The next thing she knew Hirune found herself in Rico alongside Kala and Kopna. Back at camp after Ellen got over her hangover she decided that Tundra would go with her because Medio was in the middle of a large mountain valley, so she'd need his experience with cold weather and mountains and Clints in general survival experience. On top of that, she also said that Kala would be a good fit for this mission because there was a high chance that the assassin's would hide in the sewers.
Rico was as sparkly as could be, every building made of shimmering gold with a bunch of holograms and RGB's in or around them, nearly everything on the ground floor being a coffee shop, a casino, a love hotel, basically any place that a kid wouldn't be allowed being on the ground floor. These buildings would then have fire escapes that went up to balconies that went around the entire building and the higher they went, the less mature the stores got, though they didn't have anything for old people and they didn't have any pharmacies either.
"This seems annoying," Hirune said as she changed her sleeves into a full coat as this place was surprisingly cold for being on a tropical island.
"Meh, this is pretty normal for Rico. It'd actually be concerning if it wasn't like this," Kala said as she looked up.
Hirune and Kopna followed her gaze and spotted a huge golden dome in the sky. This dome being held up by three different very long gold pillars with elevators in them. Each one of these pillars having large holographic lights that from left to right spelled out, "WELCOME TO RICO!"
"Considering our surroundings, only I'd be allowed in most of these places. Which means you two would either have to get fake ID'S or wait outside of all of the bottom places," Kopna said as they started to walk around.
"Well considering what these stores are I don't mind waiting," Hirune answered as she spotted a lady getting assaulted in an alleyway and stopped. "Wait, I'll be right back!"
Kopna and Kala looked at where she was going and saw the scene. Kala was about to tell Hirune to mind her own business but Kopna stopped her and shook her head.
"Telling her to stop won't work," Kopna said as she kept an eye on the scene.
If she was being honest, although she supported Hirune's ideals completely this was a total hassle. Her only concern at this moment was if while she helped that woman someone tried to kidnap her, after all the scene could just be a sham to lure in good hearted people.
As Hirune arrived at the scene and successfully stopped it, Kopna looked away for a second to look check the time on the huge clock at the bottom of the dome in the sky.
In that one second, someone popped out of the pothole right in front of Hirune, threw a powder in her face that stopped her from using her artifact and pulled her into the sewers while covering her mouth and nose with a cloth drenched in alcohol.
They even planned ahead. As Kopna turned back around some wires fell from the buildings around them and tied her up tightly. These wires were only a slight hindrance though, as after five seconds Kopna's nodachi unsheathed itself and cut the wires off of her.
While this happened, they dangled a fish in front of Kala's face making her human and shark senses go into disarray confusing her brain.
She quickly picked up Kala as her sword flew into her hands and jumped into the pothole to chase after Hirune. Then there was a sudden earthquake causing the roof of the sewer to collapse around them stopping them from chasing after Hirune.
***
She groaned softly as she opened her eyes. For a moment her vision was a bit blurry, but as it adjusted she could see that she was inside now, only issue was that he was being held on the wall by the handcuffs on her hands and feet penetrating into the wall. Aside from that the room was pretty vintage. A harsh contrast from how everything looked outside as the bed in the middle had a soft rose pattern just like the carpet and a little sofa someone was sitting on, a chandelier dangling over the bed... Wait, someone was sitting on the sofa?
Before Hirune realized her observation, she heard some loud gibberish whispers in her head and for a split second, her vision turned pitch red and showed her the room covered in blood and guts with the bed, carpet, and sofa being made out of human skin. Then her vision quickly went back, a terrified expression coloring her face as she tried her best not to throw up.
"Oh, hey you, you're finally awake! I'm glad, I was worried there was brain damage," the man said as he stood up. He had messy yet at the same time slicked back black hair with gray eyes, a jester mark similar to Hirune's rested bellow his left eye, he wore a simple black suit with black and dark gray stripped dress pants, and black gloves.
As she recovered from that sight, Hirune suddenly realized her situation and glared, "Did you do anything to me?!"
He raised his hands and gave a wary smile, "Calm down, no I haven't done anything. I may not be the best person but I'm not a monster. Although, I will do something that might be a bit uncomfortable now."
