A few days passed since their meeting in the bar. Pablo and Tsuyoi spent most of their time inspecting the mansion. It was very large, and it had 2 floors. The Doctor's name was Arzt.
Tsuyoi used his Treasure to peek from the windows in order to get the inner layout of the house. His Treasure allowed him to channel his emotions with his blue flames.
With anxiety, he could turn invisible. To do that he just imagined something bad happening to Haisha.
"Even the thought gives me chills…" Tsuyoi mutters, taking a good look inside the house while fully invisible.
While Tsuyoi was responsible for getting the layout, Pablo was responsible to watch out for any danger.
Using his binoculars, Pablo looked around the mansion multiple times.
"It's weird. I'm not seeing anyone. I thought he was a 'big-shot'?"
That was weird. He grew suspicious and felt uneasy. Why would someone so important not have any guards?
Pablo signalled to Tsuyoi, using the handsigns they arranged from before.
Hearing the voice of Pablo's handsigns, Tsuyoi raises an eyebrow.
"Huh? Isn't that a good thing?"
Tsuyoi sends a sign back, which leaves Pablo confused.
" 'I haven't had breakfast today'? What is that supposed to mean?"
He just sighed and kept scouting. Suddenly, he noticed a cold breeze hit his neck.
He quickly turned around to see where it came from. That was unusual because the weather was quite nice today.
"It's the same shiver from before…"
Pablo started to become suspicious. This wasn't the same time this happened. Everytime he was doing something sketchy, he felt something watching him. That shiver on his neck.
Maybe that was because doing all this shocked Pablo's body. But he still grew anxious.
When he returned to watching dangers around the mansion, he noticed a young girl sneaking around the trees near the mansion.
She had a lean-build, her height around Pablo's. Her hair was white and elegant like snow, reaching her waist in a straight form.
From the distance, he couldn't really see her face. But Pablo was mesmerised.
"Woah…" Distracted by the girl, he didn't notice Tsuyoi sneaking on him. Tsuyoi quickly slapped his head.
"Focus, dumbass." He said, bluntly.
Pablo's heart almost freezed and he turned around to look at Tsuyoi.
"When did you come up here?!"
Tsuyoi waved his hand in dismissal.
"I flew."
"He doesn't intend to explain, does he?" Pablo said to himself, and sighed.
Tsuyoi and Pablo start to look at the girl together, wondering who the hell she is.
Meanwhile, Tsuyoi was awfully close to Pablo. Pablo's nose wrinkled.
"When was the last time you took a bath?" he asked.
Tsuyoi raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
He raised his arm and sniffed his pits, then shrugged.
"Smells fine to me."
"Ugh. We can worry about the girl later. Probably a one-night stand. Do you have the layout?" Pablo grunted and focused on the subject.
"Of course!" Tsuyoi looks smug, he pulls out two papers with the layout drawn on them.
(Note: Maps will be left in the comments of their respective paragraph.)
Floor 1
Floor 2
Pablo takes a good look at the layout, many questions on his mind.
"This is drawn quite well actually."
Tsuyoi grins even more.
"Game recognizes game! Give me a high five!" He raises his hand.
Pablo looks at him, then goes back to looking at the papers.
"No."
Tsuyoi's grin drops and he looks disappointed.
"Oh."
After inspecting the layout more, Pablo grows suspicious.
"This is strange. What kind of a house is this? Why are there so many doors? And also why am I drawn so feminine?" He turns to Tsuyoi.
Tsuyoi shrugs.
"Dunno. I saw doors, I drew them. And also you are feminine."
Pablo rolls his eyes and looks offended.
"My eyes aren't even that color."
He notices the locks he drew on the Doctor's room. After more thinking, he comes up with a plan.
"During my scouting, I noticed that the window on room 15 is always open. We can enter from there, so we don't make any noise. What room is that?"
Tsuyoi tries to remember.
"Bathroom, I think. There are like 3 bathrooms."
Pablo cackles.
"Checks out. One bathroom isn't enough for some reason. Also, if you can, can you explain what each room is?"
Tsuyoi puts two hands in his head and starts thinking very hard.
"I think I can."
He grabs the papers and points out the rooms as he explains them.
"I marked each one with a number. 1 is just the living room. 2 is the library. It also had another room connected to it, but I saw no doors opening up. I marked it XXX because it's unknown, you know?"
