THEN
"Seriously, what are you doing?"
Barrett ignored Raya, moving to a different spot on the cliff face and pushing his ear to it, listening intently.
Raya sighed, and walked off into the nearby brushes, tapping the call function on Lucas' number again. Like the dozen or so times she'd tried it on the way down from the yokai realm, it attempted to connect with a single bar of service she had out here and then just failed, directing her to a voicemail service that likely wasn't going anywhere. Either they needed to have a chat with their Etcetera Electric rep, or it had something to do with interference, which according to Barrett's annoyed offhand remarks at her questions, was probably more likely. She stared up into the grey stormclouds that now blanked the sky above them, and crept towards the direction of the Foxhole as it spread out from the mountain directly next to them. There was something in the wind: some static building as the pressure dropped, some crystalline precursor to what was likely going to evolve into a hailstorm, and-
She whipped her head around to Barrett still listening to the wall. "What did you say?"
"Didn't say anything," he grumbled. "Be quiet. I need to find it again."
"How is listening going to help you find a cave? It's solid rock."
"Not when I saw it from all the way up where we were."
Raya put her hands on her hips. "Caves don't move."
"No," Barrett said. "They don't."
She threw up her hands. "Look, we need to head back and regroup. If you're right about this being a yuki-onna we're never going to find her in the middle of a storm. Big one's coming, I can feel it."
"It was a very clear day earlier."
"The elder…thing said she could locally affect the weather. Lucas said Wyland actually ran into something near the lake so she probably knows we're onto her. We need a strategy."
"You can head back if you like. I'll be in before the storm hits."
"Kofuku really undersold how stubborn you are. If I hadn't agreed to take you to the village would you have just marched up there anyway and gotten killed?"
"I would have found a way."
"Yeah, sure."
"The others should be here by now." He quickly changed the subject. "Are you sure your flare was visible?"
"Of course it was. Damn thing was military-grade. Maybe they're injured or something. More reason to start heading back - maybe they'll be on the way."
Barrett suddenly peeled himself from the rock wall and held up a hand, pointing through the trees.
Raya's fluffy ears twitched, but didn't hear anything. "Is something-"
Barrett held out his hand to silence her and drew his sawn off pistol, creeping towards a tree to get a better look…only to visibly relax when both he and Raya saw it was Alleane helping Hicks through the brush with the latter visibly struggling to stand on his own.
Raya rushed over to take some weight upon herself. "What's wrong with him?"
"I don't know," Alleane said, leaning against a tree and panting. "We were chasing this woman and he just collapsed."
"Woman in a kimono?" Barrett asked, motioning for Raya to set the mumbling Hicks down. "All pale and the like?"
Alleane frowned. "How did you…?"
Barrett ignored her, kneeling down in front of Hicks and holding up his face. He even slapped the blonde man a few times, only for him to continue muttering under his breath. "This is bad."
"He's been saying he kept hearing his name or something. Is this like a psychic attack or something. Was that woman an esper, is that what this is?"
Raya crossed her arms. "Did you both shoot at her?"
"Only warning shots."
"If it was an esper you would have both been affected." Barrett stood up to look at the shaken Alleane. "Have you been hearing your name?"
The officer shook her head.
"There is a good chance that what happened to him has nothing to do with that woman. She is a yuki-onna, and she's almost certainly responsible for the freezing deaths, but there's more than that going on here."
"Like that, for instance?" Rata pointed at Hicks, who was now sat up straight, staring past all of them.
In unison, the three of them followed his gaze towards the rock wall where Barrett had been examining, where there was now a large cave opening flanked with stark white symbols carved into the rock around it, each glyph jagged and weathered like it had been worn into the stone long, long ago.
"I…did not sign up for this." Alleane took a step back. "This was supposed to be a murder case, not some…perception magic bullshit!"
"Take them back to the pub," Barrett said, stepping in between the group and the newly manifested cave mouth. "I won't be long."
"You're mad!" Raya protested. She grabbed at his arm. "You don't know what's in there! We need a plan first. You know better than me that magic that can hide something like that is seriously fucked up."
"Yes, I do, and that's why it has to be me." He shrugged her off.
