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“You’re certain it’s a dragon,” Sabo says, emphasizing the word. Part of him hopes that if he repeats it for what must be the third time now the other might say, ‘Oh, my mistake, I meant a slightly larger than average lizard!’ And then they could both have a good laugh about it, and Sabo could finally try to tamp down his steadily rising blood pressure.
He’s unfortunately not so lucky.
“Yes, Sir Sabo,” the man in front of him says, wringing his hands. Sabo can’t hear any sort of lie in the other’s voice, nor does his innate divine sense twinge at any deception. The man is telling the truth, or at least he thinks he is.
Sabo normally wouldn’t be so inclined to doubt him except…
“Dragons haven’t been seen alive in decades,” Sabo says.
In fact, the last reported dragon sighting on record had occurred nearly twenty years before Sabo had even been born. Once the N. Blue and all its surrounding towns had started rapidly modernizing, dragon sightings had become fewer and fewer until they had stopped completely. Many thought they had either gone extinct or simply been edged out of the modern world like plenty of other native species.
“I-I know it was though!” The man says, “It was nearly fifty feet long, and it had green scales, and-!”
“I believe you,” Sabo says, cutting the man off, “It’s just…”
“I didn’t want to think it was true either,” the man says, deflating, “I thought the first time I saw it, I just had too much to drink down at the pub, but the second time-“
“Wait, you’ve seen it multiple times?” Sabo’s eyebrows shoot up.
“At least five,” the man says, “And there were other witnesses on two of those occasions!”
Sabo massages his forehead. Well, there went his hopes that this was just some kind of prank or momentary lapse of judgement. “Can you give me the names of the other witnesses? I just want to confirm some details with them.”
“Of course,” he agrees quickly, “And the other Knights of the Revolution…?” His eyes shine hopefully.
“I’ll inform them of the situation,” Sabo replies dutifully.
“Thank you, Sir Sabo, I knew you would take us seriously!” He gushes.
Sabo proceeds to note down the details the man gives them in his thoroughly battered journal, trying not to let his expressions waver as he writes down “fire breathing capability” and “foot long claws”. Internally he’s screaming, but it’d reflect poorly on his company if he let his trepidation show on his face.
“Thank you, sir, we’ll take it from here,” Sabo says with all of the confidence he doesn’t actually feel.
He then turns back toward his car, calmly gets inside, and - once the door is closed and tinted windows rolled up - drops his head down so it thunks against the steering wheel.
“Shiiiiiiiiit,” he says, with feeling.
He gives himself a few seconds to feel sorry for himself and the inevitable overtime he’ll be punching in. When he’d sworn himself to the Knights of the Revolution all those years ago he’d had admittedly overambitious dreams of becoming a shield for the regular citizens that couldn’t defend themselves against the things that went bump in the night, but nowadays those rose-colored glasses had been all but shattered to a million pieces and Sabo found himself feeling increasingly more like some kind of glorified pest control.
He can’t dwell for too long on his existential crisis (and quarter-life crisis and employment crisis) though, eventually lifting his head and fishing out his cellphone. The gloves he wears were supposed to be texting gloves, but it’s still a bitch and a half to unlock his phone and pull up the keypad. He laboriously navigates to his contacts and taps the top starred one.
It rings twice before someone picks up.
“Yo, Sabo!” Koala’s cheerful voice echoes from Sabo’s car’s speakers. Despite everything, her familiar cadence makes him smile. “What’s up? Do you actually have to slay a dragon then?”
“It’s looking like it,” Sabo sighs, “I was really hoping it’d just be a griffin or something, but…”
“Hmm,” Koala hums sympathetically, “You want me to send another few knights out there?”
“Not yet,” Sabo says, “I want to finish getting witness testimonies then scope out the place first. No point in sending in the calvary before we even have the monster confirmed.”
“Okay, but don’t do anything stupid!” Koala says, “I don’t think Dragon would be happy to hear his vice captain of the guard got himself barbecued because he rushed headlong into something without waiting for the company like an idiot! Again!”
“Your confidence in me is truly staggering,” Sabo says dryly.
“Someone needs to keep you humble,” Koala says, “Stay safe, Sabo.”
“Yeah, you too.”
He hangs up the phone feeling marginally better… that is until he spots his journal sitting open on the passenger seat. It’s currently open to a note he’d underlined three times that reads ‘massive jaws!!!’. Sabo heaves a sigh as he throws his car into drive and backs out of the parking lot.
It was going to be a long day.
Getting details from witnesses was never easy (and truly Sabo can’t blame most of them considering how fear tended to alter memories), but this time especially the investigation felt like an exercise in futility. The size of the supposed dragon changed with each testimony, the creature growing and shrinking in relation to how pants-wettingly terrified the witness was, and none of them was able to give very clear visual details considering the creature seemed to only appear at night.
