demon. His hair was unruly and curly, there were curly wisps on top and there was that roundness of youth in his face. Like the immortal lady from earlier, this boy has the same lump rosy cheeks. He was also smaller than Rade which was surprising since Rade was already small enough for her age due to malnourishment and anemia.

It was surprising she can even grow some meager centimeters over the summer.

"Pretty, pretty boy," Nina cajoled at the innocent boy, "how much is that core? Gimme some good price and be a good boy."

"Sister Megumi said to start negotiations at one hundred and fifty," he answered Nina and smiled with a vibrance that almost blinded Rade's eyes.

All of a sudden though, Rade palmed the cores on the pocket of her skirt. There were only eight cores and she started to get anxious of their worth. Since she wasn't really sure how these things go, her eyes unconsciously sought after Kalleid.

"We don't really negotiate, Rade," Kalleid said when he noticed she was looking at him, "but you can try though I doubt you'll succeed. Lyu here is the best with haggles like this."

"Best? He don't haggle is all," Nina protested with a click of her tongue— seemingly irritated. "500," Nina said instead of proceeding on trashing Lyu, a determined look on her face says she won't be brought down tok easily.

"180," Lyu responded. Not bothered by the ferocity of Nina's eyes on him and the insult that was thrown on him, he continued smiling at her and poured to another cup the teapot that contained tea.

"550," Nina then answered, but what Lyu did was only to shake his head, seemingly scolding the older woman. "450," she conceded.

"230," Lyu said and poured the little container of milk on the tea inside the cup, he picked up two sugar cubs from the sugar jar. "We will cover the cost from the Watchtower. Deal or no deal."

Rade was slightly taken a back and started calculating how much every core would be valued at if their haggle would start at 200. It wasn't bad, she thought.

"Don't even think of haggling with Lyu or you'll lose more," Kalleid advised to her mildly, he reached for the newly made tea and offered it to Rade. "Drink, it calms the mind."

"No, thanks," Rade responded, "but I can haggle, right?" she ask to confirm and Kalleid only nodded. With a single gulp, Rade took on the teacup and swallowed the content.

It was very smooth and light, but the sugar and milk made it more wonderful.

"How much does it really cost?" Nina asked curiously, while Lyu took out from who knows where two hundred dollars. Lyu remained quiet, picking at the crisp dollars. "Oh come on, my boy!"

"Its value is about 450," Lyu finally answered with a smile and slide the promised price across the table, to Nina's direction. "But the power it had isn't worth the destruction it caused. It was clumsy and just grown out of being a manifestation. Uh..." Lyu looked up to the ceiling looking like he was thinking deeply. "It wasn't ripe to pick just yet, like how you, humans, would say."

"Aw, f**k it!" Nina cursed and slammed at the door angrily, she immediately smiled when her gaze landed at both Rade and Kalleid. "Can you believe it? After all that trouble and only for that?"

Kalleid only offered a lopsided smile.

After stuffing the money on her purse, Nina stood up and bid them goodbye. She winked at Rade before getting out of the room and slided the door with a bit too much force than the necessary.

"I did give her a good deal, you know?" Lyu defended himself. "And what about you? You're also a freshman in Mary Helena?"

Rade looked at Kalleid first.

Seeing the hesitation, Kalleid acted as the mediator since Rade wasn't yet used to the things around and Lyu was too innocent to picked up on it.

"Lyubov," Kalleid called out, immediately Lyu turned his attention to Kalleid. "Rade isn't yet very comfortable with half demon immortals."

"Is that why she keep stabbing you?" Lyu asked innocently. Just how Rade stated that they were all demon, there was a factual undertone on Lyu's voice that said his words cannot be denied. In this case though, he was trully too pure and delicate to caught up on how awkward the question was. "Do you want me to turn on my demon form?" he asked Rade who flinched and choked on her tea that was made by Ai himself. "Or not?"

"Just that I'm telling you, Lyu," Kalleid reprimanded gently, "but I think Rade can handle things well. We'll have to walk her through it all, alright?"

Lyu nodded obediently.

