Thread: The Alchemists (Start-Up)

"No shit." David said to Lysander, and turned to the rest of the group. "We have one more lead. Apparently, an artist was attacked by a man with a sword a week before the incidents. We should go and interview him."

"Sounds good to me. Meet you guys there?"

"Let's get a move on." Lysander said, examining the scene.

"Better go before something else happens." Senri agreed.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the apartment of a man named Hugo Antanas, near the center of town.

"Coming! One sec! Irrashai!" The man said. He opened the door, revealing an apartment, covered wall to wall in anime merchandise, from half-nude figurines of women to posters depicting various unsavory acts. The man himself was slim, and his left arm was in a cast, the hand hanging limp from it. "Come in, come it! Tea?" He offered, heading to the kitchen.

"...The hell." Treiss deadpanned.

"Tea?" Senri asked, rather confused.

"What? I'm just making some for you. And I have cake too." Hugo said. He accidentally spilled some hot tea on his arm.

"Ow. Ow. Sit down, go ahead. Ow. Ow." He said.

"Ah, right, I called ahead." David said, nodding and sitting down.

Treiss shrugged. "Yay. Free cake."

"So, is this about the guy that broke in last month? Did the police catch him?" Hugo asked, putting a sugar cube in some tea and trying to pick it up with his right hand, spilling more tea on himself.

"Yeah. Might have a lead."

Lysander sat down. Trying to be as polite as possible, he replied, "No tea, for me, please. I'm more of a coffee person." However, his eyes widened when he saw the cake.

"Not yet, that's what were trying to figure out. You wouldn't happen to know anything, would ya?" Senri asked the strange man with tea.

"Well...About a month ago, I was drawing. And...Okay, this might be kinda hard to believe. But there was this dude with a sword and a hook for a hand. He came running at me from out of nowhere. I don't even know how he got in." Hugo said. He started cutting the cake. "He hit my hand with his sword...But it didn't cut. I dunno what happened. It broke, though. And then he left." He shook his head. "I already told the police this, and they didn't believe me. They asked if I was on drugs."

"The worst part? It was my sword. He must have gotten into my room somehow and took it. It cost me a hundred bucks.

"Did anything strange happen sometime before this happened?"