Bandages and Salt (PJO X BSD AU)

Chapter twenty

Dazai POV

"'Sunrise Auction'?" The ginger haired boy asked from my side while we were walking down the empty street. I couldn't see the expression that Chuuya was making, but I could still imagine the slightly scrunched look of confusion painting the other boy's face. "I thought most illegal auctions were done at night. You know, clandestine meetings and the stereotypical stuff you see in movies."

"Wow Chibi, those are some big words, did you check out a dictionary since our last mission?" I snarkily replied to cover up my own realization. The other boy seemed to be screaming something, but I wasn't really paying attention to the words coming out of the smaller teen's mouth.

I hummed slightly instead. Having only seen the movies that the substitutes would show in class on the days that the teachers were out, I didn't really know all that much about the stereotypes that Chuuya was talking about, though I'd already assumed as much.

I guess they really do make movies about everything these days.

"You would think so," I responded, switching back to the original topic before our newest bout of bickering. I kept my voice as plain as possible so it wouldn't sound like I was looking for more of a fight from the temperamental teen next to me. "But I'm all actuality, no." I waved my hand in a dismissive manner as we walked. "Think about it, where are things when you lose them most of the time?" I asked, giving the smaller teen a moment to think about it. "They're hiding in plain sight. They're right there in all of the places that you would just look over in your search."

I'd been digging into the missing weapons shipments from before since the doctor started grumbling about them during my forced visits to see him and Elise a month ago. After the last time that he constantly complained about groups brought me to those very people, I'd figured that he'd send Chuuya and I after them eventually. With this in mind, I went ahead and got most of the information gathering out of the way ahead of time so Chibi wouldn't have to complain about being bored as much. Last night's wandering was just me listening to the rumors to make sure the location method hadn't changed.

The other boy grunted in subdued agreement. "But wouldn't all of the people they stole the weapons from still be able to figure them out?"

It was a decent question. If an auction was just held for the organizations of the city, instead of doing a direct sale, wouldn't the original possessors of the product figure out who took their supplies and just hit them back before they could sell them?

I hummed slightly, noncommittal. "That would be a problem if it was just a local auction."

The Sunrise Auctions have participants from large mafias and other illegal organizations from all over Japan. All of them flying or driving to Yokohama in the days before the auction and leaving at staggered times during the week following its conclusion.

The auction is held in Yokohama because of its reputation for lawlessness and little government influence or control. It's a city of demons as outsiders like to call it. A city full of ability users and criminals.

Where better to hold such a thing?

We continued down the street, me leading the way since the smaller teen had no idea where we were going.

Chuuya and his... connections will become more useful once we are actually inside the auction house. A fact that I am sure he is well aware of by now.

I pulled a small silver pocket watch from my side pocket as the surroundings around us started to become older and more expensive in nature. The current time was six thirty.

Good, just enough time then.

We have twenty minutes before the auction doors close and a little over an hour before the auction itself begins.