"Half demon immortals also have those Certificate of Existence," Lyu started off, "unlike most of the demons. We also have intelligence which uh... reciprocate, I guess, for our lack of spiritual talent s***h power. Or at least that was the case for me. Don't worry though, we seldom lose control over ourselves. I'm Lyubov but you may call me Lyu! And earlier is my older sister, Nee-san Megumi."

Rade took a secret glance towards Lyu who was actually looking at her. She flinched again and shyly looked away.

"Holy weapons aren't allowed to be called inside the shop," Lyu said, "and also, no fighting inside. Holy weapons can still hurt us, after all, as you might have guessed from you battles with my fellow immortal. Do you have any questions?"

Rade shook her head vigorously.

"Okay!" Lyu responded in return. His face was still bright, coaxing Rade to be more relax around him. "We're certified to appraise demon cores, so you have nothing to worry about. Or I hope. Anyways, you have cores to sell?"

Rade nodded her head which made Lyu giggled slightly, his warm cheeks getting warmer with the smoke from the hot tea. Before proceeding as planned, Lyu arranged another tea for Rade which she took gratefully with both hands knowing they were safe from spit.

"May I see them?"

"What?" Rade asked cluelessly, still holding the teacup with both hands.

"The cores, Rade," Kalleid answered for Lyu, "the cores."

"Oh!" Rade gasped and put down the cup from her hands. She ransacked her skirt's pocket and procured eight shining cores that looked like precious jewels. "I have eight."

"Hhmm," Lyu hummed, he took one core from the table where Rade placed all eight of them, "I can give you a fairly good price with these lots. Why didn't you sell these off before though?" Lyu put down the core on his fingers and went to get another one from the pile. "This one is at least seven weeks old, while that—" he pointed at another core "—is almost five weeks old. It's easier to judge the value of a core once it was freshly harvested."

"I didn't know this place before," Rade shyly said and tucked a loose hair behind her ear, "I just found out about this place earlier."

"Thanks to me," Kalleid interrupted which made Lyu giggled behind his hand. "The next time you harvest a core, make sure to get those here. And get those here fast."

"Okay, I'll do that," Rade said and looked at the cores on top of the table.

Lyu was very serious when to comes to appraising demon cores that Rade's heart was pounding within her ribcage loudly. She bit her lip and looked at Lyu who smiled in return and gave her a fairly hefty prices for all of the cores.

"I'll go easy on you since it's your first sell," Lyu even said while putting the cores on a velvet box. Each core only weighed like a normal regular-sized stone would and it even has the same size, but what set the cores apart from the standard stones were the lustrous gleam of each one. "The next time, you would not be so lucky anymore."

"She's broke, Lyu," Kalleid teased, "give her a break."

"Business is business," Lyu said with closed eyes and a small huff, his plump cheeks inflated with a fake haughty puff.

Unconsciously, Rade's forefinger pointed and popped Lyu's puffed cheeks. Lyu looked up and blushed, his hands covering both of his cheeks as he spouted nonsense. Kalleid burst laughing, while Rade only frowned at them both— regretting her impulse.

The sound of the sliding door made them jumped from their cross-legged postures. All three looked back and saw Lyu's older sister went in. She had the same vibrant smile as Ai, but with more grace and elegance with her vibrant hanfu. With expansive sleeves, she quietly slid the door shut again and turned towards them, on one of her hands was a white envelope of a letter.

"Miss Megumi," Kalleid stood up whereas Lyu didn't, as a consequence, Rade felt inflicted on whether to stand or stay seated.

"Nee-san!" Lyu said and poured tea to another cup.

"Um..." Rade hesitated then finally stood from where she sat, but the lady only gestured to her to retain her seat.

"No need to bother," Megumi said mildly and sat in front of the three. She looked at the sliding door expectantly, sure enough, a silhouette appeared in front of the shoji or the sliding door. "A letter came was sent for you, Kal."

New York slid the shoji out of his way and placed it again properly behind him. He went to sit beside Kalleid who smiled at him which he didn't reciprocated.

