Pub found by members of Echo V was called "Lotus". The building, which the place was located in could be called anything but big, yet it still fit two-stories pub.
Lower level consisted of the main bar, the open hall with several tables, where the most space was taken by snooker tables and a variety of arcade games. Upper level was composed of three sections, separated by clinker walls - two sections were were made into typically restaurant-like zones, while the central part was used as a party spot, similarly to snooker and arcade section on the lower level, the main difference being other games one could find here.
Having a booking and being the first clients just after the opening, they got themselves a comfortable spot on the lower level in of the corners of the hall. With four of them, the corner sofa was more than enough to feel at home.
Since they were waiting for their order for a longer while, Ken went to the bar to ask for how much longer it is going to take and maybe learn something more, possibly interesting from his group's perspective.
He took one of the chairs by the counter and waited for bartender to approach. The man quickly noticed Kenichiro and explained that not everyone turned for work on time, therefore they are experiencing a delay due to having to take care of additional chores, for which he apologized.
As Ken continued to listen to bartender's explanation, a conversation between three elegant man nearby caught his attention - the men were holding quite a lively discussion.
"I've never seen something like this in my whole life" a man, appearing to be the youngest of the group, was talking "I know this information about demons was not just a simple joke, but even being aware, I definitely need a drink..."
"I get what you have on your mind real well" the second man, most likely in his forties, nodded while saying that "Back when I was still in the army... You know that I was part of special ops... There were situation they would involve us in fighting against terrorist groups. For real, I've seen a lot. Back then, such things appeared to me as savagery, simply atrocities... These grotesque sights, each time I remember, it gives me creeps, even after all these years. However, this... I've never could've imagined I would see something worse in my entire life.
The third of the men, who also seemed to be the oldest, appeared to be the most troubled among them. He had dark ring round eyes and barely touched the food on his plate - he only emptied his glass.
"It's the first time I've been to group funeral, after so many years. I've never imagined seeing so many victims. Maybe, if we reacted faster... Who cares the works would have been stopped earlier, and now... What happens next?
"Don't torment yourself over it. None of us could foresee this. It's the whole building complex after all. We've been working on so many other buildings before, so how could we even know what's happening in this particular one... All we did was following the plan, nothing else."
Kenichiro immediately understood how serious this case was. How all of this sounded, he absolutely needed to learn more, it was a must. Without waiting any longer, he approached the talking men.
"Excuse me" all men automatically turned his way "I've caught a bit of your conversation, but wanted to ask: are demons a big problem in this area?"
The men looked at each other - Ken could easily feel distrust emanating from them.
"And who are you?" the oldest man asked him.
"Oh, apologies, my name is Kenichiro, but calling me Ken is fine."
"You Japanese, eh?" the youngest of the three reacted "You do have a peculiar accent indeed. Around here for some business?"
In fact, Ken approached the men without a prior plan, but remembering what he heard from Karl, the captain of Echo V decided it was better not to mention his line of work directly for now - at least, not until he was better aware of the situation, he felt it was better not to disclose this detail.
"Something of the sort" he confirmed "For now, I'm trying to check the grounds, hence my curiosity. In my country, Japan, this is a serious problem. Of course, our lives go on, but it's harder for everyone because of what's going on."
"Then, it's a pretty much the same situation as for us. Please, have a seat."
From oldest to youngest, the men were named Stanisław, Leszek and Rafał."
"We work for a construction company, but specialize in demolition work" Leszek started explaining "For several months now, we are taking care of a job in nearby area. How far is it? Fifteen kilometers from here?" he looked at Stanisław who nodded in confirmation "Indeed. So, fifteen kilometers from here there is a huge, and left abandoned for many years, industrial complex. It used to be a factory dealing with chemicals and plastic products. You know, lots of containers eaten by acids, contaminated zones and so on... Generally speaking, we try to secure and repair any building that can be further used, while everything else gets demolished. That's pretty much it, in short."
"Things were going smoothly for a long time, without the smallest problems" Rafał continued "We had no delays until we've reached the old bottling plant. At first, no one suspected anything. It was just several workers not coming to work, one after the another, so nothing particularly unheard of."
"That's what we thought, at least" Stanisław joined in "How stupid I was, old fart. I kept thinking it was the usual thing as before, that they all got drunk and that's why they didn't turn up for work. And obviously, our bosses were also informed, but thought exactly the same thing as I did. Still, the problem was we've completely lost contact with them, completely. Once it was a week since they were not showing up, no sign of life, we started checking their personal addresses, contacting their families. We reported the case to the police and then, it all started. They send several policemen to check the premises and all of them disappeared without a trace."
"However, in this situation, they had walkie-talkies" Rafał pointed out "And those, who stayed outside, could hear them screaming before there was a complete silence."
"And so, the cause were demons?" Ken asked, not to interrupt, but to sum up and conclude this as undisputed fact.
"This is what they told us" Stanisław confirmed "The problem is, local authorities could not help us after that. They only focused on the victims' families, who were rightly intervening and left the case of cleaning all this mess to the complex' owner."
