Aiko was stressed beyond what she thought was possible. How had something of this caliber happened within the walls? The walls were built around the village to keep the dangers out, but now, the biggest threat she had faced in a long time was inside the village. And it had been for the past year without her even noticing. Even if this person wasn't powerful, they must be smarter than anyone who had posed a threat to them in the past. And of course, the people she viewed as her niece and nephew were the ones that got caught in it. She would have to have somebody watching them to make sure they remained safe.
About a month ago, Shu and Yuki took on a mission. It had been classified as a class C mission, but when Aiko and Ryu were brought into it, its class seemed to be a medium class A. And after looking into it a bit more, it turned out to be a high-class S mission. Whoever was behind whatever was going on in that abandoned hallway had managed to hide it for a long time. The oldest sample of the blood was just over a year old. The person had targeted those who nobody would notice, or at least wouldn't care if they disappeared, such as petty thieves without families, or people with no significance. But the one behind all this had gotten sloppy and took someone who was cared about and didn't clean the trail. Or maybe it had been on purpose. Aiko wasn't sure. Someone who had hidden that long in plain sight couldn't have made such a big mistake, surely.
"Thank you for meeting me here, Ryu. Shall we?" Aiko gestured to the door that led to the dark and bloody hallway.
"We shall." Ryu bowed. "Ladies first."
"Thank you." She created a ball of light in her left hand once again, stepping into the hallway. In her right hand, she created a tanto out of light in case she needed to defend herself.
Ryu was on high alert with fire in his right hand, ready to set fire to anything that so much as threatened to hurt his wife. Electricity crackled along his left. As they came across the first door, Ryu opened it slowly, checking to make sure there were no immediate dangers. When the door was fully open, they walked in. This room was almost identical to the one they had gone in a while ago. The cupboards lining one wall with some work space at about stomach height. The island in the middle room. It looked as if this hallway was an abandoned lab. The only thing different was that there was no blood or body parts strewn about. Ryu checked everywhere, but the room was clean.
They went to the next room, and saw that it was messier than the room from a month ago. More various chunks of former people were strewn about, blood on the floor. They checked more of the rooms and they got messier and messier as they went on, until finally, they made it to the end of the hallway. At this point, Aiko was feeling sick. How had she let this go on for a whole year?
There was one final door at the very end, facing the entrance door that was far behind them. Ryu opened the door, his guard down because they had gone through so many rooms without encountering any dangers.
In the center of the room, there was a cloaked person. Just sitting there. Facing toward the back wall. It didn't surprise them at first, but then Ryu came to the realization that this person was alive. His mana matched the mana that riddled the rest of the rooms.
The person's head snapped toward them. He was a man that looked at them with pure hatred in his eyes. The next thing they knew, the man was standing and facing toward them. He made weird movements with his hands. Almost as if he was trying to puppeteer Aiko and Ryu. No. It was more like he was trying to puppeteer someone behind them. Ryu turned around and put his back up against Aiko's. He saw two fleshy and bloody masses moving toward them fast. A mix of the remains of several humans. Their movements were rigid, confirming that they were being puppeted. Ryu slashed out with a blade of wind that sheared the lower half off of both of the puppets as Aiko ran to strike the puppeteer down with a blade of light. At first, Ryu thought maybe that had done the trick, but they just got put right back together and continued their advance. The puppeteer moved out of the way at the final second, and dashed away to somewhere Aiko didn't see. She turned around quickly to assist Ryu only to see that both of the masses were just piles of flesh, bone, and blood on the ground now, indicating that they were no longer being controlled.
"We need to get out of here. Now," Aiko said with the most urgency she could muster.
"Agreed. Let's go," Ryu nodded.
They carefully went back toward the entrance, making sure to stay alert so as not to be ambushed by the strange cloaked man. They didn't end up encountering any problems, but they knew this wouldn't be the last time they saw the man.
Once they exited the building, Ryu shut the door behind him and melted it shut with his fire.
"I will put together a team of S rank corps members to investigate this further. We will find where the man went, and find out who he is. The Puppet Master is a threat to everyone in the village, and he must be neutralized," Ryu said gravely.
"Thank you. I'm glad to have you as my right hand," Aiko replied gently.
Aiko walked back to her office alone, carefully analyzing every shadow that moved.