Some said it had spikes, others said it had horns. One said its tail was as long as a school bus, another claimed its tail split into two, while another still said it had nine whipping wildly about like a flail. Its wings were alternately leathery, feathered, and gossamer. Its eye color varied from demonic red to burning gold, and its teeth seemed to grow with every sighting. The only thing all the witnesses seemed to be able to agree upon was that the dragon had dark emerald colored scales that glinted brightly in the streetlights as it soared over the city toward the forest that bordered the edge.
Now Sabo liked to think himself a pretty capable knight, he didn’t get to second in command of the company without being able to put clues together, but “green” and “lives somewhere outside the city” really wasn’t much to go on.
By the time he’s finished his last interview it’s already nearing nightfall, the sky above him threaded with strains of orange and purple. He decides it’s best to call it for the day and stuffs his journal in the pocket of his trench coat before heading back to his car.
Luckily the bed and breakfast he’s planned on staying at isn’t too far, and he’s able to get a room easily enough after he shows his ID. Sabo always kind of hates dropping his company’s name, they all prefer to move in the shadows rather than receive accolades for their work, but it opens doors and he’s really in no place financially to be turning down discounts on lodging (monster hunting always paid less than people thought).
He doesn’t have much in the way luggage to drop in his room, so after he puts his beat up duffle bag down on the bed he heads out early to procure dinner. The kind woman at the reception desk directs him to a local diner a ten minute walk down the street, and Sabo makes his way there at an unhurried pace.
The diner is pretty small but charming, and popular too considering it seems pretty crowded with the dinner rush. The walls are painted bright yellow, and the booths are upholstered with cracked red vinyl that he can see yellow foam poking through. The table’s a bit greasy and sticky still, even after he watches the waitress wipe it down with a rag, but it doesn’t bother him. He’s dealt with far worse.
The food is actually pretty decent compared to what he normally eats (not that that’s saying much considering he gets most of his meals either out of the microwave or prepackaged off the convenience store shelves). The diner is the kind of place that serves breakfast all day, and they give him enough food for two people. He has enough to take back and stick in his mini-fridge for lunch the next day, and that alone almost makes his whole day of hitting dead ends worth it.
He’s in high spirits as he heads back toward the bed and breakfast with his cardboard container in hand, practically whistling as he he glances up and sees the sky has finally given up the ghost and darkened to black. There are a few struggling specks of stars fighting against the light pollution of the city, but for the most part all he can see are the undersides of wispy gray clouds. It’s still beautiful to him though, in the way it’s beautiful to gaze over the edge of a cliff or at the dark waters of the ocean.
Yeah, sometimes it really was nice to just take it slow and-
Sabo is nearly knocked off his feet as something immense rushes over his head. It’s massive enough to create a tailwind so powerful that he staggers. His head instantly whips around to try and track the thing that just flew over him, but he only catches the glimpse of a huge animalistic shape rushing toward the edges of the city. There’s a flash of green, the wave of a massive tail (hey, it really is nearly the size of a school bus), and the thing is gone as quickly as it came.
For a second Sabo can barely process what’s just happened, jaw dropped and takeout clutched to his chest like a lifeline, then he’s running down the street full tilt. He’s got his phone out already, hastily trying to pull up Koala’s contact and nearly misdialing three times before he manages to hit the correct name.
“Sabo?” Koala’s irritated voice asks after the first ring, “You know it’s like nearly ten-“
“I saw it!” Sabo gasps.
“What?” She sounds confused.
“I saw the dragon!” Sabo says, voice choppy as his feet strike the pavement, “It was, fuck, this thing was gigantic!”
“So it is a dragon then?”
“Yes! No! I didn’t get a good look at it,” Sabo admits, “But it’s definitely bigger than anything I’ve seen outside of a kaiju class!”
“Damn,” Koala breathes, “Are you safe?”
“Yeah, it just flew overhead to the forest. I lost track of it after a few seconds,” Sabo says, slowing as he nears the bed and breakfast. His heart is hammering loudly enough in his chest that he almost worries she can hear it through the phone, “Shit, you should’ve seen it, Koala-!”
“Don’t try and chase it down!”
“But-“
“Sabo, it’s dark out and you don’t have any of the company with you! You really think you can take that thing alone?!”
That gives him pause. “I…”
She lets out an aggrieved sigh. “You’re tough, Sabo, but we have no idea what we’re dealing with here. Dragons haven’t been around in decades. We have no idea about their behavior or intelligence or anything! What if it’s immune to all the weapons you have on you?”
“What if it’s not?” Sabo counters, though he knows he’s just being petty and contrary at this point.
“Sabo,” Koala’s voice darkens into a ‘don’t make me karate punch you’ warning.
Sabo grimaces. “Fine.”
