Hongjoong went straight to the hotel, waiting for the members in his room, and after an hour, he heard three knocks on the door, he opened it "hi" Valerie greeted him with a smile "can I come in?" She asked him "sure" he said letting her in, she went to Yunho's bed and lied on it with Byul next to her "why didn't you go with Seonghwa today?" He asked her closing the door and heading to his bed "I wasn't feeling well" She told him patting Byul's head "but I went for a small walk, hoping it would make me feel better" she said "and how are you now?" He asked "worse" she said smiling, sitting on the bed and putting Byul in her lap "you can tell me what's bothering you, I'm a great secret keeper" he told her, sitting on the edge of the bed, facing her.
She looked at him, he was smiling warmly at her "I'm just overwhelmed with everything" she said confusing him "a few months ago, I was living in an isolated place with one person, and suddenly, he dies, I go into the sea, survived the Erebus ocean, joined you and now" she stopped for moment "we are stealing a magical gem from a magical creature, a lot of things happened" she told him.
Hongjoong looked at her "maybe it's a good thing to have some changes in your life" he told her "and you'll get used to it by time" he said assuring her "and I will not be as harsh on you as I used to when you first got on the ship" he said grinning widely.
Valerie looked at him relieved "thank you, captain" she said "I needed this" she told him and he stood up "no problem, it's what captain does" he said heading to the window and looking through it, it was noon and the sky was full of clouds, and when they moved, he saw a red circle in the sky.
Hongjoong got shivers in his back, he went to his bag as quickly as possible surprising Valerie, he started searching it, throwing everything on the ground "what's wrong?" She asked reaching and leaning close to him, he ignored her until he found what he was looking for, it was a small notebook, he opened it, flipping through its pages, he stopped at the middle of it "what is today?" He asked Valerie looking at his book "Sunday, why?" She answered him, he looked nervous "it's tonight".
What Hongjoong said confused Valerie "what is tonight?" She asked him "the Kitsune will appear tonight" he told her standing up on his feet, grabbing his sword and gun "tonight, isn't it early for him to appear?" She asked nervously "no, it's not, we were just late in our arrival at the island" he said putting his hat and coat on "go look for the guys and inform them to meet on the ship at 6" He ordered "what about you? Where are you going?" She asked him "I need to check on something first, now go" he said "Aye captain" she saluted him and went to her room.
Valerie changed her clothes to white shirt and black vest, black pants and boots, put her sword on her waist on the left side and the gun on the other one, and hid her dagger in her boot, she made a quick braid with her hair and ran to the city with Byul on her shoulder.
Valerie went to the west side of the city first where San and Mingi had their patrol, she found them sneaking from a nearby alley and went to them "guys!!" She shouted getting their attention "Valerie?" The both said surprised "what are you doing here? And with Byul?" San asked getting Byul off her shoulder "Hongjoong says to meet up on the ship at 6, the Kitsune will appear tonight, see ya" she told them and ran in the opposite direction leaving them stunned in their places "what is today?" Mingi asked 'Sunday' Byul answered him "Sunday?!!" Both of them shouted and ran to the hotel.
Valerie told Seonghwa and Jongho in the north side of the city, and the only ones left were Yunho's team, they were at the south side where gangs gathered up.
When she entered the south side, it was worse from where the fortune teller lived, there were dead bodies on the ground and people covered with blood, she was stopped by a group of ten surrounding her "give us all you have, and we'll think about letting you go, alive" the leader of the group told her, he was wearing all black and covering his face, so did the rest of the group, Valerie ignored him and tried to get passed him but a hand on her shoulder stopped her "what are you doing by ignoring the boss?" One of the men said pulling a dagger out "don't you know who he is?" He said playing with the dagger in his hand "I don't and not interested, so pull your hand off of me if you don't want to face the consequences" she warned him " huh, didn't you hear him?" He shouted "I could literally wrench this face of you, right guys?" He said looking at his mates who are stunned in their places "what's wrong?" He asked "yo-your hand" one of them said shivering pointing at the ground "what's wrong with my hand?" He said looking at where the man was pointing, his hand was on the ground, he looked back at his arm and blood was coming out from where his hand was.
The man screamed from pain, falling into the ground, crying and holding his arm with his other hand, Valerie was looking at him with sword in her hand and blood covering her face and shirt "you made me dirty and I just showered this morning" she said looking at her clothes annoyed "how dare you do this to one of my men" the leader said trying to attack her face with his sword, but she dodged him, kicking his stomach with her knees making him out of breath, he fell on the ground and she pointed her sword at him "if you want to save him and not kill anyone, leave" she threatened him looking deadly in his eyes making him shiver, he gulped "okay, we'll leave" he said ordering his men to retreat and holding the man from the ground, grabbing his hand and getting out of her sight, Valerie sighed and put her sword back and continued walking looking for Yunho and the others.
She found Yeosang after another turn, he was wandering alone, she reached out to him by touching his shoulder and as a reflex he held his sword touching her neck with its point making her put her hands up her head "it's me, relax" she said and he sighed in relief sheathing his sword "you startled me" he told her "sorry about that" she apologized putting her hands down "why are you covered with blood?" He asked "I went through trouble on my way here, but handled it" she said and he nodded in understanding "anyways, Hongjoong told me to find you guys and tell you to gather on the ship at 6, since the Kitsune is going to appear tonight" she told him "I see" he said seriously "let's go find the others" he told her and they started searching for the other two.
"Why did you separate?" Valerie asked walking next to him "to find more about the Kitsune, we expanded our search" he told her shrugging "what did you find?" She asked "apparently, the festival is actually an anniversary for the time the Kitsune saved the island from its previous king" he said "and this city name is Aka, it means red in japanese, and it's called based on the massacre its king committed, and as a result, the buildings and routes turned red from the amount of blood that was shredded" what he said gave shivers to Valerie and disgusted her "why did he do that?" She asked while entering another alley "nobody knows" he said "some say he went berserk and became a maniac, some others believe that he was under some kind of curse, but it's not important now" he said "what important is to steal the gem" he told her and she nodded.
They found Yunho and Wooyoung after an hour of searching and they went to the hotel to pack their things, each one went to his room and Valerie to hers.
Yeosang found Seonghwa in their room "hi, have you finished yet?" Yeosang asked him "not yet, we still need to take the soap, the shampoo bottles and the tissue boxes from the room" he told him putting his last shirt in the bag, Yeosang looked at him not surprised then went to his bed and took his suitcase from under it, he opened it and started putting his stuff in it while Seonghwa went to the bathroom packing it's supplies "if only the towels were free!" He shouted from the bathroom "then just steal them!" Yeosang shouted back "I'm not San to steal them" he said getting back "but you are a pirate, so what's the problem with stealing?" Yeosang told him shrugging his shoulders and putting his last book in the case and closing it "all finished" he said patting the case "I'll go check on Mingi and San until you finish" he said heading out of the room "yeah go" Seonghwa replied not paying much attention to him.
"Come in" San told Yeosang, and when he got in, he found Valerie lying on San's bed with Byul on her tummy, she had changed her shirt into a clean one and Jongho helping Mingi with packing "did you guys finish yet?" He asked sitting on the chair "I checked out with Jongho and came to help those two with their 'packing' so we can finish and go back as quickly as possible, but" she stopped and glared at San "he won't check out until 5:55 and taking all the stuff in the room" she told Yeosang and he looked at San not surprised "are you taking the towels too?" He asked "of course" San answered proudly making him sigh "then go take the ones in our room too, since Seonghwa won't take them" he told him and San flew out of the door heading towards their room.
After dragging San with them out of the hotel before 5:55, the crew headed towards the ship "why are there a very few people?" Valerie asked Yeosang next to her "since it's the last day of the festival, people stay in their houses to let the Kitsune wander around freely" he told her, she hummed in understanding when she noticed San talking to Byul "why didn't you tell us sooner that today is Sunday?" San asked Byul 'because, you didn't ask' she replied which surprised Valerie "you knew" she asked San from behind "of course I knew and so does everyone" he told her looking behind him and everyone nodded "but how?" She asked "I eavesdrop on Yeosang and Hongjoong's conversation at Bluebird and when I came back, I confronted her and she told me everything" he said hugging Byul "everything?" She asked suspiciously "yeah" Seonghwa answered her "surprisingly, she told us about the night she talked with you and how she threatened you" he told her "but, how did you convince her to speak?" She asked them "I gave her fish" Wooyoung told her which she sighed to "so it was food" she said "yup" Mingi said smiling "but don't worry, she is actually harmless and won't do anything to hurt us" San said "right Byuly?" He said hugging the cat tightly.
When they arrived at the ship, it was 5:30, they placed their bags in the cabins and headed towards the main deck waiting for Hongjoong.
After half an hour, they heard someone climbing the ship. They all got ready for a fight and when they saw Hongjoong, they lowered their weapons "it seems like everybody is present" he said making his way towards his crew "aye captain" Mingi said "here" he said throwing a bag in front of them "wear this and follow me" he said heading to his cabin.
Jongho opened the bag to reveal a bunch of black clothes and masks "each one grab a shirt, pants, a cloak and a mask" he said taking some clothes and heading to his cabin and so did the others.
When they finished dressing and went to the main deck, they found Hongjoong wearing the same as them with his black hat on and a coat instead of a cloak, covering his face with a white fox mask "let's go" he told them and they left the ship.
He took them to where Valerie found the fortune teller, they went into an empty, old and rotten building, it was covered in red painting and black japanese words, they looked at it surprised "this building is forbidden to get close to it, no one goes near it" Hongjoong told them "and why is that?" Seonghwa asked "because, it's previous owner was the king whom the Kitsune killed" he told them getting into the building, most of them gulped nervously, Jongho was the first to enter after Hongjoong followed by the rest.
The building was so old, ivy were growing everywhere on the walls, water on the ground and skeletons in every corner "why is there skeletons here?" Yunho asked examining the bones of one body "it was the king's hobby to kill someone and put them in the corner to rotten" Yeosang told him and he left following the rest "did you find something on them?" Valerie asked next to him "the bones seems to be fine, but I can't know what happened exactly since they are decomposed" he told her disappointed.
Hongjoong stopped at the centre of the building, it was vast with an open roof, making the three floors visible and somehow cleaner than the rest of the building. Hongjoong turned to look at his crew "in here" he said "we'll drag the Kitsune towards this spot and steal its gem".