"It's from your dad," New York said and pushed the letter to the boy beside him. "It went by the post."

Kalleid nodded and opened the letter only to find a memory card inside. As he was installing the object into his own android phone, Megumi opened up the conversation about the demon core appraisal. When Kalleid already set up the video that his father sent, Rade was able to see a person on the screen of his phone. The man was sitting and he looked too young to be a father, if anyone would ask Rade. Although there was the same brown and mellow pair of eyes on both father and son, the expression on both of the pairs were very different. If Kalleid has a very gentle face, it was lost on the seriousness of his father who was wearing a monocle.

Rade noticed that whereas Kalleid's eyes held the warmth of the summer and breeze of the early spring, his father was quite different. It was as harsh as a snowstorm, and cold as the snow of the winter. The man on the screen of the man wore a serious mask on his face.

She looked around and only Lyu would look at her.

"Shall we take a walk 'round the room?" he asked her and stood up.

There was still the odd shiver when Rade held his outstretched hand to help her up, it was her hunter senses telling her of the demon's presence. Emma was boiling on her skin, she could feel it but just ignored. Adjacent to the room was another one where a couple of photography equipments were placed and stored which puzzled Rade greatly.

"Is it only you and your older sister?" Rade asked while she looked at the photos hanging on the walls. The photos were all pretty and nice, there were also various subjects of the photos. There was nature and, often times, people too.

Lyu nodded behind her and tinkered with the camera.

"It's always been just the two of us," Lyu responsed. "Sorry, I had to take you away from them." Through the slit of the shoji, they both turned their heads on the scenery on the other room. "They seemed serious."

"About earlier—" Rade stopped and looked at Ai apologetically "—I acted on instinct. Are you... hurt?"

"Not really." Lyu chuckled lightly, showing his dimples on both cheeks. "I'm kind of used to it, I guess. Hey! You're not really so shy," he remarked, but his eyes flickered to the other room.

"What is going on?" Rade asked curiously. Her eyes also flickered towards the other room. "With them, I mean. They look serious."

"Kal's dad called upon him," Ai answered, his fingers were still tinkering with the camera. "Kal's dad don't really do that unless very necessary."

"So was it his father who's a demon?"

"No, no, I think you misunderstood," Lyu said and shook his head. "Kal's dad is a hunter. It was his mom where he got his demonic nature from. When his dad learned that Kal can't be like..." Lyu pursed his lips, his plump cheek bouncing as his finger grazed over his chin to think. "Normal, I think, he gave Kal over to the Aldeia clan to be looked after for. That's why New York is always around him."

"Why are you telling me though?" Rade raised her brows at the innocent Lyu.

"It wasn't really a great secret to begin with," Lyu refuted. "I guess you don't really know about the few immortals in existence right now. Immortals are quite a phenomenon really. Anyways, Kal's dad calling to him just means serious business. The first and last time he called..." Lyu's eyes were both casted downwards. "An accident happened. No one really wanted to repeat that thus this inexplicable tension."

"What about you?" Rade suddenly asked.

Lyu only looked at her with his brown eyes, almost golden in a specific light.

"Shall we listen then?" Rade offered to Lyu, changing the topic immediately, who only smiled mischievously and stepped in closer to the shoji that separated the two rooms.

Rade and Lyu curiously waited for Kalleid's father to finish with his pleasantries. He asked how Kalleid was doing, he hoped he was doing well. He also told his son where he went for the past months and a brief explanation of why he cannot go to visit him. While Rade was listening to Kalleid's father's voice, she rather thought it was quite thoughtful of him if not a little too straightforward.

But it wasn't the pleasantries or even just to ask Kalleid how he was doing the purpose of the message that was sent. Aside from those, there was a more vital thing that the video contained that Kalleid's father wanted him to know.

"Do you know of the huhnter called Laurinette Haeven?" Kalleid's father said, his voice went even lower as the topic turned serious.

Rade unconsciously clenched both of her fists at the mention of the name. At that exact time, Kalleid looked behind him only to see both Lyu and Rade looking through the slit of the shoji. He motioned for the both of them to come over. Without hesitation, they both looked at each other and went inside the adjacent room.

