Blue Prints

Ch 3: Manhunt

The roads of Kolor were relatively empty for a place like downtown. Usually it would be flourishing with people talking about work or their after-work plans , however, only the slight tattering of two pairs of feet gently hit the pavement this evening. Arial looked ahead of her, and then to her left, and then finally to her right.

Absolutely nothing, she thought, I have never seen the streets so empty before. Maybe it's because there was a superior nearby? People probably wanted a share of the reward so they crowded the area... Or maybe the sound of gunfire scared people back indoors. If we knew downtown would be this empty, we would have taken our car further...

She then glanced towards her left side towards a slim and tall figure, his right hand resting on the scabbard and guard of his jian. Namo takes notice of this.

"Yínzi," Namo parted his lips and said.

Arial kept quiet, confused about the foreign word that just escaped her partner's mouth.

"It's a steel jian and its name is Yínzi."

"Oh, its name." Arial's eyes then fixated ahead of her as they both conversed to the rhythm of their steps out of sync. "Why did you name it that?"

After this, complete silence.

The young girl suddenly remembered that Namo had told her his jian's name multiple times before, but never why its name was that. She never took the time to memorize it because it did not seem necessary, but maybe if she recalled its name, Namo would stop rubbing the fact that she didn't have a weapon in her face.

"Say... Isn't it weird that Ilhan still hasn't given me a gun yet? I mean- I hold almost half of all the highest scores in the shooting range so I clearly know how to use it. Plus I'm an agent now and the legal age to carry one. Not to mention I'm on my first job..!"

Upon hearing this, Namo slowed his pace to match Arial's.

She really did like to confide in him when it came to professional things. He would not consider her a friend since Arial seemed to have no interest in her social life. Despite her young age, she had no one she could call her friend so Namo made it a responsibility of his and took on that title for her.

Even so, he still gave a professional response to her question.

"If I were Ilhan, I would wait until I have seen how you are on the field before trusting you with something as dangerous as a gun. In the meantime, I have Yínzi and we're always together so I don't see what the problem is." Namo continued after sighing, "being armed constantly is not a good thing."

Yeah, right. He thought, averting his gaze back in front of him.

The SSSA were not the cops. They would often work with the cops and other detectives, but they specialized only in cases relating to superiors. There really was no rush to arm every person in the association, and not everything he said was sugar coated. In fact, most of it would be true for someone other than Arial.

She was known to be determined for all the wrong reasons and loathed superiors. But was she really any different from anyone else? Arial's silence pursued until she recognized the area they were in to be close to their destination.

"I promise I'll work harder!"

Caught off guard, all Namo could see was a smile beam brightly beside him. He sort of felt bad, but he could not tell Arial Ilhan's true intentions behind not giving her a gun. The rest of their short trip was quiet.

Quietly anticipating their arrival soon came to an end as they reached 9th and Yozhik street. Like they thought The area was packed with people doing investigations of their own. The sidewalk was flooding into the streets so passing cars had to share one lane. Off in the distance was a middle aged man being bombarded with questions from people Arial assumed to be just strangers. He stayed quiet, like he felt frightened.