There were two people standing next to the struts: a young man about her age and a younger woman, a girl, really, about shoulder height to h

There were two people standing next to the struts: a young man about her age and a younger woman, a girl, really, about shoulder height to him. There was a third just exiting the roof access. Scarlett. 

Yuriko landed next to her friend gently. Scarlett was in costume, though it still had that temporary look that was common with new, hasty heroes. She sported a thick, bronze coloured trench coat, heavy combat boots, and wore a domino mask that subtly altered her facial structure. Her hair was set up in a bun, then concealed under a beanie. She had a couple of collapsible batons on her belt, and she wore dark gloves to prevent herself from leaving prints. She had a bright, eager smile on her face. 

It was funny, considering Scarlett never expressed any interest in becoming a cape before the laws regarding them were changed. She thought it was only a passing interest, so she was indulging her friend in her current endeavour. 

Well, at least it was, in the beginning. 

Brilliance and Speedrun were surprisingly active in the districts of Jackstone and Brookshield, the southwest and southeast parts of Neo Prism and both docks, warehouses, and quays. Brookshield, being the area closer to the bay and the Endless Sea, was often used for incoming freight, while Jackstone, closer to the river, was used for inland cargoes. Hence, Brookshield tended to harbour large to massive cargo ships while Jackstone had river barges, or pleasure craft. 

“Regalia, Harakin,” Speedrun said with a wave. Brilliance was practically bouncing on her toes. 

“Hi, hi!” the younger girl chirped. 

“Excited, I see.” Yuriko chuckled. “You too, Harakin.” 

Scarlett blushed, and her skin was pale enough that her face seemed to glow. “I am,” she answered with a modicum of calm. Underneath was excitement, but also an undercurrent of fear. Well, trepidation more than anything else, but also resolve to push herself. 

“You’ve got the finer details?” Yuriko asked Speedrun.

“Yeah, got the deets. A few gangs working together. ‘Houses where they stashed the drugs and they’re distributing it tonight. Moving cash, too.” 

“Say, what do we do with money from villains?” Scarlett asked. 

“We can take ‘em,” Speedrun said. “If it’s not evidence.” 

“How is money evidence, specifically?” 

Speedrun shrugged, “Laundering? I’m not sure. I don’t actually care, but Lightfoot from the Protectorate said we can skim off the top, say ten percent, without hurting any investigations or convictions.” 

“I guess that’s a good enough rule of thumb,” Yuriko agreed. She didn’t really need money at this point in her career. 

“Well, we get bounties too if we stick around long enough for the police to bring them in,” Speedrun added. “Well, we would, but neither of you is affiliated.” 

Yuriko tilted her head. “Wouldn’t that disincentivise rogue Altered? If they don’t want to register, then they can’t earn bounties?” 

“It’s only natural!” Brilliance chimed in. “They want to keep tabs on everyone. Better info and all that!” 

“That’s what they tell you guys?” Scarlett said pointedly. “But it really isn’t much different than the Altered Human Registration Act, except they don’t have to get it through Congress.” 

“Well, registering as an affiliate is voluntary,” Speedrun shrugged. “Nobody’s forcing you to register, but you get benefits if you do.” 

“Yeah,” Yuriko chuckled, “withheld income, a pension account, and health benefits.” 

“Those are good! Especially for a part-time thing,” Speedrun insisted. 

Yuriko just shrugged, “And in return, they get to record your Altered power as well as whatever weaknesses you have.” 

Speedrun shook his head, “Let’s not keep gabbing all night. The handoff is in an hour.”

“Pretty early, isn’t it?” 

“It’s less suspicious than coming out as a crowd in the middle of the night. This way, they could disguise this as a dinner rush, or something.” Speedrun waved offhandedly, “Well, let’s go. Can you two keep up?” He nodded to Scarlett.

“I can.” Scarlett’s voice was hard with determination. 

She really couldn’t. Scarlett had barely six inches of Anima reach, expanded from the measly inch she started with. It took a while, and some help from Yuriko, though she didn’t use more Ambrosia since it was unnecessary and might actually stymie the smol girl’s progress. It grew by that much because Yuriko used her Anima to pressure Scarlett’s, and though unpleasant, it had worked well enough. Well, five inches after a couple of weeks or so wasn’t anywhere near fast, but the rate at which Scarlett’s Anima grew before Yuriko helped was so slow to be practically unnoticeable. 

Anywho, while she taught Scarlett how to boost her physique with her Anima, she needed to have a physique worth mentioning, more than being soft. Oh no, the enforced exercise and training had certainly taken the shine off Scarlett’s eyes, but her slow regeneration power acted in a similar way to Recovery that it accelerated Scarlett’s growth. When they found that out, Yuriko was pretty sure that the infatuation had turned into a proper love-hate emotion than anything else. Scarlett should eventually get over it, hopefully…

Anyway, Brilliance could fly, Speedrun could move his limbs, and consequently his body, roughly a dozen times faster than a baseline human could, which actually didn’t mean he could run twelve times faster since he had to account for air resistance, proper leverage, and simple skill in moving through a complex environment. And Scarlett could boost her physique using her Anima to reinforce her body. Six inches wasn’t enough to be able to fly, but it was good enough to double her base physique. So, she was still slow. Yuriko would have carried her, but Scarlett refused, so she had to settle for a more subtle boost. She pushed her friend along while the other girl used her Anima to negate as much of her weight as possible. 