He hates to give up on his pursuit so quickly, but Koala did bring up a lot of good points. Chances are if Sabo went running off after the dragon he’d probably just end up being its late night meal. That wasn’t even including the normal risks of running around in the forest in the dark, which was never a good idea and something Sabo would normally never even consider were it not for the extenuating circumstances.
“It sounds like you won’t be able to catch it right now anyway,” Koala says. “You said you lost visual on it, right?”
“Yeah,” Sabo says, huffing as a wave of disappointment crashes through him.
“Then there’s nothing to be done. You should head back to where you’re staying and I’ll take down a full report so we can get some of the rest of the company out there. You can do some more investigation in the morning. Maybe you’ll find someone else who saw it.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he sighs, stopping outside the front door. “I just…”
She seems to know what he’s trying to say. “Get some sleep, Sabo. We’ll figure it out.”
“Alright. Night, Koala.” He hangs up the phone.
A task such as sleeping seems near impossible with the residual adrenaline still pumping through his veins and his mind still racing trying to put together what he saw, but he knows he’ll need the rest if he wants to track down whatever that was in the morning. He shoves his phone in his pocket before pushing open the door to the bed and breakfast.
The woman at the desk greets him, before her eyes widen. “Goodness, dear! You look like you’ve been chased by ghosts!”
“Something like that,” Sabo says wryly. He glances down at the takeout container he’d nearly forgotten about in his hand, grimacing at the thought of how badly the food inside was likely shaken up. “The food was good though. Thanks for the recommendation.”
She beams. “Oh, that diner’s been run by their family for, well, I’d reckon nearly seventy years now! They know their stuff!”
Sabo nods in acknowledgement before heading back up to his room. The adrenaline slowly seeps from him with every step, though it leaves bone deep exhaustion in its wake. He wastes no time when he gets back into his room, shoving his leftovers in the fridge and quickly showering and changing in to his sleep clothes.
As he lies on his bed in the dark later, wide awake and still buzzing despite the heaviness in his limbs, he already knows that his earlier prediction will be coming true. He’s not going to be able to get much sleep that night.
The next day Sabo wakes up (though that really isn’t the correct term considering he got less than an hour of restless sleep) bright and early and decides to eat his leftovers in his room instead of saving them for lunch. He’ll likely come to regret that later, but he’s still so wired from his encounter with the mysterious dragon(?) the night before that he wants to hit the streets as soon as possible. He barely tastes the food as he eats it, dumping his trash and changing quickly before he’s out the door with barely a word of parting to the sleepy-eyed night shift receptionist.
Admittedly he’s not totally sure where to start with his investigation, but he heads toward the diner he’d eaten at before thinking he might be able to catch some early birds before they head to their morning shift. He’s in luck as there are quite a few people already at the diner burying their sour expressions in coffee and breakfast sandwiches. Most of them give monosyllabic grunts of either confirmation or disagreement in response to his questions, but he does manage to pry a few words out of some of them.
A majority hadn’t seen or heard anything out of the ordinary the night before, understandably going to bed early with the morning shift the next day, but one man claims to have heard an ear-splitting roar right around the time Sabo had been heading back from the diner and another says he’d had a similar encounter to Sabo’s about a week ago, but he’d written it off as an oncoming storm gale.
When Sabo finally leaves the diner he finds a text from Koala saying she’s sending a few other knights out to where he is, but they’d be delayed since they’re finishing their own mission currently at a town nearly a day’s drive east. She wraps up her message with a typical ‘don’t do anything stupid <3’.
Sabo wants to scoff at it, but she knows him too well. He ends up just sending back a thumbs up emoji.
He spends the rest of the morning wandering around the area and questioning people in stores or at the bus stop. Unfortunately he doesn’t get much more information about the dragon. As far as he can tell, he himself probably has the clearest account of the previous night. As noon approaches and his stomach loudly makes itself known he eventually decides to take a break from his investigation and grab a bite from a nearby convenience store.
There’s not a very appealing selection, but they have a few sandwiches in the back that Sabo’s willing to roll the dice on. He picks a couple up along with a soda and a bag of chips before heading toward the front. He pauses near the freezer section when he spots another customer squinting at the glass.
The other shouldn’t be all that remarkable save for the bright green hair gelled up in a spike at the back of his head. It’s probably that unusual style which catches Sabo’s eye and makes him think, ‘eh, can’t hurt to ask’ and take a chance to question one last person before lunch.
“Excuse me, sir!” Sabo puts on his best charming smile (one that Koala says makes him look deranged, but what does she know).
The man jolts from where he’s been considering the tubs of ice cream, whipping around to face Sabo. His eyes are wide and alarmed at the unexpected address. “Wh- me?”
“Yes, sorry to interrupt you,” Sabo says.
“Oh, uh, no big,” The man scratches the back of his neck. He glances at the freezer then back at Sabo. “Am I in your way?”