Hirune tried to devour all of the cuffs alongside the man himself, but when she did, the shadow jester rose out from behind her and twisted the muscles in her arms. She screamed in pain and tried to desperately escape it's grasp but couldn't. After a good second it stopped and although she couldn't see it, she could feel some sort of energy coming out of the jester mark near her hip spread out.
It hurt like he'll, but if she didn't do anything there was a chance that this man would do something to her. So, pushing through the pain, she managed to devour off the cuffs. Though now she laid on the ground exhausted, that energy that was emerging from the jester mark being visible on her body wrapping around her right thigh like rose vines and probably further up bellow her dress somewhere.
He crouched down next to her as she tried to catch her breath and caressed her thigh. She flinched hard and tried to move a little, but she was still catching her breath and adrenaline seemed to have other things to attend to.
"I see. Well I still need confirmation so I apologize again if this makes you uncomfortable," he said as he started lifting her dress.
She quickly started pushing it back down as her face boiled, but she didn't have the strength to stop him nor crawl away. She closed her eyes tightly expecting the worst to happen.
But to her surprise he didn't do anything and just nodded, "Alright you already have a Shadow Jester, that makes my life easier."
He pressed his hand on the mark and she watched intensely as he did. Then she felt a hard compression there, a pain nearly as bad as when Arachne pierced through her. She bit her hand to not scream out in pain as she teared up.
Then he pulled his hand away and ripped away her tears, "Sorry about it being painful, sadly there's no painless way to make a Jester Bond. And before you ask, that just means you can't attack me and I have your location at all times, after all, I need you for something."
Hirune tried to kick him in the face, but to no avail as he grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her in close, wrapped one of his arms around her and looked into her eyes with a smirk.
"Just because you can't hurt me it doesn't mean I can't hurt you."
Hirune stared at him with fear in her eyes, she wanted to call for Kopna but she knew that it was hopeless.
'Namulenza, why isn't the jester doing anything and why'd it try to stop me from using my artifact?'
'It's simple. You've been using your artifact without consequences and it's been deteriorating your body,' Namulenza responded. 'You see, Devourer Jaws aren't meant to be used how you use them. It's more flexible than that. You can make them thinner, smaller, larger, thicker, you can even make them blow up like a balloon.'
'So that's why huh? I guess it makes sense. But I'm pretty sure it just made the damage worst while trying to help.'
The man suddenly spoke, "Oh, my apologies, I nearly forgot introductions, I'm Mr. Comedian. Here, to make it up to you for my rudeness and making you hurt and worry so much you get three questions and anything you want."
"Why's this place like this?" She instantly asked. She'd been wondering this since she'd arrived but didn't get the chance to ask Kala.
"Oh~! That's a good one! Ellen loves only giving half of the explanation about things so I'm glad you asked about this. You see, besides artifact types, there's also artifact classes. There's normal power artifacts, summon artifacts, soul holding artifacts, weapon artifacts, region artifacts, item artifacts, living artifacts, and living shift artifacts. The names give themselves away so I doubt I have to explain those, but this place has been completely destroyed by a region artifact. This isn't the real Rico, this is the gambling artifact overgrown shrubbery."
Hirune nodded, "So what are Living Shift artifacts? I mean I can tell they're living artifacts but is the shift part like, they can shape-shift?"
"I won't count that as a question but I will answer. Yeah something like that, they actually have quite the unique story. You see, they started as soul artifacts, but one time a soul artifact kept its body and had a kid with a normal person which is how living artifacts came around. Then one day, the soul of a living artifact got linked to another artifact and that made a living shift artifact. So depending on what that artifacts soul is linked to internally they can shift into it. In fact, there's a way to turn people into living artifacts and then into living shift artifacts but I find it to me pretty messed up."
'Lore dump huh? Never asked for one but good to know I guess,' Amia commented.
Hirune brushed her off, "And what do you need me for?"
"Simple, to destroy the artifact within the dome in order to give the people of Rico their lives back. You'll see what I mean when we get into more crowded streets."
Hirune nodded and pushed it all back for Amia to write down, "Alright, as for what I want. I want you to feed me lots and lots of food.'
'Food?' Namulenza asked.
'Whenever you fed Mr. Devi he recovered, and the Devourer Jaws are his part of my artifact so it'd make sense if I recovered when I ate.'
"Well if that's truly what you want, let's go. This'll also work as a way to show you what the artifact has done to this place besides just the buildings," Mr. Comedian said as he stood and helped her up.