That night, Kiara found herself mindlessly walking around. She hadn't been able to fall asleep so she thought that a short walk around the inn would get rid of the excess energy she had, that and since most of the others were asleep, the fear that had hung around her most of the day had finally come to a halt, leaving her in a peaceful silence. Though, just like most times, the peace was short-lived.
She had turned to walk up a stairwell, seeing that Bon was crouching by the top of the steps, looking to be listening in on a conversation. She slowly crept up the stairs, crouching a few steps behind Bon and listening to hear any voices.
"Excuse me, sir?" Someone asked.
"Yes?" Kiara recognized Juzo's voice.
"We heard about the meeting earlier this afternoon with the elders. Is something going on we should know about?"
"No, why? Did someone tell you there was?"
"The thing is... we thought something came up in the meeting you were at because all the senior exorcists in charge of the keep security were told the director wanted to see them asap."
"And this is happening now?"
"Yes sir."
"Where?"
"I don't know. But after what happened the other day down there, it's kinda odd to leave the keep's defenses so thin. Don't you think?"
"Yeah. I'll go find the director and talk to him."
From where Kiara was, she spotted Juzo walking to a nearby door and— after looking to see that nobody was around— pleaded a key in the handle and opened the door, quickly walking inside and shutting it behind him. Just as the door shut, Kiara watched as Bon got out from his spot and started heading down the hall. Kiara got up from where she was and followed him, slightly surprised that Bon hadn't noticed her presence yet.
"So, what do you think is happening?" She asked, watching as Bon jumped and turned to look at Kiara.
"W-what the hell! When did you get here?" He asked in a panic.
"Mmm, about... five minutes ago? Now, I think we'd better go after Juzo to make sure everything is alright wherever he went," she narrowed her eyes, staring at the door, "because the moment he opened that door I could sense large amounts of fear coming from wherever it lead to."
Bon recovered from the shock of seeing Kiara, and just nodded, grabbing a key from a key ring and placing it in the handle. He opened the door and the both of them stepped through, letting it shut behind them. They had walked into an elevator, and Kiara watched as Bon pressed one of the buttons and stepped back as the elevator slowly went down. To say the ride down was a little awkward was an understatement. There was a small ding and the doors opened, revealing what looked to be either a group slumber party or a surprise ambush.
Kiara stepped off the elevator and watched as Bon rushed forwards towards one of the men on the ground. He placed a hand on the man's back and tried to shake him awake.
"Hey, what happened here?"
The only response he got was a groan.
Ahead of the two, Kiara noticed a door was slowly swinging back and forth. She glanced at Bon, their eyes meeting before they gave each other a small nod and walked through the door. Their footsteps echoing as they walked through the dark hallway. Kiara followed Bon into a large room, that seemed to be lit up by multiple flames. In the middle of the room there was a tall pedestal with a jar on top. A jar that contained the other eye of the Imperial King. The two of them crouched down next to each other peeking into the room through the railings. Kiara saw two people standing near the middle— Mamushi and Juzo. Mamushi was closer to the pedestal, with her back towards Juzo who wasn't too far behind her.
"What do you think you're doing over there, Mamsuhi?" Juzo called out. "I knew it, you're the one who betrayed us. The trick with the Sacred Flame was a nice touch. I didn't suspect you unti you started pointing fingers at me in the meeting. I'll be honest, maybe we never clicked, but I did admire you. No one else was as dedicated to Miyota as you were. So why did you do it? Say something!"
"I did it to open Miyota's eyes. There are two traitors. One is Suguro Tatsuma, the other is the Order's Presect, Pheles Mephisto!"
Kiara quietly chuckled. "That clown wouldn't do something like this."
Bon glanced at her. "How do you know?" He challenged.
her eyes glinted in the dim room ever so slightly, "Trust me. I know that guy better than most. If he were to do something as to steal the eyes nobody would of noticed until it was too late."
"Mephisto? Why do you think that?" Juzo asked.
"Eight years ago, when we began our studies at the cram school for exorcists, Mr. Todo asked me to his office one day. He told me about Impure King, and that Pheles was the one storing it and that it was his 'personal property'. He told me he'd been suspicious of Mephisto for a long time. He wanted to expose the Presects corruption. Something else mr. Todo found out was that Suguro Tatsuma was also involved in the treachery. For the past few years, I've been cooperating with Mr. Todo, and I've been doing my own investigating. I dug and dug and dug, but i couldn't find anything really. Till a week ago. I found out a disciplinary hearing had been held at the Vatican. Mephisto was the one being questioned. It turns out, Mephisto had spared the son of Satan's life and was raising him in secret."
Damn. She would freak if she knew about who I really was. Kiara said, the tip of her tail flicking side to side.
"He did what!?"
"It's true. And what's worse is he used the most sacred relic of Miyota to seal his powers. You understand what that means, don't you? It means Mephisto was involved in a conspiracy, just as Mr. Todo suspected. And Suguro Tatsuma helped him."
By now, Kiara could feel the fear radiating off of both Juzo and Bon. The news about Rin was new to Juzo— but Kiara suspected that hearing that his dad could be involved in betraying the order made Bon slightly scared and confused. Nobody wanted to hear that their parents were involved in a conspiracy like that. Before she could think she reached towards him and placed her hand on his balled fist, feeling him jump at the sudden touch before glancing at Kiara, and she felt the fear that was coming off of him lessen a bit.
"Can you prove it?" Juzo asked, brining the two of them back to what was happening.
"What, you think I have the evidence with me?" She crossed her arms in front of her "No matter. It will all be clear soon." She said a short chant as her arms started glowing. "We can't trust our superiors anymore!" Her arms started to turn into snakes, one slowly crawling up to where the eye was being held and the other acting as a barrier between her and Juzo. "Mr. Todo will help us. He'll take the right and left eyes and seal them away somewhere safe."
"Stop it Mamushi! Think about what you're doing! If what you say is true you should tell the elders!"
Mamushi let out a short laugh. "The elders. Even though Tatsuma sold Miyota out the the Knights of the True Cross our elders would never accuse him of anything. Even my own father wouldn't!"
Oh, looks like someone has some daddy issues— though I can't say much. Kiara thought.
"Do you think they would believe what I just told you? And your father? Hah! He's even worse! I could hand him the evidence on a platter and he'd just laugh and say I was imagining things!" Mamushi said, staring to sound a little manic. "There's no time for playing those games!"
"This is wrong, Mamushi." Juzo said.
"I don't need your approval. I'm doing this," The snake that was between her and Juzo suddenly rose up into the air lunged towards Juzo, who jumped in the air to avoid the attack.
"Fine then! We were friends once, but now it's up to me to stop you!"
Next to her, Bon moved out from his spot, and taking that as a cue to get prepared to fight, Kiara summoned her sword and followed after him.
"Juzo! Mamushi! Stop it, let's calm down and we can talk this over together!" Bon shouted.
"Yeah, while that effort was something I don't think they're going to stop to just talk it out." Kiara shouted, just as the room started to shake, making Bon loose his footing. She widened her stance and managed to stay on her feet. Above them, the ceiling started to crumble, though that didn't stop Bon from running towards the two of them after regaining his footing. Though in chaos, Kiara noticed that Mamushi had gotten her hands on the jar containing the eye.
As Kiara and Bon ran towards the two of them, some more exorcists had run into the room, all of them prepared to fight.
This wasn't going to end well.