Family Begins With You

by Jmaster49


Arc XXIV Episode VI: Sussing Them Out

With her hair done up in a more casual--yet poofy--ponytail, and her left hand on her hip, Adagio strutted into the store with her usual swagger. Upon entering, she could see it was a knickknack shop with various novelty items on shelves. Including--but not limited to--model airplanes, toy cars, snow globes, vinyl records, gramophones, and Christmas ornaments; many of which may or may not be functioning.

“Humans have such an interesting obsession with old objects…” she commented to herself as she passed by a fellow shopper wearing a brown longcoat that covered his chin who was busy looking at the items on the shelf in front of him. “But I can’t blame them I suppose. We all have our vices.”

Then she’d arrive at the register that sat atop a transparent glass display case filled with other random items. Oddly enough, despite the store clearly being open, no one was at the register.

“Hmm…” Adagio did the only logical thing, and pressed the bell that was located next to the register.

Ding!

“Hello?” she called out, tilting her head towards the door marked ‘Employees Only’ located behind the register.

No answer--at least not for a good five minutes. With her arms folded and a judgemental glare aimed at the door, the siren had visibly been losing her patience over the short amount of time. Luckily, she wouldn’t have to wait for much longer…

“Sorry, sorry!” a man with faint yellow skin and red hair rushed out of the door to greet Adagio, “I was busy sorting through some of our inventory in the back and I didn’t hear the bell!”

“...Right,” Adagio replied with a suspicious raise of her eyebrow as the brother took his position behind the register. “Anyway--I’m gonna cut right to the case.” She placed both of her hands down on the glass display case and went on, “You know Applejack, right? You and your brother purchase her family’s products rather often, don’t you?”

“Er, well--yes,” Flim replied, “We do. Why do you ask, miss?”

“She’s currently going through a bit of a rough patch regarding her missing parents,” Adagio continued sternly, “And we have a feeling that you might know something about that.”

Flim looked away--upwards and to the left as he took a step away from the register. “Er…I’m not exactly at liberty to answer that. But if you’re looking for a neat, early Christmas present, we’ve got you covered on that front!” he tried to change the subject as he offered her a stuffed mermaid doll that was missing an eye and had a torn tail.

Adagio’s eyes grew wide as she stared at the man. A stare so cold and flat--she was looking at him as if he was the leading cause for the world’s polluted oceans.

She raised her hand and gently pushed the doll away from her face. “...I’m going to ignore that little thing you call a trinket and redirect the conversation back to--”

“Sorry, but I can’t help you!” Flim panicked, dropping the doll as he fled into the ‘Employee’s Only’ door that led him to the back of the store.

To which Adagio acted by casually walking after him, and forcing the door open with a blast of water from her hand. “You don’t just run from me like that,” she turned to her right and heard faint footsteps scurry down one of the hallways.

“Brother, I think we have a problem--” Flim yelped as he pushed a door open to the office where Flam was located, “We have a guest that’s asking about Applejack’s family--”

Upon hearing this, Flam visibly panicked as he rose from his desk with a wide-eyed gaze. “Say no more, brother! I have our escape vehicle already prepared--!”

But they were both stopped dead in their tracks as rectangular bodies of water consumed them from the bottom and started to travel upwards along their bodies, slowly waterlogging them.

“Agh! What is this?!” Flim cried out as he looked down at the water in horror.

Flam tried to reply, “I don’t know but--!” he was cut off by--

“Hold on for a moment,” Adagio boomed as she entered the room, having been the one who casted the water. “You both clearly know something about Applejack’s parents. I’m not going to drown you, but I will submerge your store if need be.”

“Okay okay!” Flim shouted with his chin just above the blob of water, “We’ll tell you anything! Just please don’t ruin the merchandise!”

Adagio sighed with a roll of her eyes. “Alrighty then…”

About five minutes later…

Adagio left the store and approached Applejack who had been waiting outside.

“What’d they tell ya? Did they swindle their way out of it?” she asked and started to follow the siren who had been walking ahead of her.

“They told me plenty,” Adagio replied, “Whoever was involved in dealing with your parents and the Hishima family has a particular set of skills. They’re not just going to send out some random average human to ‘meet’ your parents for business.”

Applejack slammed her fist into her open palm. “A’course. If ma and pa were…taken out, then it had’ta be done by somebody who does it fer a livin’.”

“A hired gun,” Adagio replied, “Someone that a yakuza family would be more than happy to appoint in order to make use of plausible deniability--if what Aria said is correct that is.”

“...So where we headed now?” Applejack asked as she rubbed her temples, “All this thinkin’ is turnin’ mah brain inta applesauce.”

Adagio knew the real reason--Applejack tended to bury her emotions under an unfeeling exterior which was slowly starting to break. With that in mind, she tried to alleviate her pain.

“If it’s too much for you…”

But Applejack was stubborn. “No. It’s not. I’m perfectly fine. Now where we goin’?”

Since there was no debating with Applejack, Adagio simply nodded and replied, “We need to speak with someone who has knowledge of military tactics and technology. If it was an assassin that killed your parents, we need someone who can find their patterns.”

“Hmm…I got it,” Applejack pulled out her phone and dialed someone’s number. “I know just the feller who understands that kinda malarkey.”

Soon enough, someone would answer the phone, “Hello?”

“Hey, Sentry? We need yer help.”

“...wait what? Me? Y-you want my help??”