“No, no. I’m with the Knights of the Revolution, and I just have a couple of questions I wanted to ask you.” Sabo says. He shifts his food to one hand before pulling out his company pin so the guy knows he’s not just some random weirdo interrogating him.
The man stiffens, looking almost panicked. “Wha-?”
“You aren’t in trouble,” Sabo rushes to add. “There was just a report of something that occurred in this area last night.”
The man grimaces. “Sorry, I don’t really live in town, uh, and I kinda go to bed early so-“
“Please, if you remember anything that might have been out of the ordinary” Sabo presses.
“I dunno, man,” the other shoves his hands in his pockets, “I didn’t- I didn’t see anything.”
Sabo’s divine sense twinges so hard it’s nearly painful. He immediately knows that this guy is blatantly lying, but Sabo can’t figure out for the life of him what reason he’d have to do so. That said, he’s getting the feeling that this might be the best lead he’s gotten so far, and Sabo’s always been one to trust his instincts.
“Are you sure?” Sabo asks, taking a step toward the man. He knows he’s probably coming off more intimidating than he’d like, but he’s too caught up in the excitement that this guy knows something.
“Uh, yeah,” he looks even more nervous now, eyes darting around, “Nothing. Dead quiet last night.” He couldn’t be more obvious if he was setting off sirens and waving a red flag.
Sabo narrows his eyes. “Please, I just-“
“Yonji Vinsmoke!”
Both of them freeze as a very angry, very pink woman bursts through the door of the convenience store so violently that the bell over the door clangs like an alarm instead of its usual soft jingle. Despite her being dressed head to toe in baby pink clothing with her hair a bright shade of bubblegum, her expression is thunderous enough that no one would dare think her harmless. Her electric blue eyes scan the room until they land on the man next to Sabo, and her gaze turns so furious that even Sabo flinches.
“You-!”
“Reiju,” the man, Yonji apparently, squeaks, “When did, uh, when did you get in-?”
“You idiot!”
The pink haired woman storms across the tiny convenience store, a hurricane in human form, before glaring up at the green haired man. Despite the other having a good head and a half on her height-wise, he cringes as she nears. She jabs one perfectly manicured bright pink nail into Yonji’s chest like she’s about to carve his heart out with it.
“I opened the newspaper last week, and what did I find?” Her voice is dangerously casual.
Yonji swallows convulsively. “Um, uh, I can explain.”
“What do you think I found, Yonji?” She asks again, more forcefully, and Sabo can’t even fault the other man for the strangled whimper he lets out.
“Reiju, can we do this somewhere else?” Yonji asks, eyes darting toward Sabo and back to the woman.
“Hm?” Reiju turns and seems to finally realize they have an audience. Immediately her attitude does a one eighty, pink now crawling up her cheeks. “Oh my, I apologize, I’m-“ She freezes then, eyes widening as she spots the knight’s pin still in Sabo’s hand. Her expression turns dangerous again as she turns to glare at the green haired man. “Yonji Vinsmoke."
“I-“
“There’s a knight here?!”
“I didn’t- I just-“ the man sputters, wincing as her hand shoots up lighting fast and seizes his ear.
“I swear to god, Yonji,” Reiju hisses, “We’ll talk about this at home.” She glances at Sabo. “My apologies, Sir…?”
“Sabo,” Sabo supplies, feeling far out of his depth.
“Sir Sabo,” Reiju says with a nod, “I hope my brother didn’t cause too much trouble for you.”
“Oh, um, no I was just asking him a few questions,” Sabo says, “Recently there have been reported dragon sightings in the area.”
Reiju’s grin turns sharp again as she glances back at her brother. “Is that so? You hear that, Yonji? There have been dragon sightings in the area!” There’s a harsh edge to her tone as she pulls her brother’s ear again. “Guess you’ll have to start being more careful.”
“Ow, ow, ow, I’m sorry!” Yonji yelps.
“Oh, you will be,” Reiju says darkly, finally releasing the other’s ear. He rubs at it petulantly. “You just wait until Ichiji and Niji get in.”
The man pales. “They aren’t… are they…?”
“They will be!” Reiju snaps. She glances back at Sabo, clearly biting back some other things she wants to say. “I apologize, my brother is… well, I’ll talk to him.”
She nods at Sabo one last time before all but dragging her brother out of the store. For such a small woman she seems to have no trouble towing a man nearly twice her size, and Sabo feels a shiver pass through him at the thought of her wrath turned against him. He scowls then, suddenly realizing he’s just lost his best lead with no idea who he was or where he’s heading.
He huffs, glaring down at his sad, slightly squished sandwiches. Well, at least he’d gotten a name out of the ordeal.
Yonji Vinsmoke, huh?
Sabo wonders what exactly it was the other was hiding. He’ll have to try and track him down later to find out.