An icy wind blew past their little group from behind, clearly intentional and seething with purpose. It made everyone look the other way, at the pale woman in the dark red flower-pattern robe not unlike Kanako's, her skin the same palour as the snow in the forest and a pair of dark eyes looking right at them.
"Took you long enough," Barrett said.
"One more step towards that thing and I will kill you, human." The pale woman's words were ungainly, coming out of a mouth that clearly wasn't used to speaking Angloc.
Alleane drew her pistol, only for Barrett to force her aim down. "Why?"
The yuki-onna looked at him strangely, as if not expecting that answer. "Are you not…?" Her gaze fell to Hicks.
Raya cleared her throat. "Uh…hi. You clearly seem to understand so…why don't you tell us what the hell is going on here?"
Lucas tapped a little bit at the microphone to get everyone’s attention. “For the next couple hours or so, I’m putting the Happy Hour policy into effect. All main menu drinks are half off, and all the special drinks are 20% off. Repeat drinks also gets you points on your card every two orders!”
He stepped away, grinning at Wyland in the doorway.
“This is a bad idea,” the ranger said. “Wouldn’t that just make them all very rowdy and drunk?”
“Just watch.” He gave Butler a pat on the head, something he had to get on his tiptoes to reach, and stood by the counter to wait for the inevitable.
The same biker came up to him. "Is there a storm on the way?"
"It's coming in fast," Lucas said. "If you want to make it to the train station you should leave now."
The biker quickly scooped out cash to pay for his tab, and then piled out with his friends. It wasn't long before they heard the engines of the bikes sputter to life outside, speeding off away from the pub.
The same thing happened with three other tables, and with each one a different yokat hopped back across the counter, only to be told by Butler to head upstairs instead of into their usual room. In the end, two small tables remained - one with an older man who kept sketching the cat in the shark onesie that was lying on his table, and the other was a woman who was so black out drunk at her table it was probably safer for her not to leave.
"...shit, what?" Wyland said, bewildered at how quickly everyone had cleared out. "Is Happy Hour a codeword for drugging them or something?"
"What do you think I am? No, I just never declare Happy Hour unless it's gonna be an incentive to keep people inside. And my customers don't like staying in the same place for extended periods of time."
"Because they're criminals."
"Under UHE law maybe. Not like I check. We're too good at sorting out the troublemakers anyway before anything happens. You mind going into the kitchen and giving Marcello this?" He handed Wyland a small plastic card with small writing on it.
"Which one's Marcello?"
"Bald, heavily tattooed, runs the slow cookers. A few years ago he was in prison down south for making meth in his house, so this should be right up his alley."
"Is this…meth?"
"What the fuck the are you talking about Danny? No it's an antifreeze I'm going to need for the damn storm. Tell him the chemicals are in the cupboard under the stairs as well." He turned to the front of the pub as the bell attached to the door let out a jingle, indicating a new arrival. That was expected - sometimes people just arrived in this region and the bright glowing fox tail outside was meant specifically to attract them. But as he stared, he found himself smiling as the person who was entering was a tall lady in a long coat and a sack of machinery slung over one shoulder, while a purple witch's hat that bent halfway up sat on top of her head, concealing the curly brown hair which fell to her shoulders.
She sauntered over to the bar and leaned over the counter, and Butler automatically went to nestle against her. "So drinks are half off?"
"This isn't a good time, Professor. Didn't know you were on this mountain."
"I thought I'd run another survey with some new calculations. Phones are dead?"
"Never seen interference like this before. It's like-"
"Magical fallout," Professor Lovelace said. "Nasty stuff. Are you regretting not taking my light and lasers course now?" She smirked.
"Wasn't for me."
"Well, let's start off simple. Scotch on the rocks. Your best one too. Then we'll see if I can get a message out in this blizzard."
“Fair enough.” Lucas ducked under the counter to get a clean glass. “You know you’re the only one that intentionally stays inside when it’s Happy Hour.”
“What can I say? I like the company.” She took the filled glass Lucas offered her, tipped it at him, and downed all the Scotch in a single swig. Then she put it down, letting out a satisfied sigh. “That’s the stuff. Okay, so how do we get up onto your roof?”
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