"And what happened?"
Stanisław and Rafał looked at Leszek.
"That owner had a contact to a guy who was supposedly a go-to guy for such topics" the latter spoke "That's all I was told when we were preparing the premises before his arrival. Apparently, the guy was always effective and meeting deadlines, so we did what we were told. Next day, we got an info to get there and clean after the intervention. At first, we didn't know the details, but when we arrived to the place..."
"Even thinking about it is hard" Rafał took over, seeing his colleague needs a break "Inside, we found a pile of corpses, and it was not only humans. I have no clue what was this about, no one from the company was able to explain it to us. This quickly escalated into a big affair. The police came again, and then those guys from Perseus."
"Generally speaking, a huge mess" Stanisław summed it up "They were bumping heads about who will be doing what, securing the area and so on. When there was a problem, none of them was there, so maybe it was all about taking credit? I don't know. Either way, we've lost many good men, the officials closed the whole area, so in the end most of the time we spend on going to funerals and waiting to resume work."
It looked like these men were hanging in-between the sorrow after losing their colleagues and uncertainty about their job security.
"I feel sorry for your loss and hope you can soon get back to work" Ken told them with complete honesty.
"Ken, what's taking you so long?" Kyoko appeared by the table the men were using.
Kenichiro was completely unaware for how long he was sitting there. His companions must have been worried.
"What a cute, young lady" Stanisław complimented Kyoko "Your girlfriend?" he asked Ken with a smile.
"Only in his dreams" Kyoko replied, returning the smile "Ken, the food is served."
Captain of Echo V stood up and was about to say goodbye before following Kyoko, but then he remembered about one really important thing.
"Do you perhaps know who was the individual to take this demon extermination request?"
His question caused a visible uneasiness among the three men. After exchanging several looks, Stanisław made a hand gesture for Ken to get closer - seeing that, Kyoko waited by the counter, intrigued by the whole situation.
"What is the reason for you to ask that?" Stanisław's eyes were piercing him with curiosity.
He was planning not to reveal this information for as long as possible, but at least as thanks for those people being so honest with him, he decided to show some honesty of his own:
"You asked me before if I was here for business. You see, I'm a hunter myself and wanted to learn a bit more about the others who are doing the same line of work around here."
For a moment, he was afraid the men would suddenly stand up and ran from him, but this did not happen, though saying they were surprised by what he said was a complete understatement.
"I didn't know hunters could reveal themselves that easily" said Rafał.
"Is it that unheard of?" Kenichiro never boasted about his main line of work, but at the same time, he also never tried to hide it no matter what, especially with people whom he was helping.
"It's typical in these parts" the oldest man explained "Well, at least that's what the common knowledge is. It's just a fact that we wouldn't be able to continue more or less normal life without hunters. More than that, we could have been at war with demons if not for the hunters. Though, I must tell you there are some people who already treat the current state of affais as war, and during war not everything is grey, Leszek can tell you quite a bit about that."
Leszek nodded in confirmation and continued the topic:
"We all read newspapers, watch TV news or check this on the internet to learn what's happening around the world. We know not all the demons are bad, and the same goes for humans, but not everyone approaches the case in the same manner. When there is danger, humans often forget about logic and do cruel things under guise of survival. Demons terrify people and hunters kill these demons. Now think about it: whom or what the hunter has to be if they are able to kill these things?"
Ken understood quite well where it is leading.
"They could be demons themselves" he concluded, leaving out the part he knew quite well some examples of Garths fighting against their own kind, continuing the conflict dividing Ghard dwellers, commonly known as demons, for centuries now.
"Exactly this" Stanisław confirmed "That's why most of regular humans avoids this topic, if they can, while hunters themselves are not so eager to share about their job as to not become a target. While I would love to help you, because you appear to be a decent person, all three of us are among those who prefer to stick away. If you insist on digging further, you could go straight to complex owner."
"And where can I find this building complex?"
"If you aim to go there and look for traces, I advise against that. The government and those form Perseus are not the best combination in one place. You would do much better by going straight to the owner. I'll give you the company name and their office phone number. With that, you can easily find more details on the internet."
Ken took the piece of paper, on which the man wrote the contact info for him.
"Thank you" captain of Echo V said, bowing to them and saying goodbye.
"No worries, take care."
He went to Kyoko, who was still waiting by the counter and already managed to drink a beer while waiting. Now that he finally stood up, she had a short look at the piece of paper in his hand before walking towards their table.
"I hope this proves to be useful. The girls most likely ate already."
Her thoughts proved to be wrong as both Ada and Stella did not touch their food yet. They concluded it was not alright to start eating without the other two. With that, all of them ate together and Ken told them about the whole conversation he had a moment befoe.
Something important might have happened in this factory building and one of their tasks was information gathering. Knowiing what happened, they simply could not leave this matter unattended, even more so, if demons were gathering corpses for some reason. Learning what was their goal in doing that was Echo V's responsibility, while this local hunter who cleaned the place might have proven to be quite useful in solving this riddle.