..We started walking toward the vacation house, just a few miles to the South of Costa del Sol. I began explaining the details to Yuffie. I told her about what was going on, and how I figured it out.
.. "See, as it turns out," I told her, "There's actually several famous nutballs who are bent on reviving a dead goddess. Most of whom happen to be fighters in the Dueling League."
.. "Well, it does attract a certain kind of psycho," she said. It should be noted that she herself is a combatant, albeit at a lower division.
.. "Right. Anyhow, a calculating sort of psycho... the really smart, scary kind of psycho... He'd know about other people like him, see? Now, say this psycho gets his hands on a genuine sacrifice instruction manual. Say he starts performing ritual murders at his leisure."
.. "There'd be a big risk of being caught," she reasoned, but we weren't really starting, yet.
.. "Right. People always look into serial murders. It's a hard crime to cover up. You could hide the bodies, but too many go missing. Call it a hate crime, but you better believe that the first person that gets suspected for mass murder is the maniacal super-powered guy with a history of merciless violence. Now, lets say this maniac gets an idea. He's surrounded by a bunch of other people, most of which have that same burning desire to resurrect that special dead divine girl of their dreams. What's the guy do? He finds out where the winners get to take their little vacations, quietly buys a nearby piece of land, and waits. Sure enough, some poor sap who's guilty for everything but sacrificing people to resurrect his fallen Goddess is going to win that title. There's just too many of them with the same motive for it to not happen. When one with the right agenda shows up, he starts the killing. Are the investigators going to look at him? Chances are, they won't even remember he's there. They'll see the new guy that came to town, and blame him."
.. "But Face, I didn't hire you to investigate the sacrifices. I didn't even know about the sacrifices."
.. "That's the beauty of it! This guy really lucked out, when Ghaleon came out on top. He was expecting to just throw someone off the trail of the sacrifices, to buy his time. And he did, for a while." Hell, I thought. He didn't even kill them instantly, like Ghaleon did. He just killed them with black magic that looked the same way. I had him pegged, though. When a legendary heroic figure dies, word gets out about what did her in.
.."Anyone who picked apart his plot, though, he killed, and it still looked like Ghaleon did it. Hell, it looked like Ghaleon did it even more than it originally did. Yuffie, those people that you hired me to investigate the deaths of? It turns out that they did have something in common. They were all private investigators, just like me. Only they were the ones the police hired to look into the sacrifices. And I bet if we waited for a few more days, all the ones you hired to look into those deaths would turn up too. At least their bodies would, anyhow."
..We'd arrived at the beach house, by now. Yuffie gave me a concerned look. "Uh, Face... How exactly are you going to keep him from killing you, though?"
..I flicked up my hat, which was now free of all prior ornamentation, and gave her my best smile, my devilish, toothy, "I win" smile. "Because," I said. "He just won't have enough time."
..I kicked the door down. Sadly, there was nothing on the other side to wait for me. I pretty well ruined my dramatic entrance. Yuffie ran in ahead of me, and made a few cautionary glances around. Eventually, she tilted her head at a door that led into the cellar.
..We descended halfway, and sure enough, anointing the unconscious body of what was going to be his next victim, was my elusive man in black, the very same stranger that had been haunting my step from day one. In his hand was the ceremonial knife that Ghaleon didn't have. He turned around, and when he saw me, there was that iron glare that he'd given me before.
.. "Zio," I snarled. I had him.
..There were no other words. I'd have expected there to be a dialogue. Instead, he let out an enraged yell, and charged at us. I fumbled around for a half a second, and Yuffie pushed me to the side. She'd pulled that huge shuriken out of somewhere, again, and stood in front of Zio.
..He was much quicker than I'd imagined, and with one hand, he grabbed her weapon arm, slamming it into the rail of the stairs. He backhanded her across the face with his other hand, drawing a few drops of blood from her mouth. He raised his hand, and energy, darker than anything I'd seen before, began to well up in his fist.
.. "You know," I said. "It's Eleven Forty Five."
..He let out another annoyed snarl, dropped Yuffie, and threw a punch at my face. Now, I'm not much of a fighter, so I'm not too ashamed to say that he laid me out, and sent me tumbling down the stairs. He dragged us both to the corner where he had the body. He pulled out a rope, which must have been successful at holding people still, as it was stained red, and began tying us to a post.
.. "I'd kill you," he growled. "But I need to conserve my magics for the ritual. I'd stab you, but too much of your blood could interfere with the spell. I'd simply garrote you," he went on, giving an extra pull to the rope, which burned my skin. "But that might take too much time. Congratulations, detective. You've bought yourself twenty minutes to live. Use them to think about how stupid you were for coming here."
..He turned back to his would-be victim, but as an afterthought, spun himself all the way back around to us. "I should, however, check you for weapons."
..He walked around the post to Yuffie, and cut open her sweater and shorts. As crazy as it may be, I was angrier with her for still wearing my boxers, than I was scared. Finding nothing, he made his way to me. After his knife had found nothing in my shirt or jacket, he shrugged with his head, got down a little, and shanked me.
.. "Uggh." In that moment, I forgave Yuffie for her earlier heist. Every second of torture I endured was worth that one shining instant where I flopped out in Zio's face. Yuffie snickered. I hoped that this was directed more at Zio than it was at me.
..He quickly reversed his last action, and regained his composure admirably fast. There were no threats, after this; his eyes told me well enough that he'd kill me slowly, for that.
..With myself and Yuffie tied up, her weapon desperately out of reach, and no more tricks at my disposal, save for the ones I'd already played out, Zio strode over to the bound victim, right on time to begin his ceremony.
..He raised his knife. "Here me, oh forces of magic," he began, in what I hoped wouldn't be a long intonation. "Answer my call and my sacrifice. I ask of you to accept this mortal blood, and gift this earth with the presence of something far greater. As is your wish, I return you several mortals, in exchange for the revival of my fallen goddess, The Profound Darkness..."
.. "Oh, hell no!"
..I cheered to myself. Down the steps came my cavalry, distracting Zio in a way so profound, I could feel his spell fizzling, much like I felt his hopes washing out of him. Royce and Xenobia, I forget which one had yelled, were there in all their beauty, staring daggers at Zio. With the heavy echoing of his boots, Ghaleon descended also. They must have found me the moment I pulled off my charm bangle from my hat, (for the record, I don't wear it on my wrist because it's too damn small) and rushed over to my location after I explained what happened to Yuffie \x{2013} and them. I had bet my life that they would.
..He cast a glance over at where Yuffie and I were tied up, her in tattered clothing and visible undergarments, only some of which were mine. "Really, now, Zio. Don't you think she's a bit young for you?"
..Phacia was there too, but I didn't see her come in. She was busy cutting the ropes that bound Yuffie and I with Yuffie's shuriken.
.. "Framing me for murder," Ghaleon continued. "That's something I simply cannot abide. Shall we settle this, Zio?"
..Zio was beyond reason. He was angrier than I've ever seen someone get. I'd just stumbled out of my newly cut ropes, when Zio fired his first blast of dark energy, not at Ghaleon, but at me. It sizzled into my chest in a way that I can only describe as unpleasant, and I felt myself collapse to the floor, and then nothing at all.
..I'll spare you the drama and say that we won; I just wasn't conscious to see it.



~VSM