Pablo nods.
"Yeah, I guessed that. The layout is very strange."
"3 is the study room. Also filled with lots of boring books. 4 just had a giant ass dinner table. 5 is the kitchen. 6 is also connected to XXX, which seems like a tunnel. 7 is the first bathroom. The toilet was pure gold. 8 really confused me, it's just a room with a boring table and a singular lightbulb. 9 is the cellar."
Tsuyoi flips to the second paper.
"Now on to the second floor. 10 is a corridor that leads downstairs. 11 is his bedroom. 12 is also the bathroom, but it's more modest. 13 is the gym but I doubt he lifts any, all the weights had dust on them. 14 is the guest room and finally 15 is the bathroom as I said before. It's completely identical to Room 12 for some reason."
Pablo is actually quite impressed, he chuckles.
"Thats actually very impressive, Tsuyoi. Nice work."
Pablo made a grave mistake, as Tsuyoi is now on high-horses.
"Who do you think you're talking to? I'm the right hand man of the legendary captain Infamy!" He gets up and shouts with pride. Then his grin drops, and he corrects himself.
"Well, I was." He sits back down.
Pablo is intrigued, but doesn't question it as he notices Tsuyoi's distaste.
"You'll fly us into Room 15, we'll move through 14, then 13, then 10. After that we'll go downstairs. We'll gotta go to Room 5 after we're in Room 1. But one thing still confuses me. Why is there a lock on the entrance of his door, if we can just go through 5?"
Pablo thinks about it, Tsuyoi just dismisses it.
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Let's just go!"
Pablo thinks about it, then declines.
"No. That's fishy. Arzt is a high-ranking government official Doctor. He wouldn't hide all his secrets in a room casually accessible. Even if he did, why would he lock just one entrance?"
Tsuyoi ponders, then nods.
"That's fair. What's your call?"
Pablo pauses, and points at himself.
"My call?"
Tsuyoi doubles down.
"Yeah. Your call. You're the brains, and I'm the cool badass strongest warrior."
Pablo rolls his eyes.
"Also the humble one."
Tsuyoi smiles, he doesn't get the joke.
"Exactly! So what are we doing?"
Pablo puts a hand on his chin.
"Hm. I'll need more time. There are just so many unknowns and weird things before we can do anything."
He notices that the girl is still there. Sneaking around the mansion.
"We should start with the girl." Pablo points at her.
Tsuyoi looks at her and thinks.
"I don't know man. That chick has something about her that I just can't tell."
Pablo realises that this isn't the first time Tsuyoi said something like this.
"You also said that about the lead singer of Rebel-billion. He turned out to be a treasurer."
Tsuyoi's eyes widen.
"Yeah! I did, didn't i? Do you think it's the same thing?"
Pablo gets up, and starts moving.
"Maybe. But I think we shouldn't start before talking with her. I'm not good at talking with women, this one is your call."
Tsuyoi gets up with him.
"Seriously? Alright, we'll intimidate her. Just move with me." He said with a slow, deliberate blink.
Tsuyoi piggybacks Pablo. He is very light due to his malnutrition.
Pablo really doesn't like Tsuyoi's plan. But he didn't come up with a better one, so he wont complain…
…that much.
"That's stupid but, let's do it anyway." Pablo says.
Tsuyoi reacts to this with a smile.
"Hell yeah! That's how we roll!"
Blue flames emerge from Tsuyoi's back. Forming two intimidating but also very pleasing-looking wings. Somehow, this doesn't burn Pablo.
"Oh, so this is how you 'flew'." Pablo realises as Tsuyoi takes flight. Hiding between the trees, the giant wings don't alarm anyone.
They get to the ground and slowly approach the mysterious girl.
"Oi! What the hell are you doing?!" Tsuyoi shouts like a delinquent, even though he already is one.
Pablo doesn't have the energy to act alone.
"Yeah, who are you?"
The girl slowly turns around, she smiles softly.
"Oh mister! Please don't harm me!"
Tsuyoi is confused by the contradiction between her words and tone.
"...Okay? Who the hell are you?"
The girl tilts her head, she acts playful. Her smile, which is supposed to be warm, unsettles them.
"I'm just a helpless girl who needs money to feed her mama and papa."
Tsuyoi smiles too.
"Oh sweet! We are trying to rob this fella, maybe we can give you some of the mon-"
Pablo closes Tsuyoi's mouth as fast as he can. He starts panicking.
"He meant metaphorically! Metaphorically! We are going to rob him with our… overpriced deals! We are here to sell him something." Pablo tries to cover it up.
"Really? That would be so kind of you! What are you selling?" The girl asks, still having the ever-so-warm smile on her face.
"We are…" Tsuyoi looks around, and takes out Pablo's ring. This surprises Pablo but he can't react.
"...Selling this! This ring!" He points at the ring.
Upon seeing this, Pablo's presence changes. His posture turns from submissive, to intimidating
"Give it back." He says, almost growling.
Tsuyoi turns at Pablo, confused.
"Huh? What do you mean-"
When he made eye-contact with Pablo, he noticed fire in his eyes. Tsuyoi took a step back. That was enough to send a shiver down Tsuyoi's throat.
"You got it bro." Tsuyoi gives the ring back. Pablo calms down and puts it on. After that, he grows quiet. Disinterested in the conversation.
After some awkward silence, Tsuyoi is the one to break it.
"You're hiding something, aren't you? Why the hell are you sneaking around?"
She giggled.
"My name is Kori. Nice to meet you!"
She reaches her hand out for a handshake.
"Well Kori, it's nice meeting you too- Wait a minute! Answer the question!" Tsuyoi pulls back his hand, just before shaking it.
"What? I'm just looking at this beautiful mansion. Is that so wrong?" She keeps acting playful. Pablo has had enough of it.
"You're a Treasurer." Pablo points out.
She pauses, then realises her reaction probably gave it.
"And yep, I was right." Pablo points at the window behind her.
"Look at it. The Window has fogged up. The rest of the windows are fine. It's your doing."
She turns around to look, he was telling the truth.
"You're observant." Her act drops, yet the smile remains.
Without changing anything about her looks, her true intention is shown.
"I'm here to rob Doctor Arzt. Just like you." She finally admits.
"And you're a Treasurer! We can team up!" Tsuyoi gets excited.
Pablo waves his hand in dismissal.
"No. Can't trust her. She won't even tell us her treasure, will she?"
Kori giggles.
"Maybe this will change your mind…"
Her hands go to unbutton her shirt, with a seductive grin.
Pablo goes red as a tomato and turns around immediately.
"Not interested." Tsuyoi says bluntly.
Kori's smile drops and she rolls her eyes.
"Can't blame a girl for trying."
"Explain to us your treasure. Or else my friend Pablo here will beat you up." Tsuyoi points the Pablo.
Pablo points to himself and is left dumbfounded.
"Me?"
"Yes, You! I ain't hitting a girl, man. Those who hit women are the lowest of the lowest! Gotta be a good example for my lil bro."
"My my, what a gentleman. If you insist…" She pulls out the glove on her left hand, it looks crystal-like.
"It's a B-Grade Elemental Type, allowing me to control Ice." After showing it, she puts the glove back on.
"Huh?! That's so badass!" Tsuyoi reacts.
"So that's why the windows fogged up. That's a useful treasure." Pablo puts a hand on his chin, then pulls out the layout drawings again.
"You can help us. When we confront Arzt, you can use your Treasure to close off every exit so he doesn't escape." Pablo shows the exits of the house to Kori.
Kori thinks about Pablo's offer, she inspects the layout they drew, then makes her decision.
"Okay. It won't be nice to share the money between us three but, I don't think I can do this without help anyway."
Pablo interrupts.
"Not three. I'm not interested in his money. It's gonna be fifty-fifty between you and Tsuyoi."
Kori gets curious, and forgets that curiosity killed the cat.
"Money is everything, isn't it? What do you mean it doesn't interest you? Why rob then?"
Pablo doesn't answer at first, then calmly turns around and starts walking away.
"I have my reasons."
"Let's meet up here by sunset tomorrow. I'll have my plan then." Pablo pockets the map.
Tsuyoi notices Pablo's behaviour.
"He is more straightforward now. Did he change? Or is he trying to change?" Tsuyoi thinks to himself. He follows Pablo.
"Super!" Tsuyoi says, hands in his pockets.
Kori watches Pablo walk away, her smile returning.
"But I wonder how far you'll go before dropping dead, Pablo Drake."