Gritting her teeth tight, Rade listened more to what the man on the letter said— her jaw tightening every now and then.

"Laurinette Haeven is the vessel of theh Shadow Fantasm," he finally explained. "The Shadow Fantasm does not have any known corporeal body initially," he added then pursed his lips. "A great demonic manifestation as most hunters call it. It is the first in the list of great demons of humanity."

The room was eerily quiet. Not even how every person breathe could be heard, the tension from the news brought a sudden rigid ambiance.

"Its presence would cover the half of the town. With that, I'm suggesting, like what the HODE would say, that the Fantasm who has gained more power now with its vessel should be avoided when it reaches the town. Kalleid, you might be an immoral, but the Fantasm has great powers."

Rade saw Kalleid's brows furrowing from his father's warning and advice to him while she herself felt her body grew stiff.

"It was already heavily infected with the mortals' desires and lust, no hunter can take it down. I'm sending this to you to warn you, Kalleid, please heed my advice. I'm sure as of today you might have noticed already about the abnormality on the abundance of demons around. The five demons of humanity have the ability to control other and lesser demons nearby, and amongst those five great demons of huhmanity, the Shadow Fantasm is the top. Sooner or later, the demons inside your town would be agitated as it made its way there with its new vessel. Be careful, Kalleid."

And that became the last part of the message. The video of the man disappeared in a flash and only a blank screen of the phone remained.

"Your father's really intense," Rade commented and was the first to take the initiative to close the otherwise very normal piece of paper now.

"Yeah," Kalleid agreed, his heading bobbing up and down. "He has a knack of telling bad news to people. What's up with that Fantasm thing and its new vessel, by the way?"

There was a gentle hum from Megumi, her hanfu sleeves covering her mouth before she spoke in a solemn tone.

"Just as you heard from your father, Kal," she answered and proceeded to stand up, gliding along the tatami mat gracefully. "The Fantasm is a powerful demonic manifestation. Even more powerful that most of the HODE's hunters. It gained new heights of powers when it gained a vessel last year in the name of Laurinette Haeven."

"Nee-san," Lyu tugged at the sleeves of his sister, there was a gentle frown on his face. "What should we do once it got here?"

Megumi smiled at Lyu. Patting his head, she glided towards the shoji that separated the room from the hallway outside.

"We should only avoid it, there shouldn't be any fights between the hunters and the Fantasm, it will only lead to destruction and bloodbath," she only said and went out.

There was a complete silence from every person when Megumi closed the shoji, her silhouette not even staying outside even for just a second.

"I have heard of the Shadow Fantasm," New York, however, said, breaking the silence in doing so, "it took down a section of the Elite Cohort of the Hunter's Organization fifty years ago when it appeared. Quite scary, they say, if provoked. And I say, we don't do anything to it and let it pass through the town."

Rade's brows knitted. The Elite Cohort of the HODE was one of the top elites within the organization though she doubt if it wasn't just a cheap rank that could be bought by filthy money.

"If what Father said is true," Kalleid interrupted New York, "then there might be more manifestations around the town, right? Demons would be affected and become more agitated than usual, he said, that means hunters would have a hard time these coming weeks. New York—"

New York was already nodding along Kalleid. "Yeah, I should probably inform the Aldeia clan. I doubt if they weren't informed yet though. Must be the reason why Geneva is so restless during patrols."

Hidden behind the lazy eyes was a stiff expression.

"It must the reason why demons are so aggresive," Rade thought out loud, "within only a month and a half staying here, I got eight cores easily, the only thing I did was not to have boundaries around my apartment."

Lyu nodded at Rade's statement. "I have noticed the increase of the need for demon core appraisals. Most even have to call for the Watchtower to clean up since the demons were too violent. This must be the reason why."

Rade's eyes shone like diamonds, a determined look within her gaze.

And Kalleid saw that gleam. The gleam of the combination of madness, crazed, and determination.

Rade is prepared for a kill.