As they crossed the distance between the rendezvous point and the target location, Yuriko mused over Scarlett’s improvement over the past days. This was not the first time they went out as capes in the evening, though this would be the first big bust they tried. 

Yuriko flew as Regalia every evening when she was at home, abstaining only when work pushed her elsewhere. That didn’t occur often, as most of the shooting was done in a studio rather than on location. Her contract stipulated that she wasn’t to be brought too far from her schooling during the week. That left weekends for off-location shoots, which was also a bit ironic considering most cape villains tended to get into mischief during the weekends. Or in the small hours of the morning, too. 

Normal crime could happen at any given time, however, but that should be under the purview of the police rather than cape heroes. In normal circumstances, anyway. 

Both of the southern districts had grown worse over time, and did so precipitously right after the new cape laws came into effect. Much of the real estate there consisted of warehouses, self-storage units, and other similar businesses, along with a hefty number of unused or dilapidated lots. Some were like that from the daemon incursions, others simply became victims of organised crime. She was sure that many of the abandoned-looking buildings were hideouts, safehouses, or some such. The areas closer to the water, anyway. Neo Prism City was huge, but had experienced the results of a recession a couple of years ago. It was the same all over the republic, but since the city was a financial centre, it was affected worse than the rest. As for why there was a recession in the first place, she wasn’t quite sure. Greed from the corporate overlords, maybe? She had an inkling it was a similar situation to Dragon Fall City, where the megacorps wrested control of the city from the government, but in Astoria, they were in the beginning stages of that, she assumed. 

Northern Astoria had many nations other than the republic, but most of them were but a fraction of the republic’s size, in terms of territory or population. Southern Astoria was another matter entirely, and from Lilibeth’s memories, she recalled the south cutting ties and annulling trade treaties last decade. She wasn’t sure why, though, just the public perception that the south had been greedy. The fact that they were the source of exotic materials, biological and mineral, didn’t factor into it, she was sure. 

Anyway, Harakin’s first few forays into heroic caping involved walking a route across several boroughs in all four districts surrounding Winderfield. Aside from the pulsing heart of the city, the four ordinal districts weren’t as well off, and unlike the well-planned look of the island, the other four were a patchwork of different zones. Burmington and Altalon weren’t quite as back as Brookshield and Jackstone, but each one had slums, lower-income household districts, and known ganglands. The openness of cape law stirred everything up, too. 

Yuriko let Harakin patrol on the ground while she watched from above. And in over two weeks of such activities, she only managed to intercept, on average, half a crime per day. Most of them were muggings, with a couple of attempted abductions, or perhaps attempted human trafficking, since the targets were young women and children. The criminals didn’t give up anything when questioned, however, even when Yuriko pressed them with her Mien. 

That was actually the most concerning thing they encountered. People were resistant to her Mien only if they were already someone else’s thrall. She didn’t contest it since she didn’t want any thugs under her command, though after the second time an attempted trafficking occurred, she regretted that impulse. She still didn’t attempt to dominate, however, since when she pressed lightly, she felt that if she pushed on, she would more than likely break their minds instead. 

Either way, the outings were good enough to get Harakin used to fighting crime. Well, the first time she tried to stop a mugging, she stuttered and coughed, then overcompensated by breaking limbs afterwards, only to slip on spilt blood when she realised what happened afterwards. An amusing sight, if not for the excessive force that was no doubt due to insufficient control and heightened emotions. Well, no truly permanent harm done. The mugger had been brought to the hospital, and no doubt to jail afterwards, the victim had been thankful, if somewhat still fearful, and more experienced under Harakin’s belt. 

What lay underneath was problematic, though. Yuriko could see and feel the frustration wafting off the police officers as they brought the perpetrator in. it was something Harakin missed, but then, nothing on the cops’ faces showed. Whether they were frustrated at the rising crime rate or the increased Altered villainy, she couldn’t tell. But perhaps it was the fact that Harakin had not even been chastised for breaking limbs. She was reminded to watch how much force she used, and that was it. 

A disturbing trend. But Yuriko couldn’t make heads or tails of who was behind it. Undoubtedly, the government was pushing for it, considering the swift enactment of cape laws, but who in the government and to what purpose? 

She shook her head and allowed only a single strand of consciousness to dwell on the matter. Without any new information, she could only go around in circles. And besides, they were near the target point. 

They stopped a block from the warehouse. Speedrun and Harakin climbed up on the roof, followed by a complaining Brilliance. The girl couldn’t fly without emitting bright light. Well, neither could Yuriko, for that matter, but it was rather easy to just jump on the roof instead of climbing. 

The building they were in wasn’t exceptionally good, but considering the ones that were good lookout points were occupied by the gangsters, this was good enough. The vantage point was good enough to catch sight of the gatekeepers, and just as importantly, the target Altered. 

“Now, why would the Caplan Gang and the Duad work together?” Speedrun muttered in surprised fascination. After, it wasn’t the first time those two groups came into conflict, and now, there was an uneasy peace between them. 

How curious.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep